CHURCHES IN BRIEF
Russia: a Church “immerged” within contemporary society Four Catholic bishops from the Russian Federation, along with the Apostolic Nuncio Ivan Jurkovic, gathered on November 6-7 in St. Petersburg for the 40th plenary assembly of the Russian Bishops’ Conference. The news was released on the website of the Conference, which listed the themes addressed during the assembly: “Special attention was devoted to Church-State relations, in particular regarding the issue of the restitution of Church property”. The assembly took place on the eve of the Pan-Russian Catholic Congress “Ad Gentes: the topical relevance of the missionary commitment of the Church”. “We need to change the words and the form of the new Christian witness, to make it comprehensible for the next generations”, said the archbishop of Moscow Paolo Pezzi in his opening speech, “we need to share the situations that worry the people of our times, and “immerge” ourselves within contemporary challenges like the yeast of witness, capable of changing society as a whole”. Bulgaria: ecumenical memory of the martyrs of Communism Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants will meet Saturday, November 15, in the “Blessed Eugene Bossilkov” Shrine in Belene, Bulgaria, to commemorate the memory of persecuted Christians under Communist dictatorship. The Commemoration of the Martyrs of Bulgaria, entitled “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted”, coincides with the liturgical feast of the Blessed Martyrs: Catholic Bishop Eugene Bossilkov and three Assumptionist priests killed for their faithfulness to the Holy See. The round table “Faith witnesses during the communist regime” will be attended by President Rossen Plevneliev, by the Orthodox Metropolitan Grigorii of Veliko Tarnovo, the President of the Bulgarian Bishops’ Conference Msgr. Hristo Proykov, the Apostolic Nuncio Msgr. Anselmo Pecorari, Pastor Bedros Altunian, President of the Evangelical Union. “We wanted to extend at an ecumenical level the celebrations, recalling the words of St. John Paul II on the “ecumenism of the martyrs, perhaps the most compelling”, the rector of the shrine, Father Paolo Cortesi, told SIR Europe. He added: “Until 1989 tens of thousands of innocent people were confined in a concentration camp on the island of Belene. It is important to collect their testimony”. Significantly, “the President of the Republic will be present to honour these sons of Bulgaria”. Switzerland: Lepontia conference on ethics and labour What does it mean to apply Christian ethics in the business world? What is the role of codes of conduct? To answer these and other questions Lepontia Canton, an association of Catholic students and professionals in Ticino (Switzerland), has organized a two-day Christian reflection in the setting of the Bigorio Monastery in Capriasca in the canton of Ticino. Friday, November 14th, the workshop will be attended by the new bishop of Lugano Monsignor Valerio Lazzeri, while Saturday 15th panel lectures will be delivered by the scholars Giannino Plain, Professor of Christian ethics at the University of Urbino and André-Marie Jerumanis, Professor of Moral Theology at the ‘university of Lugano together, they will address the relationship between “ethics and professional responsibility” and the “meaning of human dignity in the age of reproductive technologies and regenerative medicine”. Portugal: the new phone app Click to Pray The National Secretariat of the Apostolate of Prayer in Portugal of the Society of Jesus has decided to make available to the faithful a phone application that will offer three daily times of prayer. The project, called “Click to pray”, available on Android, iOS systems and on the website www.clicktopray.org, will offer “three short and simple daily prayers”, thereby allowing users to “be part of a social network of prayer”, reads the statement released by the promoters of the initiative. The public presentation thereof will take place on 21 November, at 10 am in St. Joseph Carmelite House in Fatima, and will be attended by Msgr. Anthony Dias, president of the Bishops’ Commission for the Laity and the Family, Father António Valério, national secretary of the Apostolate of Prayer, and Father Edward Novo, Director of the National Department for Youth Pastoral Care, main partner of the initiative. In the afternoon of the same day are also scheduled the “Days on digital communication”, addressed to Catholic professionals and volunteers operating in this field, in order to provide them with “concrete training and tools for a current use of digital media in the communication of the faith”.
