CHURCHES IN BRIEF" "
COMECE: proposed EU reforms on “Europeinfos””A Lisbon Treaty reform” to respond “to the shortcomings of the institutional system of the EU, was presented by the Spinelli group that includes 4 MEPs who advocate a federalist approach. In an article published December 4 in the online December issue of “Europeinfos”, the monthly newsletter of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE) and by the European Jesuits’ Office, Marek Miák presented the “bold” yet “undisputable contribution to a debate on the future of the EU” that proposes an institutional simplification for greater “transparency”, “homogeneity”, “strength”, “representativeness”, envisaging along with Member States that accept the federal structure of the EU also the category of “associate membership”. There is talk of development policies, policies in the field of justice, and Horizon 2020, a community research programme described as “the program for the future with a foot in the past”. Spain: “iMisiòn”, Gospel in the digital continentThe coming April Madrid will welcome the first “Congresso iMisión”, with the purpose of analyzing and promoting the evangelising presence of the Spanish Church in the digital continent. The meeting, titled “Missionaries in a net world”, envisages a video-message by Monsignor Claudio Maria Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. The Congress will be held from April 4 to 6 2014. The three major objectives of the meetings, explain the promoters, are: “to create a community for Catholic faithful who feel they are missionaries in the digital continent, and celebrate our faith together; to reflect together on evangelization on the internet; to contribute to the formation of participants on the techniques, strategies and doctrine to be taken into account when it comes to online evangelization, especially on social networks”. “iMisión” is an initiative set up a year ago. Founded by the priest of the Society of Mary, Daniel Pajuelo, and by the religious of the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Xiskya Valladares, it is coordinated by a group of lay Catholics and religious. The initiative has 8600 followers on Twitter and 7thousand friends on its Facebook page. It seeks to create a network of Catholics for online evangelization, providing formation and promoting reflection and encounter. Poland/1: prayers in view of the 2016 WYD”People to People, Prayer to Prayer” is the initiative launched in Poland for the period of the Advent, with a view to the 2016 World Youth Day in Krakow. “P2xP” consists in a daily exchange of rosaries. “When you give someone your rosary, tell him what your wish is and as ask for a prayer, while, taking in exchange someone else’s rosary you commit yourself to praying for him”, said the promoter of the project Zuzanna Marek. “We should ask ourselves today what we can share, in the perspective of meeting as a living Church to share our faith in three years’ time”, he added. The organizers of P2xP, believe that “if we want something exceptional to happen in 2016 we should start working on it right now, and there is no better idea than to begin with a common prayer”. They said they hope that “also youths from other countries may join them”. For this reason they launched the P2xP campaign also on the web, hosted by the official WYD page in Krakow www.Krakow2016.com. Poland/2: initiative for poor childrenFor the past 20 years, on December 1 Caritas Poland will inaugurate a charity initiative in favour of poor children. This year the initiative is titled “illuminating children’s future”. Since the year 2000 the initiative has had an ecumenical feature, thanks to the supported by Orthodox charity Eleos and Protestant charity Diakonia. In the diocese of Lodz the volunteers will distribute 70 thousand candles, in that of Krakow 175thousand, in the diocese of Tarnow (with the highest numbers of practising Catholics) there will be 128 thousand candles, while almost 60 thousand in Plock. The volunteers in Caritas parish centres and sister organizations charge 12 Polish zloty (approximately 3 euros) for the large candle and 5 zloty for the small one. Part of the collected money will be used to help poor children in the diocese, another part will serve to support indigent families while the rest will fund Caritas projects implemented out of Poland.
