Enzo Bianchi

Peace

Only time will tell us which of the many seeds sown by Pope Francis and by the Patriarchs, Metropolitans and bishops representing Churches in the Middle East, gathered in Bari to pray and reflect on peace in those martyred lands, will deliver flowers and fruits, not only for the Churches and the Christians present in […]

Interreligious dialogue

A parish and a school literally “overturned” through five “initiatives that stem from the Gospel”, in the Muslim city of Jericho where the small Christian minority is a tiny yet powerful beacon of hope. Fr Mario Hadchity, Franciscan priest of Lebanese origin, enthusiastically spelled out the achievements in that fragile stretch of land – with due […]

Interview

Finland is a Country that rarely hits the news. It is quiet and peaceful as its nature, its lakes, as pointed out by the bishop of Helsinki, Mons. Teemu Sippo: “It’s a peaceful Country. Dramatic events seldom occur. It’s somewhat on the outskirts of Europe, and it’s also a large territory with only 5 million inhabitants, […]

Ecclesial geography and ministries

What is the situation of parishes and of ecclesial and pastoral institutions of the Church in Germany? The question underlies an important survey conducted by the German Catholic Church www.katholisch.de, which highlights the fact that an increasing number of parishes ought to be handled in full or partly by “specialized” laity. The shortage of priests and […]

Media

A strong sense of belonging to the Church characterizes Catholic news agencies that report the news every day. These ties determine their credibility and define the vantage points and areas of interest of news reports. The editors-in-chief of these news outlets, headquartered in an equal number of European countries, met today in Rome. “It’s a […]

Funding from Brussels

For Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia and Macedonia, veritable EU adhesion is still far away (the first prospected date for Belgrade and Podgorica is 2025). However, their economies are strongly linked to Member Countries: the EU is the first “donor” in the region with 10 billion direct investments in the last five years, and also […]

Interview

“We would like religions to become engines of peace and, through serious and constructive interreligious dialogue, offer solutions to world conflicts, especially when they are manipulated to foment divisions.” It is the hope expressed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin on the sidelines of an international conference on religious freedom organized in Rome […]

Poverty

(from New York) 40 million people live in poverty in the United States, 18.6 million live in extreme poverty, while and 5.3 million live in Third World conditions of absolute poverty. The new tax reform and the deregulation measures enforced by the Trump administration in the financial, medical, environmental and welfare sectors risks increasing these […]

Asia

Kyrgyzstan, located on Europe’s border with Asia, is a Country of 5.3 million inhabitants with a lush, wild, countryside and a tormented history: a crossroads of different peoples and a point of contention of contrasting interests – Chinese, Arabs, Turks –absorbed by imperial Russia in the 20th century and later by the USSR. In this […]

World day

Gospel proclamation, if the Ear of humankind is not overgrown with nettles, as Nelly Sachs described them, but with overwhelming fake news, hammering advertisements, self-glorification of our bodies, is a powerful blow that awakens our conscience, for it makes us understand The distance separating our way of life from that of the world that praises, […]