Slovenia: the bishops against military expenses The Commission for Justice and Peace of Slovenia’s Bishops’ Conference expressed in a Note its “appreciation” for the appeals to disarmament conveyed by the United Nations on the occasion of the World Week of Disarmament (October 24-30), endorsing all the initiatives for this cause. “States’ fundamental duties include the right to self-defence while ensuring peace and security”, is written in the statement signed by Msgr. Anton Stres, President of the Commission. “This duty is not called into question. However, we often witness an unrestrained arms race that is not motivated by citizen and State security, but by pressure groups”. “Unreasonable arms’ build-up represents a threat to bordering Countries and a threat to citizens’ peaceful existence. Ever-increasing expenditure for military equipment and for the improvement of military technology are reason for major concern”. Hence the appeal to Slovenia’s institutions and public realm to “support Slovenia’s international disarmament fund; to promote education to peace and non-violence in schools; to be committed in the reduction of arm expenditure at national and international level; to support the so-called “Millennium Objectives” of the United Nations, envisaging consistent relief for the poor by granting to developing Countries 0.33% of the ODA/GDP ratio by 2015″. In his message, Msgr. Stres expressed his “approbation” of Slovenia’s endorsement of the Convention banning all cluster bombs, signed in May 2008, thus reiterating its commitment to the promotion of human dignity and the decrease of warlike violence. “The active commitment to disarmament supported by education to peace and solidarity between peoples promotes peace and development in Slovenia, in the European Union and throughout the world”. Germany: demonstrating for development aids A few days ago, farmers’ organizations along with development and environment aid organisations, jointly demonstrated in Munich against animal, plant and food patents. Several hundred people – and tractors – marched to the European Patent Office where they submitted a 40,000-signature petition against the patents. The demonstration was organized in view of the Office’s impending decision to issue patents on plant and animal breeding. The organisers, that include: Misereor, Greenpeace, “Kein Patent auf Leben!” (“No life patents”), the German dairy husbandry association (Bundesverband Deutscher Milchviehhalter) and farmers’ representatives, asked for the immediate suspension of the patents. “Sowing seed patents’ and breeding animals’ monopoly constitute a danger to world nutrition that is caused by the avidity of international corporations. The European Patents’ Office is dumping the Creation and is acting against juridical foundations”, stigmatized Josef Sayer, Misereor general manager. The European Patents’ Office already granted a number of patents for non-genetically modified plants and animals breeding. These include patents on high-performance dairy cattle and vegetables. “It’s a rip-off”, claimed Romuald Schaber, President of the Federation of dairy cattle breeders. “There should be no patents on regular breeding, that has existed for centuries”. “Resources-decrease trigger price increases, whether it’s tortillas in Mexico or sunflower oil fuels. It’s just like a stock-market speculation on developing Countries’ hunger and on higher consumer prices in industrialized Countries”, remarked Christoph Then, for Greenpeace. Munich’s demonstration was held in the framework of a world protest against patents on seeds and breeding animals. Over 50 farmers’ associations and over 100 NGOs have endorsed the international “No Patents on Seeds” coalition, founded in 2007. Portugal: the farewell of Msgr. Alfio RapisardaHaving terminated his mandate as Apostolic Nuncio due to age-limitations as envisaged by Canon Law, Msgr. Alfio Rapisarda went to Fatima to take his leave from the Holy Virgin and the sanctuary pilgrims. In presiding over the Mass, held in the “Small Apparitions Chapel”, he conveyed pleasant memories of his experience in Portugal. Msgr. Rapisarda thus recalled the 1917 apparitions and the salient points of the message in Fatima, while paying a special tribute to the memory of “the special pilgrim in a white habit, who kneeled before the Virgin of Fatima” in May 1982. “Pope John Paul II was the one whom the three young shepherd children saw in the vision of the immaculately-dressed bishop who would have died if, as He himself later declared, he hadn’t felt a motherly hand soccour him at the last moments of life”. The prelate took leave from the Portuguese pilgrims with the words of Saint Lucy: “The dogma of faith will always be present in Portugal”. “During my stay in the Country, it was a great consolation to acknowledge that the Portuguese are not afraid of professing their religious beliefs, both privately and publicly, in strong adhesion to their noble traditions nurtured by the special devotion for the Gospel of Christ”.
