Italy: a bishop’s "dream"” “

“I dream of planting a large garden in front of the cathedral, a garden in which you young people may congregate in the evening, where girls and boys of different cultures may accept each other’s differences as a gift and a responsibility, where you young people, together with the adults, elderly and children of the […]

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England: shock video on abortion” “

“My Foetus” is the title of the documentary that will be televised on the independent TV Channel Four on 20 April (at 11 pm). It shows a woman in her fourth week of pregnancy undergoing an abortion. This shock video is arousing a good deal of controversy about whether it is right or appropriate to […]

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Portugal: Bible Marathon” “

Some 50,000 students in 233 schools throughout Portugal are involved in a gruelling marathon that will lead them to copy by hand the whole Bible in Portuguese by the end of the year. The project called “The Bible handwritten by the young” is being coordinated by the Portuguese Ministry of Education. “The idea is to […]

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Spain: "science and theology can dialogue"” “

The 10th biennial Congress of the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology was held in Barcelona from 1 to 6 April. The meeting took place in the context of the universal Forum of cultures, which, from April to October, has chosen Barcelona as cultural capital of the world. “The day to day […]

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Spain: cardinal Kasper, "ecumenism demands self-criticism"” “

“Ecumenism is a priority, and we Catholics too must conduct an examination of conscience; we must be self-critical and self-penitent”, said Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, on receiving an honorary degree from the Comillas Pontifical University in Madrid on 30 March. The cardinal said he was hopeful about how […]

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Germany: debate on the Islamic headscarf in schools” “

The recent legislative proposal presented to the Senate of the Land of Berlin-Brandenburg on the possible general banning of religious symbols in public offices – and hence in state schools – has evoked strong reactions and various pronouncements by exponents of the German Churches. In a press release issued on 1st April, the chairman of […]

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Europe: elections to the European Parliament” “

Four ecumenical organizations have published a “brief document for the Churches” in preparation for the forthcoming elections to the European Parliament (10-13 June 2004). The document recalls the questions that are at the centre of the commitment of the Churches and the agencies linked to the Churches in Europe: they include unemployment, social exclusion, human […]

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ecumenism" "

Turkey: CEC visit to the ecumenical Patriarch” “

The president of the Conference of European Churches (CEC), the Rev. Jean-Arnold de Clermont, has just concluded an official three-day visit to the ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and his Holiness Bartholomew I (31 March-2 April). Accompanied by a delegation of the European Churches, he was also able to meet with members of the Interconfessional Affairs […]

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End of divided Europe” “

“A great event, that marks for us the return to a history no longer suffered, but freely created”: that’s how Stefan Delureanu , authoritative Romanian Catholic exponent, defines the “great step” of EU enlargement to Eastern Europe. Historian at the University of Bucharest, student of the Risorgimento at the continental level, great expert on the […]

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Lithuania, countdown” “

After Cyprus, Poland, Malta, Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic (cf. Sir nos.14-15-18-20-22-23-24/2004), now it’s the turn of Lithuania to tell of its hopes and fears as it prepares for imminent entry into the European Union on 1st May. Lithuania has a population of 3,700,000 inhabitants, of whom 72% are Catholics, 2.5% Orthodox and […]

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