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Words also to Europe

It was eagerly looked forward and desired, this visit of the Pope to Poland, with a packed programme of events, full of suggestions and gestures. And Benedict XVI had been explicit right from the start, offering a challenging message to the Polish nation: “Remain strong in the faith”. Right from the start he had explained […]

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World meeting of families with the Pope

15,000 pilgrim’s rucksacks, prepared for the World Meeting of Families with the Pope (Valencia, 1-9 July), will be distributed by the 1st July. The first rucksacks of the Pilgrim’s “Pack” contain various objects, a T-shirt (in yellow and white, the colours of the Vatican and the official colours of the meeting), a baseball cap, a […]

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SPAIN

Religious education in schools

Religious education in schools, yes, but not compulsory for everyone”: that’s the position re-stated in recent days by the spokesman of the Spanish bishops José Antonio Martínez Camino following the meeting of the mixed Church-State Commission on education, held in Madrid to discuss the LOE (Organic Law on Education) and aspects regarding the provision of […]

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Slovenia: auxiliary bishop of Maribor appointed

On Wednesday 24 May, Benedict XVI appointed as auxiliary bishop of Maribor Msgr. Peter Štumpf of the Salesian Society of St. John Bosco, hitherto parish priest of the parish of Mary Auxiliatrix in Ljubljana-Rakovnik at Ljubljana. Born at Murska Sabota in 1962, he took his first vows in the Salesian Society of St. John Bosco […]

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Scotland: reviving chastity and abstinence

“The 12,603 abortions performed in 2005 represent a sad accusation of those family policies we must have the courage to change”, declared Archbishop Mario Conti of Glasgow, commenting on the average annual number of abortions in Scotland. “They are figures – he said – that reveal that the ever greater facility of contraceptive methods, the […]

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Portugal: a referendum on assisted procreation?

The signatures collected in Portugal to press for a referendum on medically assisted conception are already estimated to be over 75,000. That’s the threshold needed to oblige the Assembly of the Republic to discuss the proposal, reports the Portuguese Catholic press agency Ecclesia, explaining that “this could be the first referendum called on the initiative […]

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England: ecumenical week of solidarity

“You donate, we multiply”: that’s the slogan for this year’s Week of Christian Aid, the ecumenical charity of aid to the countries of the Third World, the first to launch a door-to-door collection back in 1957. Millions of red envelopes have been delivered to English homes, and 350 volunteers have been collecting them in recent […]

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Greece: Christodoulos visiting the WCC

“New perspectives have been opened for renewal of the ecumenical movement as well as for Orthodox participation in the World Council of Churches (Wcc) by the Council’s 9th Assembly celebrated in Porto Alegre last February”. According to Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens and all Greece who visited Wcc (29-31 May) in Geneva, the Assembly was “historic” […]

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EUROPA: VERTICI UE E LEADER RELIGIOSI. AL CENTRO DELL’INCONTRO IL RISPETTO, LA LOTTA ALLA DISCRIMINAZIONE, IL RUOLO DI EDUCAZIONE E CULTURA

"Una discussione libera, aperta", che ha toccato numerosi argomenti d’attualità, relativi "alla convivenza dei popoli e delle fedi in Europa" e all’integrazione comunitaria. Al termine dell’incontro con i leader religiosi, svoltosi nella sede della Commissione a Bruxelles, il capo dell’Esecutivo, José Manuel Barroso e il presidente di turno del Consiglio, Wolfgang Schüssel, hanno riassunto i […]

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UNIONE EUROPEA: I VESCOVI DELLA COMECE CHIEDONO "UNA EUROPA SOCIALE E GIUSTA"

Chiedono una "Europa sociale e giusta" i vescovi europei riuniti nella Comece, la Commissione dei dodici episcopati dell’Unione europea, che oggi hanno incontrato a Bruxelles due parlamentari europei e Vladimir Spidla, Commissario europeo incaricato per il lavoro, le questioni sociali e le pari opportunità, per parlare della "Strategia di Lisbona e l’Europa sociale". I vescovi […]

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