Redazione

The European Commission has presented its joint Report on social protection and inclusion 2007, analysing the progress and priorities of member states in terms of social inclusion, pensions, healthcare and long-term care. “Encouraging reforms, but major problems still remain unresolved”, commented the European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs Vladimir Spidla in presenting the Report: […]

Following the excellent performance of the European economy in 2006 (especially thanks to the growth of internal demand and the creation of 3 million new jobs), 2007 is also likely to be a year of sustained economic growth. According to the latest projections of the European Commission, in fact, growth is estimated at 2.4% for […]

“Reducing by a quarter the work-related illnesses and accidents on the workplace in the EU by 2012”: that’s the declared objective of the new five-year strategy for health and safety on the workplace adopted by the European Commission last week as a contribution to the existing health and safety policies in the individual member states. […]

EUROPEAN UNION

“Europe is at a decisive turning point. If we act with determination immediately, we will have the opportunity effectively to tackle the dangers of climate change”, said ANGELA MERKEL , German Chancellor and current President of the EU Council, on the eve of the EU summit. At their regular spring summit on 8-9 March, carefully […]

“Nuclear disarmament in our time is a utopian idea”, says the assistant director of the Department of External Relations of the Patriarchate of Moscow, Father Vsevolod Chaplin. “I stress – writes Chaplin in a letter published in the journal “Index of Security” – that all weapons, and especially nuclear weapons, are an evil. But evil […]

A large group of Protestant and Catholic women participated in an ecumenical liturgy in Poznan in recent days, on the occasion of the World Day of Prayer for Women. The liturgical material was prepared by an ecumenical group of women from Paraguay who asked for forgiveness for “having remained silent about acts of vendetta, violence […]

A “Plan D” for the Lisbon Strategy: that’s what the European Churches and diaconal organizations have proposed to the German Chancellor and current President of the EU Council, Angela Merkel, on the eve of the spring summit of the European Council, which ends in Brussels today (9 March). The Conference of European Churches (Cec/Kek representing […]

ECUMENISM

2000 people are expected to congregate in the Cathedral of Lausanne tomorrow, 10 March, for an ecumenical meeting in preparation for the Third European Ecumenical Assembly due to be held in Sibiu, in Romania in September. Organized by the workgroup of the Swiss Christian Churches and the Council of Churches of Canton Vaud, the meeting […]

KOSOVO

A young community, but suffering from mass emigration: that’s the reality of the Catholic presence in Kosovo: out of a population of 2,100,000 inhabitants, Catholics amount to some 65,000; over 40,000 have emigrated. 33% of the population of Kosovo is under the age of 14, only 7% is over the age of 65. Of the […]

ITALY

On 7 March the Holy Father accepted the resignation, for reasons of age, presented by Cardinal Camillo Ruini (born at Guastalla, diocese of Reggio Emilia, on 19 February 1931), from the post as President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI) and has appointed in his place Monsignor Angelo Bagnasco, Metropolitan Archbishop of Genoa, former Archbishop […]