FRONT PAGE

The great white mantle

René Rémond died in Paris at the age of 88 on 14 April. Catholic intellectual, historian and political analyst, Rémond was rector of Paris-Nanterre University, President of the French Foundation of Political Sciences and member of the Academie Française. “He was a great Christian and a true humanist”, said Archbishop Jean-Pierre Ricard, President of the […]

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European dailies and periodicals

The killing in Turkey of three staff members of a small Christian publishing house (including one German) has aroused horror and outrage in Germany. The FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG comments as follows (19/4): “At first sight it might be deduced that Islamic extremists are behind the assassination. But this is not at all certain. In the […]

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COUNCIL OF EUROPE

From words to deeds

“In spite of the considerable progress made in member states, also thanks to the role played by the Council of Europe, the fact remains that grave violations of human rights continue to be committed in our continent”, said CHRISTOS POURGOURIDES, rapporteur of the legal affairs committee of the Parliamentary Assembly (PACE). His denunciation in the […]

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Italy: “family day” to give voice to civil society

Family Day is “an event aimed at giving visibility to civil society, the majority of which is in favour of the family. That’s all Family Day is intended to be: a visible and real fact of life – that of the family with all its rights and duties”. That’s how Eugenia Roccella, spokesperson together with […]

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Austria: “children are not a disease”

“Children are not a disease: to offer women the chance of an abortion subsidized by medical insurance plans is cynical and expresses contempt for life”, comments Johannes Fenz, chairman of the Federation of Catholic Families of Austria, responding to the recent proposal of the Vice-President of the Austrian Greens, Eva Glawischnig, which has aroused a […]

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LIFE AND FAMILY

Germany: better balanced family policies

“A better balanced family policy aimed at the well-being of the child”: that’s the request made by the German Catholic Church to the German political world. The request was formulated at the end of the bishops’ spring plenary assembly, held in Reute last week. In their final statement, issued at a press conference chaired by […]

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Cardinal Dziwisz, “forgiveness is the cure”

The need for “forgiveness born from compassion, which alone can heal the wounds inflicted on Poland during the periods of Nazi and Soviet occupation during the Second World War”, was underlined by Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz in the homily he gave in the Sanctuary of Lagiewniki on 15 April, Sunday of Divine Mercy. The former private […]

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Evangelical Churches and collaboration

The Synod of the Reformed Evangelical Churches in Poland recently published its position on the vetting currently underway of alleged collaborators with the Communist secret services. “This difficult period of almost half a century in the history of forty million people cannot be clarified without great meticulousness, patience, expertise and compassion”, declare the members of […]

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In memory of the victims of the Shoah

On 15 April, on the day of the memory of the Shoah (Yom ha Shoah), thousands of Jewish youth from all over the world visited the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau. The Israeli Minister of Education, Yuli Tamir, also took part in the celebrations. The participants in the ceremony, including some survivors of […]

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POLAND

Regret for the “no” to the defence of life

The Polish bishops have accepted “with profound regret” Parliament’s decision not to approve the introduction into the Constitution of the principle of defence of life from conception to natural death. “Unfortunately a cruel parliamentary arithmetic prevailed over the fundamental right to life of each human being”, say the members of the permanent Council of the […]

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