Redazione

The first meeting of the “bilateral work group” on the problems posed in relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church was held in Moscow on 5-6 May. At the end of the meeting Father Vsevolod Chaplin, vice-president of the Foreign Affairs Department of the Patriarchate of Moscow, and Father Igor Kovalevsky, secretary […]

Depopulation and impoverishment of rural areas, loss of identity of its inhabitants and diffusion of a generalised feeling of impotence towards a system of ever more aggressive intensive farming: these are some of the dangers that the inhabitants of rural areas in Europe feel with particular anxiety. The impact that the process of European integration […]

ecumenism " "

The Protestant Churches are asking the European Union to improve its policies for the protection of refugees and criticise the procedures being implemented by the member states, which by shifting responsibility from one country to another are realizing what is tantamount to a “chain of deportation” in the continent. The plea to the EU is […]

Great britain" "

Distancing ourselves from the USA or renouncing our mission in Iraq: this would seem to be the ultimatum given to the Prime Minister Tony Blair by his own Labour ministers, worried that the scandal of the abuses in Abu Ghraib prison and other Iraqi jails may lead to the Labour Party losing the next elections […]

The “memory of the oppressions of the past”, and the encouragement to the Lithuanian population to “bring their witness of faith and Christian traditions to the European context” in response “to the challenges of today’s secularised and consumer-minded society”: these were the two main points at the centre of the homily that the Prefect emeritus […]

The French episcopate has made two innovations in its corporate government: the presence of a second vice-chairman and new rules for the representation of bishops within its permanent Council. The new provisions will also take account of the territorial composition of the dioceses, and also the seniority of bishops. The French bishops took these decisions […]

“An appalling affront to the proper rights and responsibilities of parents. It undermines the values of family life”: that’s how Archbishop Peter Smith, chairman of the Department of Christian Responsibility and Citizenship of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, comments on the decision of a British health worker in Nottinghamshire, in northern England, “to […]

mekt" "

Everything is now ready for the Katholikentag of the Catholics of Central Europe (MEKT), organized by eight Episcopal Conferences of the region (Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic and Hungary). The event was decided on 8 January 2002. Prepared by collateral events, symposia and meetings, it will culminate in the “pilgrimage of peoples” […]

robert schuman " "

The General Council of the Moselle and the “Robert Schuman European Centre” (CERS), signatories on 9 May 2000 of a partnership convention aimed at promoting Schuman’s work, recently organized “Europe Week” at Scy-Chazelles, the town 4 km from Metz where Schuman (“father of Europe” together with Konrad Adenauer and Alcide De Gasperi) lived and where […]

enlargement " "

Europe is also, and perhaps especially, a question of awareness. It’s not the simple product of an institutional system, but the patient work of construction through people’s consciousness. That’s the view of Cardinal ATTILIO NICORA , who sees the completion of the enlargement of the European Union as a “long term” process. A native of […]