CHURCHES IN BRIEF" "
Czech Republic: musical project of young Roma Music stores in the Czech Republic now feature a new hip-hop CD recorded by Roma youths from Teplice. The project, supported by the tìpán Trochta Salesian Centre, is aimed at motivating youths to reach a peaceful solution to problems and to reject all forms of violence. “The lyrics of the songs highlight positive social transformations. I’m happy that our work is inspiring for other young people in our local community”; said the spokesman of the band, Jiøí Èonka, who couldn’t finding meaning in life during his childhood, and after having dropped out of school spent some time living as a tramp. He told SIR Europe that thanks to music, Roma children “learn to dream and make their dreams come true”. The Trochta Centre actively provides educational tools for children and youths from difficult families since 1999. Last year the Centre received the “Gypsy Soul Award” in recognition of its commitment to improve the living conditions and favor the integration of Roma in the Czech Republic. Spain: Barcelona, online diocese with two portals Barcelona archdiocese’ services and activity are conveyed online with a new logo: “Barcelona Archdiocese Church”, which represents all the delegations, institutions, universities and parishes in the dioceses. The new website is designed to show “a Church that belongs to all, where the faithful can be the protagonists of the content, a Church that follows a path of perfection, and that is constantly renewed through new technologies” with the purpose of spreading “The Good News”. Thus the archdiocese now can be found on two different websites. In the portal of the archbishopric users will find the homilies, speeches, decrees, the addresses delivered by cardinal Martínez Sistach, by the auxiliary bishop Sebastià Taltavull and diocesan bodies, as well as a calendar with the collection days in the diocese, the story of the archbishopric of Barcelona, the biography of the cardinal and other historical events to be consulted in interactive manner. The new website dedicated to the diocesan Church will instead be more intuitive, with “present-day” content, representing a “communicative challenge for the witness of the faithful, whilst preserving the essence of evangelical message”. The diocese set up the new portal to address everyday problems of contemporary society. Austria: Pro Orient Foundation looks at the East A solemn celebration and a scientific conference will mark celebrations for the fiftieth anniversary of the ecumenical foundation “Pro Orient”, November 8 2014. The announcement was made by Pro Orient president Johann Marte, on the occasion of a recent ecumenical celebration held at the archbishopric in Vienna. Marte made known that among the speakers in the event figure card. Christoph Schönborn, president of the Austrian Bishops’ Conference, ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, Copt-Orthodox Patriarch Tavadros II, as well as card. Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity. An ecumenical liturgy at the Schottenkirche will open the event that will continue at the University of Vienna. The program of the celebrations features a three-day conference on the Church borders, meant as an ideal prosecution of the historical “Koinonia” Conference of 1974 which for Marte “paved the way for the opening of official dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox”, that took place in 1980. The November conference will mark a new trend in terms of content and geographical connotation for the Foundation’s Commission of Historians, the Pro Orient department with the greatest responsibility. In fact, until now the Commission had concentrated its activity on the area of Countries born from the dissolution of Yugoslavia, in addition to Albania. For the future the intention is to “extend the field of activity to include also Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey”. “Cooperation with other scientific disciplines” is also being planned, said the president of the Foundation. The new goals include cooperation with OSCE. The Commission of Historians consists of scholars from Bosnia, Bulgaria, Germany, Croatia, Austria, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, from various religious communities; in 1996 ts began to deal with the effects of religion on the social and political events in South-East Europe. “In this way Pro Orient intends to contribute to a positive approach to plurality and social reconciliation among the States in the region”.
