Austria: a new aid policy requested of the government” “

With a joint conference held in Vienna on Monday 9 December, the authorities of the main Austrian charitable organizations addressed their own requests in terms of aid to the new government. Caritas, the Evangelic organization Diakonie, the Red Cross and the aid organizations Hilfswerk Austria and Volkshilfe pointed out the “shortcomings in the country’s aid […]

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Italy: the Fiat crisis and the concerns of the Church ” “

The Italian bishops are deeply concerned about the grave crisis (-20% of car sales in recent times) which has hit the Fiat Group: it has led to the placing on short time of 5600 workers at various Fiat plants in northern and southern Italy and the prospect of “prolonged mobility” for 8100 employees out of […]

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Belgium: marriage must not be relativized” “

On 28 November the Belgian Senate approved marriage between homosexual couples. The green and socialist senators voted in favour, while the liberals (VLD and MR) and the Flemish christian democrats (CD&V) were divided on the question. The Flemish extreme right (Vlaams Blok) and the French-speaking christian democrats (CDH) voted against it. According to the new […]

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Great Britain and Ireland: giving voice to the inexpressible” “

“Giving voice to the inexpressible” to help the victims and restore credibility to the Churches. With this aim, “Church together in Britain and Ireland” (CTBI), an ecumenical organization representing all the Christian churches of Great Britain and Ireland, has published a report with the title “Time for Action” on sexual abuse and the involvement of […]

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person and family" "

Switzerland: the grey zones of silence” “

“The Church has it profoundly at heart that the witness of its male and female personnel be credible”. To this end, the Swiss Episcopal Conference – at the end of its 258th ordinary assembly – published a document on 5 December with the title “Sexual abuse in the context of pastoral care” which contains a […]

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children

” “child citizens” “

“The situation of children in the world”, the latest report of UNICEF (the United Nations Children’s Fund), also deals with the participation of children in society. According to the report published on 11 December, this participation encourages children to assume ever greater responsibilities as active, tolerant and democratic citizens. The issue was first addressed in […]

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Scottish bishops: Catholic schools are not sectarian” “

The support of Catholic bishops for Catholic schools was strongly reaffirmed during the meeting of the Scottish Bishops’ Conference which ended in Glasgow on 11 December. The bishops repudiated recent criticisms voiced in the media about confessional education. “We are astonished and dismayed”, say the bishops in a communiqué, by those who seek to find […]

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Catholic schools" "

Rooted in the family” “

An ever growing number of parents are choosing schools of Catholic type for their children. That’s what emerges from a survey recently conducted by OE-GIAPEC, an umbrella association representing the parents of children attending European Catholic schools. Recognized as a non-governmental organization by the EU, it is linked, at the world level, with the European […]

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The culture of Sunday” “

Various exponents of German Catholic life have made recent pronouncements on the need to protect the “culture of Sunday”, in other words the need to abstain from work on Sundays and preserve it as a day of rest. “In recognition of the culture of Sunday, indispensable both for the individual and for society at large”, […]

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Ecumenism on the Internet” “

With the start of Advent, a new ecumenical venture has been born in Germany. Promoted by German Catholic Action (ZdK) in collaboration with the Johann-Adam-Möhler institute for ecumenism in Paderborn, the religious institute of the evangelical league in Bensheim and the ecumenical institute of the Catholic faculty of theology in Münster, the project is an […]

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