Redazione

“Christ in the cold war of Eastern Europe: the catacombs of the twentieth century and the martyrdom of the Church of silence, from the October Revolution to 2000”: that’s the title of the television documentary, produced by the RAI (Italy’s state broadcaster), which will be shown on TV in two instalments, on Good Friday, 29 […]

To avert dangers such as “irrelevance”, “insignificance” or the presumed “liquidation” of the Catholic movement in Italy, all Christians must feel as an “urgent appeal” and an “indispensable task” the need to “serve the cause of man in his entirety, recognizing that this cause, for a believer, cannot but be identified with the ‘catholic cause'”. […]

“Faced by the madness that has sown death in the town hall of Nanterre, this is not the time for explanations but of compassion”, declared Bishop François Favreau of Nanterre, in an off-the-cuff comment to SIR. Bishop Favreau immediately visited the scene of the massacre. At a quarter past one, on 27 March, at the […]

" "Austria

Respect for the sacred, the Holy Land, elections for the renewal of the parish councils, the “alliance for Sunday as a day of rest”, and ecumenism: these were the main issues on which the Austrian bishops focused their attention at their plenary Assembly held in the Voralberg, in western Austria, from 19 to 21 March, […]

Since 1993 English legislation has recognized the invalid’s right to refuse food, water and medical treatment and be allowed to die. The law in question is clearly permissive in its attitude to euthanasia: it does not impose euthanasia, but nor does it punish it. We find ourselves faced by a dramatic situation that appeals to […]

United Kingdom

“Benevolent paternalism” that violates the right of a patient to refuse medical treatment: that’s how the judge of the Court of Appeal in London, Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, defined the attitude of the physicians treating Miss B, a 43-year-old tetraplegic woman, paralyzed from the neck downwards and dependent for her continued existence on a pulmonary ventilator. The […]

The new law is aimed at regulating the influx of immigrants, but does not prescribe fixed numerical limits; rather it adopts the criteria of only letting non-EU foreigners enter the country if there are no Germans or Europeans willing to perform the particular jobs they would be eligible to fill. Preference is given to skilled […]

Germany

A controversial majority of the government coalition (SPD-Greens) approved the new law on immigration (cf. SIREurope no. 9/2002) at a session of the Bundesrat in Berlin – the Upper Chamber of the regions – on 22 March. The new law should now pass to Federal President Johannes Rau for ratification. Edmund Stoiber, leader of the […]

· European Convention for the suppression of terrorism (1977: it came into force in Italy in 1986); · Common action of 15/10/1996, adopted by the Council in conformity with article K.3 of the Treaty on the European Union, on the establishment and constant updating of a repertoire of competencies, capabilities and specialist information in the […]

The European Union. Gathered at Saragozza, in Spain, on 22 and 23 March, for an informal meeting of the Council of the European Union, the Ministers of Defence of the Fifteen unanimously took the decision to use also the second pillar – the one that includes the European Policy of Security and Defence (EPSD) – […]