CHURCHES IN BRIEF
Italy: prolusion by the president of the bishops’ assembly "We had to change. We have to change": it is the message of the "governmental initiative for national recovery, in order to avert the worse case scenario". On May 21, in the prolusion that opened the 64th assembly of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, – in the Vatican, ongoing until May 25 the cardinal president Angelo Bagnasco provided a snapshot of the country’s political scenario underlining that "an epochal crisis must be addressed with an equally epochal change, a change in mindset first of all". Referring to the growing disaffection for politics, testified by high rates of abstentions at the administrative elections held a few days ago, the CEI president highlighted the parties’ uncertainty", and corruption, "a betrayal of the common good". People, he said, are waiting to see concrete, immediate and effective signs", and they intendsto recover "full confidence in politics and parties". In Italy, he added, we need "work, work, and work". In particular, the youth must "finally receive concrete signs". "The tragic suicides of persons who feel overburdened by family or business responsibilities, often by debts they are not responsible for, is disconcerting and raises serious questions". It is therefore necessary to "diligently identify the concrete causes and set up "help desks where persons who feel desperate can turn to". With reference to the serious attack in Brindisi, that caused the death of sixteen-year-old Melissa Bassi and the wounding of five students, and the case of the kneecapping in Genoa of CEO Roberto Adinolfi, Cardinal Bagnasco remarked that "drawing links with the past is inevitable, glimpsing subversive shadows that seek to fish in the troubled waters of difficulties and fears to destabilize social life". The warning is: "No credit can ever be given to those, however disguised, who use violence and perpetrate crimes".Germany: in September the "Civilization of love" While almost a year has passed since the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK) launched a process of dialogue inside the German Catholic Church (July 2011), the president of the bishops conference Msgr. Robert Zollitsch released a statement on the website of the DBK that announces a new initiative scheduled to take place in Hannover next September 14-15. "Civilization of love our responsibility in free choice" is the title of the meeting that will bring together some 300 people. The purpose of the event, explain the German bishops, is to explore "the primigenial task of the Church for diaconal activity addressed to the future". The encounter will focus on three themes: "the question of the opportunities and limits of the Church in a free society", the need for "a greater closeness to people who require help and solidarity" and "future Church witness in political and social context". Through these aspects", said Msgr. Zollitsch, "the aim is to clarify diaconal and pastoral Church activity, highlighting the public and charitable commitment of the Church", "drawing up the principles for a civilization of love in free society" whilst "identifying concrete ways leading to the fulfillment of this goal and to the strengthening of the faith. The meeting in Hannover will be attended by DBK members as well as diocese representatives and of the Central Committee of Catholic Germans (ZDK), as also of the spiritual community and the German Caritas. France: pilgrimage for young Europeans "Chemin de l’espérance" (Journey of hope) is the motto of the nine-day pilgrimage along the "Camino in the Bourbonnais" (France) that links Souvigny, an important shrine founded by the monks of Cluny, with Notre Dame du Port, masterpiece of Romanic architecture in Clermont-Ferrand. The initiative will be promoted by the "Amis de Saint Jacques en Bourbonnais". Groups of eighteen-year-olds will be leaving for six days. The first shift will take place July 21-29; the last from July 26 to August 3. "Espérance" is "also the motto of this historical region, with faith and charity, the principal Christian virtue", organizers explain. The archbishop of Clermont, Msgr. Hippolyte Simon, and the bishop of Moulins, Msgr. Pascal Roland joined the invitation to the youth. "What a beautiful virtue is hope!" declared in a note tHerman Van Rompuy, president of the EU Council, which backs the initiative. Van Rompuy remarks that hope "stems from the expectation of plans for the future, a joy to live, embody and transmit". "’Spero ergo ero’ (I hope therefore I will be) wrote German philosopher Ernst Bloch in reply to ‘Cogito ergo sum’ of Descartes", recalled the president of the EU Council who expressed the wish that "along the "Bournonnais way" the young participants "may, just like theologian Jean-Yves Leloup once did", feel "the forest that grows, the chant of lymphs and the light breeze of our common hope". Info: www.chemin-esperance.eu.
