Redazione

COUNCIL OF EUROPE

“I think that the most successful initiative in this last semester of the Council of Europe was the major conference on interfaith dialogue, held in our country at the end of April”, said FIORENZO STOLFI , Foreign Minister of San Marino, expressing his satisfaction for the work performed over the last six months. On Friday […]

AID TO DEVELOPMENT

In the 15-member European Union the average percentage that governments have allocated to aid to the development of the poor countries has remained stable at 0.33% of GDP, equivalent to 47.5 billion euros, of which 30% is so-called “inflated aid”, i.e. aid derived from operations of cancelling foreign debt. So a third of aid to […]

Ecumenical prospects were one of the main issues discussed during the plenary assembly of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZDK) held in Bonn on 4-5 May. Referring to the possibility of a common eucharistic celebration during the next ecumenical Kirchentag (Church Convention), scheduled to be held in Munich in 2010, Hans Joachim Meyer, President […]

The BDKJ (Federation of German Catholic Youth) launched a national campaign for youth pastoral care on 10 May, to mark the 60th anniversary of its foundation. The campaign was inaugurated during the Federation’s general assembly, held in Altenberg from 9 to 13 May, during which the young delegates from all over Germany drafted new federal […]

GERMANY

“The German Bishops Conference basically approves of an accurate explanation of the ethical issues, without which the legislator cannot meet its responsibilities”. It was said yesterday in Berlin by the secretary general of the German Bishops, father Hans Langendörfer, as he spoke of the research on stem cells, the subject that is the focus of […]

Bulgarian, Romanian, Macedonian, Italian and Spanish youth of various religions and cultures have taken to the field to show that football can unite. The aim of the event “United by football”, held for the fifth time in the Bulgarian city of Rakovski last week, is to offer a chance for kids to get to know […]

“Economy at the service of life”: with this slogan a study day organized by the Örkö (Austrian Ecumenical Council) in collaboration with Austria’s Commission of Iustitia et Pax was held in Vienna in recent days. The meeting, held in preparation for the Third European Ecumenical Assembly due to open in Sibiu in September 2007, was […]

In recent days the cardinals and presidents of the Bishops’ Conferences of Central Europe – Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia – met in Prague for a two-day meeting dedicated to a discussion of the experience of Church-State relations in post-Communist countries. At the start of the meeting the participants described the situation in […]

According to Cardinal Audrys Juozas Baèkis, Archbishop of Vilnius (Lithuania), entry into Europe has been shown to bring both positive and negative sides: “We entered Europe not with enthusiasm, but convinced of finding a society built on respect for man’s civil rights. Lithuanian society has discovered the advantages of pluralism, civil liberties and the market […]

FAMILY

“This initiative powerfully forms part of a great European people’s movement. Five events have been organized by family associations in Europe over the last few years: one in Belgium, one in Portugal, two in Spain and one more recently in France. All were convened, albeit with national differences, on a wave of commitment to the […]