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New age, meditative and curative therapies, new religious movements outside or parallel to the Christian tradition, and religious groups that have arrived in Europe from other continents: how can the Church understand why people find an answer to their own spiritual needs in such groups? What “strategies” should be adopted to better exploit the Christian […]

“Spain weeps for the victims of terror”, is the front-page headline in the Herald Tribune (25/3), dedicated to the funerals held in Madrid for the 190 identified victims of the terrorist attacks of 11 March. Katrin Bernhold, in her accompanying article, stresses that the new Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, on this tragic […]

We present the main European events involving the Catholic Church and the other Christian Churches in April. 2 Formal membership of the Atlantic Alliance of seven new member countries: the three Baltic States, Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria, in Brussels – Meeting of the Finance Commission of the CCEE, in St. Gallen – First round […]

To mark Lent, the Assembly of Orthodox Bishops in France has published a letter in which the members of the Christian communities of France – Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox – are urged to celebrate this period of preparation for Easter together, sharing the experience of fasting and prayer that is common to Christians of East […]

The preamble of the European Constitution ought to affirm that Christianity and Christian culture have contributed to “founding European civilization”: the appeal was made by Alexis II, Patriarch of Moscow and of all the Russias, speaking off the cuff to journalists at a prize-giving ceremony in recent days. “The preamble of the law on the […]

The refusal of German Catholic bishops to dedicate Pentecost Monday to ecumenical celebrations for Christian unity has aroused a controversy in Germany. The proposal had been made by the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZDK), which considered the choice of the Monday appropriate for an ecumenical celebration, since no particular mass is prescribed in the […]

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The ecumenical organization “Churches Together in Britain and Ireland” has expressed its “deep concern” about the health of three Kurds who have been on hunger strike in Scotland since 19 February. They are Fariborz Gravindi, Mokhtar Haydary and Faroq Haidari. The three have chosen this extreme form of protest to draw the attention of public […]

“Meditation on life” is the title of the pastoral document published by the Portuguese Episcopal Conference at the beginning of March. “Removing some confusions about abortion” is the sub-title of the central part of the document, where some questions regarding the legalization of abortion are clarified. “The one way of avoiding every form of violence […]

“A slumbering giant within the Church”: with this image the chairman of the Council for the apostolate of the laity, Msgr. Jonas Kauneckas, presented the current situation of the laity in Lithuania, where “before the Second World War 80% of the faithful formed part of various Catholic organizations, in comparison with the 1% today”. During […]

The Church in Slovenia is now celebrating the Week of the Family (19-25 March 2004). On 25 March, solemnity of the Annunciation of Our Lord, Archbishop Franc Rodé officiated a eucharistic celebration in the cathedral of Ljubljana, to which he invited all the children to whom he had personally administered the sacrament of Baptism. During […]