EU PARLIAMENT

Crisis defused

“Crisis defused; now it is time to face the challenge and create the Europe we and the world need”. JOSÉ LUIS ZAPATERO , Spanish Prime Minister, gave a speech on Wednesday 28th November at Brussels Parliament by which he had been invited as one of a number of debates on the future of the EU. […]

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THE BANLIEUX OF PARIS

Analyses are not enough

The banlieux, the bleak housing estates on the outskirts of Paris, are once again in the headlines due to the violent unrest in recent days that has caused a wave of injuries and destruction: cars set alight, police stations sacked. The disorders began when two youths aged 15 and 16 were killed following a collision […]

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Annapolis: the message of Samuel Kobia

In order to avoid the failure of Annapolis it’s necessary that “all parties at stake act in good faith”, these are the hopes of Samuel Kobia, Methodist pastor of Kenya and secretary general of the Ecumenical Council of Churches in a letter sent to Condoleeza Rice, US Secretary of State, to Ehud Olmert, Israeli Prime […]

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Costantinople: at the European Court

The Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople illustrated to the European Court for the Rights of Man its recourse against Turkey for a dispute concerning the property of a long-standing orphanage on the Island of Buyukada, near Istanbul. The orphanage, considered the biggest wooden building in Europe, belongs to the patriarchate since 1902 and was transferred to […]

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ECUMENISM

Orthodox and Catholics: two points of view

A halt was made to the possibility of a meeting between pope Benedict XVI and Patriarch Alexis II together with the acknowledgement of closer contacts between Moscow and Rome. Two differing statements arrived from the Patriarch of Moscow. The first statement, issued by the Russian news agency “Interfax” is by father Igor Vizhanov, Secretary for […]

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TURKEY

The special memory

In the framework of delegation exchange during respective patronal festivals (on June 29th in Rome for the celebration of Saints Peter and Paul, and on November 30th in Istanbul for the celebration of St. Andrew), Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Papal Council for the Unity of Christians, left to Istanbul this morning, heading a […]

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CCEE-RE

Three crucial problems

In Europe religious education (RE) in state schools has to come to terms with “three crucial problems”: the current cultural climate, which is unfavourable to religion but which, at the same time, discloses a new interest in it”; its attempted definition as a “scientific discipline”; and its role and modes of implementation “within a pluralist […]

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POLAND

For higher values

The Bishops of Poland, gathered at Jasna Gora towards the end of November for their 342nd Plenary Session, focussed, among other things, on the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights and on the conclusions of the Historic Commission and Working Group for Ethical-Legal Evaluation, instituted by the Polish Episcopal Conference, regarding documents of the security […]

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Austria

The Church is close to the separated and the divorcedThe Austrian Catholic Church intends to be “attentive” to the issue of the separated and remarried faithful. For this purpose, in the past days Wien’s “Separated and remarried platform” (Wige) presented a pamphlet with guidelines on the approach with these people. This organization, founded in 1989, […]

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Germany

Youth from Fulda in mission abroadThe diocese of Fulda is planning a new volunteer service called “Social and missionary volunteer service abroad” (Fsmda) for youth aged 18-28. The project, coordinated by the Universal Church and the new evangelization office of the General Vicarage of the Episcopate, in cooperation with the diocesan office for the youth […]

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