Aid to development: decentralized cooperation ” “

During its last plenary session, the Committee of the Regions (COR) adopted an Opinion with the title “Decentralized cooperation in the reform of the development policy of the European Union”. The document, voted by a very large majority, presents a detailed analysis of the close degree of cooperation that currently exists between European local authorities […]

di Redazione

"Diamonds should not finance wars"” “

The European Union has for the first time been designated to the presidency of the “Kimberley Process”, the international initiative aimed at breaking the illicit link between the diamond trade and the funding of wars, especially in African regions. At the present time 44 states participate in the Kimberley Process, which opened in 2002, together […]

di Redazione

environment and climate" "

The five witnesses” “

Nature and the environment in which we live are being transformed and worrying alarm bells remind us, from time to time, that the emissions of greenhouse gases produced by factories, cars and the central heating systems in our homes concur to pollute the air we breathe and to raise the average temperatures of our planet. […]

di Redazione

racism" "

Excluded and victimized” “

“The Rom appear to be the most vulnerable group and the most exposed to racism in the European Union. They suffer discrimination in the sectors of work, housing and education and are regularly the victims of acts of violence”. The 2005 Report of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, a specialized agency of […]

di Redazione

france" "

That fil rouge” “

Is there a problem of transmitting the faith and values to the new generations? How can we overcome this impasse, present in various spheres and societies? These are questions to which answers will be sought by the many experts who are participating this year in the 80th Semaine sociale in France, now being held in […]

di Redazione

Husar visits Romania” “

The Archbishop Major of Kiev and Galizia and head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, His Beatitude Lubomyr (Husar), visited Oradea Mare in Romania on 19-20 November, the guest of the local bishop of the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church Virgil Bercea. An historic event was at the basis of this visit: the representatives of the Orthodox Church […]

di Redazione

ukraine" "

5 million abortions in the last 14 years” “

264,000 voluntary interruptions of pregnancy in 2004; over 5 million in the last 14 years; almost 900,000 couples sterile due to the woman (in 80% of cases following voluntary abortion). These are the disturbing figures published by Gyena Samborska, president of Ukraine’s National Fund for Charity “For Human Dignity”, which promoted a conference on abortion […]

di Redazione

Slovenia: new auxiliary bishop at Ljubljana” “

A new auxiliary bishop has been appointed at Ljubljana. He is Msgr. Anton Jamnik, hitherto director of the St. Stanislaus Institute in the same archdiocese. Benedict XVI nominated him to the post in recent days and assigned to him the titular see of Vina. Born in Ljubljana in 1961, Jamnik was ordained priest on 29 […]

di Redazione

Germany: bishops congratulate Angela Merkel” “

With a communiqué issued on 22 November, Cardinal Karl Lehmann, president of the German Bishops’ Conference, congratulated Angela Merkel on her election as Chancellor by the Bundestag. “I wish you good luck and God’s blessing in the exercise of your office for the good of our community”, writes Lehmann. “In the next legislature, you and […]

di Redazione

Portugal: bishops and assisted procreation” “

The bill on medically assisted procreation “was introduced in Parliament without sufficient public awareness-raising, given that it is a question of great importance and delicacy and of enormous ethical implications”, say the Portuguese bishops in their final communiqué issued at the end of their general Assembly held at Fatima from 14 to 17 November. Though […]

di Redazione