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European Churches" "

The main appointments in 2003 (updated to 18 December 2002) January 30/1 – 2/2: Bucharest, Joint CCEE-KEK Committee February 3: Brasov (Romania), KEK Seminar on the Ecumenical Charter 8/9: Benediktbeuren, Work group “Safeguarding the Creation” 24/2 – 1/3: Bogotà, CCEE-CELAM Meeting 26/2 – 2/3: Athens (Greece), Meeting of KEK Executive March 7/8: St.Gallen, CCEE Finance […]

The process of enlargement, which achieved a significant breakthrough at the recent summit in Copenhagen with the signing of the “pact” that opens the way to the “25-member Europe” (due to become a reality in 2004), monopolizes the attention of the international dailies, intent on analysing the significance of the accords reached. “The Europe of […]

The process of enlargement marks the “overcoming of an unnatural division” of Europe: so said John Paul II , on the occasion of his historic address to the Italian Parliament. Today, the Pope’s words seem even more prophetic, following the recent summit in Copenhagen, which opened the way to the European Union enlarged to 25 […]

“Only two years before the encyclical Pacem in terris, in 1961, the ‘Berlin wall’ was erected to divide, and set against each other, not only the two parts of this city, but also two ways of understanding and building the earthly city. On either side of the wall life assumed a different character, inspired by […]

Satisfaction mixed with caution, and the need to analyse carefully what it will mean to “enter Europe” with the admittedly better conditions obtained in the Copenhagen negotiations: that’s the mixed feelings in Poland (the largest of the 10 new countries joining the EU, with a population of 39 million, in large part peasant farmers, 18,4% […]

enlargement" "

As expected, the European Council in Copenhagen last week (the last under the Danish Presidency) was able to conclude the membership negotiations with the first ten candidate countries: Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, which will all become members of the European Union from 1 May 2004, following the […]

ccee" "

The Churches in response to the process of European reunification, the continent’s re-evangelization, the autumn sessions of the assemblies of bishops, ecumenism and interreligious dialogue, the ecclesial presence in the media: these are some of the issues that have most focused the attention of the European episcopal conferences in recent months. We present a summary […]

On 17 December, Msgr. Andreas Laun, bishop emeritus of Salzburg, issued a statement on therapeutic abortion practised subsequent to the 22nd week of pregnancy. The bishop’s stance makes reference to the guidelines recently issued by a group of Austrian physicians, recommending a “gradual protection of prenatal life, increasing in proportion as the pregnancy progresses”. “Why […]

“In an age in which everything possible is done to promote a world of racial and religious tolerance, programmes which, even if unintentionally, attack the icons of the greatest religious faiths, are deplorable and regrettable”. So declared Msgr. Crispian Hollis, Catholic bishop of Portsmouth, in England, in commenting on the BBC’s intention to transmit a […]

With the objective of simplifying its organizational structure, the French Church has redrawn the boundaries of its own ecclesiastical provinces, which are now reduced from 17 to 15. The new ecclesiastical provinces, which each regroup from 3 to 9 dioceses, replace the 9 “French “apostolic regions” created in 1961. The new reorganization was established by […]