Marian Gavenda" "Spokesman of the Slovak Episcopal Conference" "" "" "

czech republic - slovakia" "

A week after the fall of the Berlin Wall, on 17 November 1989, the bloodless Velvet Revolution led to the end of the Soviet regime in Czechoslovakia. In contrast to what happened in 1968 the movement was not stopped by Soviet tanks. So it came to pass that in January 1990, in the country’s first […]

This year too French Caritas has published a statistical report on poverty in France. It handed over the document to Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin on Tueday, 16 November, during his visit to the Centre for hospitality and social insertion (CHRS) created and run by Caritas in the Cité Notre Dame in Paris. The report was […]

france" "

A bill that aims to combat discrimination of sexist or homophobic character is arousing considerable discussion in France. The national Commission of human rights – meeting in plenary assembly last week – asked for it to be withdrawn and the archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, who is a member of that Commission, spoke of […]

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A declaration on the opening of negotiations with Turkey, a concerned judgement on the Lisbon Agenda, and a glance towards the future of the Union with a renewed commitment “to support with determination the process of continental integration”: these were some of the issues on the agenda of the plenary session of COMECE, the Commission […]

An invitation has been made to Catholics throughout France to light a candle on the day of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December. The proposal is contained in a letter signed by the president of the French Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Jean-Pierre Ricard, and by Bishop Jacques Perrier of Tarbes and Lourdes, reviving an initiative of […]

france" "

After the removal of a priest from a state lycée in Toulon, protests continue against the presence of Catholic chaplains in state schools in France. One such protest was in the “Georges-Cormier” lycée at Coulommiers where some teachers – supported by the Union of Lay Families – signed a petition to ask that the chaplaincy […]

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A Parliament that intervenes in all fields, ridding itself of any “inferiority complex” towards the other EU institutions and making its own voice heard on the most varied issues: from the vote on the Commission to the decisions taken by the Council, from the economy to social issues and foreign policy. The impression that emerges […]

The second intercultural forum organized by the Council of Europe and held at Troina, in Sicily, from 15 to 17 November, was called “Essential values for intercultural dialogue: towards a Europe for all citizens”. The main aims of the meeting were: “studying a programme of core values from the political, ethical, social and cultural viewpoint”; […]

With the nomination of Viktoria Mohacsi, the representatives of the gipsy population in the European Parliament rise to two: Hungarian in nationality, she replaces the MEP Gabor Demszky, mayor of Budapest, who did not wish to renounce his administrative post and therefore resigned as MEP. Viktoria Mohacsi, who also fills the post of commissioner for […]

european parliament" "

The Sakharov 2004 Prize will be awarded during the plenary session of the European Parliament in December: EP President Josep Borrell will hand it over to the representatives of the Association of journalists in Belarus who “are working for the independence of the media”. The award, decided by the leaders of the political groups represented […]