“ Messages for life to those who no longer believe in it” is the title chosen by the French daily La Croix (1/2) for a feature presenting the “National Day of Prevention” of suicide due to be held on 5 February. “ During the last thirty years the number of suicides in France has substantially increased explains the paper – … According to the official statistics, the 7834 suicides registered in 1970 rose to 10,405 in 1980. After a high point of 12,525 in 1986, these figures stabilized around an average of 10,000 deaths per year in the late 1990s. In 2001 the figure rose to 10,440“. The paper points out that “ at the world level the number of people who take their own life is estimated at around a million per year“. As for preventive responses and measures, La Croix affirms: “ … we have not yet arrived at the heart of the response to depression, from a medical or psychotherapeutic point of view. We have however seen many proposals for research on the meaning of life”. “ Concerns about John Paul II’s health remain“, is the headline carried by Le Monde (3/2), which focuses attention on the problems of a future succession. “ The choice of the next Pope will be dictated by criteria of prudence“, headlines the same paper in a report analysing the situation in which it speaks of the “ German Cardinal Josef Ratzinger as an unchallenged ‘grand elector’ at the conclave that will decide on the successor“. Indeed, says the paper, hazarding some predictions of its possible outcome: “ For some weeks now, articles in the press have been regarding Ratzinger, in spite of his age of 77, as one of the favourites in the election”. The Italian Catholic daily Avvenire (3/2) responds to such stories with an editorial with the title: “ The Pope is there and still on his throne“. “ The Pope is enthroned in the Policlinico Gemelli, but still remains on his throne, the throne which the world evidently needs so much today. It is no accident that the eyes of all continents are fixed on that window”. A challenge to the pro-euthanasia tendencies now underway in the UK is launched by The Catholic Herald (28/1), which splashed its front page with two images (an infant in intensive care and a chronically ill elderly person) with the headline “ The Church says to Labour: ‘Thou shalt not kill“. “ The Catholic Church writes Simon Caldwell has dramatically accentuated its pressure on the Government to eliminate the section of the law that could lead to the widespread practice of euthanasia by omission“. Archbishop Peter Smith of Cardiff says that “ he is not satisfied by the amendments made to the Mental Capacity Bill promised to him by the Government last month, and has therefore asked for further changes“. The paper’s concerns regard a possible development along the lines of what has happened in Holland, where “ doctors admit they have suppressed newborn children“. Archbishop Smith himself has asked that the bill “ exclude explicit directives to doctors authorizing them to kill patients through the suspension of food and liquids“. Just a few days after the commemoration of the Holocaust, German President Köhler is making an official visit to Israel. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (3/2) comments as follows: “ Not even Köhler was able to find anything new to say as a German in Israel. But in the Knesset he did not speak in the role of a professional politician, used to displaying horror and consternation when necessary. Köhler spoke of a long journey that over the last six or seven weeks has taken him from Auschwitz to Jerusalem, passing through Berlin, and therefore that has traversed the darkest chapters in German history. In all these stages he was visibly moved by direct confrontation with eyewitnesses and testimonies. But his faith in the capacity of the Germans to learn from the past and in the stability of German democracy has not been shaken. Even in the Knesset, he declared his substantial faith in the interior strength, also moral strength, of the Germans“. Writing in Die Welt, Jacques Schuster commenting on the different positions of Germany and Israel on the Iraqi question and terrorism, writes: “ The past no longer has the importance it still had a few years ago, even if it may always cause irritation. The Germans seem not to have understood this. They continue to think especially of the old crimes, when they deal with Israel. They leave the Middle East with relief if the universally known phrases of guilt and shame have passed their lips. Practically no one realises that it is not the past that aggravates the relation, but the future. Superficially, relations could be better than ever: but deep down they are fragile.” ———————————————————————————————————– Sir Europa (English) N.ro assoluto : 1360 N.ro relativo : 9 Data pubblicazione : 04/02/05
