Redazione

The European Council adopted the programme ‘Fundamental Rights and Citizenship’ on 20 April. The programme’s objective is to “support respect for fundamental rights and encourage the participation of citizens in the democratic life of the European Union”. The budgetary allocation to the programme for the period 2007-2013 is 93.8 million Euros. Tolerance, intercultural dialogue and […]

The European Commission published the RAPEX Report on dangerous consumer products last week. Thanks to increased cooperation between EU and national customs’ authorities, the number of dangerous products for human health withdrawn from European markets is constantly growing: 388 restrictive measures in 2004, 701 in 2005 and 924 last year. RAPEX (the EU rapid alert […]

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

Bronislaw Geremek, one of the historic leaders of Solidarnosc, runs the risk of having his term as MEP terminated due to the “purification” begun by the government in Warsaw against those who committed crimes of the Communist period. The EP, meeting in plenary session in Strasbourg from 23 to 26 April, tackled various questions, including […]

WEST AND EAST

A declaration of intent was signed in recent days at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan (Italy) between the Catholic University itself, the State University of International Relations in Moscow and the Sofia association (Idea of Russia Idea of Europe), the promoter of this project under the name “Ad fontes”. The signing […]

FRANCE

With respectively 31.11% and 25.83% of the vote, Nicholas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal attracted, in the first round of the presidential elections in France on 22 April, the support of over half the French electorate. There was also a record voter turnout: 84.6% of those with the right to vote; so high a figure has […]

Japanese Manga to promote callings in the United Kingdom. The idea of the English Bishops Conference comes just before the Day of Callings, which falls on Sunday 29th April. For the occasion, the English Bishops have also published the latest statistics on callings, which see the number of applicant priests constantly rising over the last […]

GREAT BRITAIN

The number of doctors and medical students who refuse to perform abortions is on the rise. Forty years after the enforcement of the law that made abortion legal, the “Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists”, the professional roll that brings together gynaecologists ad obstetricians, stated that one half of the abortions performed in Great Britain […]

“We can be proud of the Austrian welfare state. Instead of complaining about its shortcomings, we ought to continue to develop it”, said the bishop of the diocese of Linz, the Right Rev. Ludwig Schwarz. The bishop was speaking in Linz in recent days at a meeting organized by trades unions, workers’ associations and the […]

A meeting of experts in the teaching of Catholic religion from all over Europe, to discuss how to be present at school, in a ‘soundly lay’ atmosphere of comparison between cultures and religions”: it is the purpose of the XIII Forum for religion school teaching, scheduled in Hungary in 2008, with the title “Learning to […]

Eleven Churches will for the first time sign a formal declaration on the reciprocal recognition of Baptism at a ceremony in Magdeburg in Germany on 29 April. The ratification of the document will take place during an ecumenical celebration in Magdeburg Cathedral, in the presence of the highest representatives of the 11 German Churches: they […]