Redazione

Her name is Eileen Shearer and she is head of the national child protection programme promoted by the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. Appointed to the post by the Conference itself, Mrs Shearer will have the task of implementing the recommendations made in the Nolan Report on the sexual abuse of children. The definitive […]

United Kingdom" "

In view of the Prayer Week for Christian Unity (18-25 January), Queen Elizabeth has invited a Catholic bishop, the primate Murphy-O’Connor, to preach in the church of St. Mary’s in the royal estate at Sandringham. The event marks the end of five hundred years of antagonism and suspicion between the sovereigns of these islands, who […]

Switzerland" "

After Caritas and the aid organization of the other confessions (cf. Sir Europe no.10/2001), the Christian Churches are campaigning for a convinced yes to Switzerland’s membership of the United Nations, on which Swiss citizens are being called to vote in a referendum on 3 March. The Churches share the aims of the United Nations, say […]

Germany" "

4 million workers without a job, as against 38 million in employment. These figures, referring to December 2001 and published last week, are a measure of the critical situation that Germany is now experiencing in terms of employment. In an interview published in the German weekly Der Spiegel on 14 January, Chancellor Schröder, now up […]

France" "

No one can claim compensation for the mere fact of having been born, nor can life itself be considered detrimental. That is the gist of a bill voted almost unanimously by the national Assembly on 10 January. The story began on 17 November 2000 when France’s Supreme Court recognized the right of Nicolas Perruche, born […]

Northern Ireland" "

Attacks on schools: that’s the latest expression of violence in the Northern Ireland conflict. After the Holy Cross primary school in Belfast attracted the violent protests of Protestant inhabitants of the area last summer, now it’s the turn of other Catholic schools, St. Bride’s in Belfast and St. Patrick’s in Lisburne, to be targeted by […]

towards assisi" "

Belgium: a joint declaration for peace. “Together we publicly proclaim that religious affiliation cannot be a motive for conflict, hatred or violence”. The affirmation is made by leaders and members of the various religious communities of Belgium in a joint declaration to be signed in Brussels on 24 January at the end of a meeting […]

Achieved at the end of a long debate within the Lutheran confessions and bilaterally with the Catholic Church, the joint declaration on the doctrine of justification, signed at Augsburg on 31 October 1999, represents not only a resolution of the main theological controversy that triggered off the Lutheran Reformation in the sixteenth century, but also […]

The annual meeting of the Joint Committee of the Conference of European Churches (KEK) and of the Council of the Episcopal Conferences of Europe (CCEE) is due to take place at the end of the Prayer Week for Christian Unity, which it has helped to sponsor. The meeting is due to open at Ottmaring, near […]

ecumenism" "

During his visit to Moscow and Armenia in recent days (cf. Sir Europe no.1/2002), the President of the Commission of the episcopates of the European Community (COMECE), Msgr. Josef Homeyer , bishop of Hildesheim (Germany), met the Patriarch of Moscow Alexis II and the Catholicos of all the Armenians, Karekin II. During his talks Bishop […]