poland

Caritas: let’s not “cancel” the down-and-outs

“We are all called to charity” is the title of the 63rd Charity Week held by the Polish Catholic Church from 7 to 15 October. The Charity Weeks, which have been held since 1937, are the best-known form of works of mercy in Poland. Their aim is to raise funds to help the disadvantaged, and […]

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Katowice: very few “collaborators”

The historical commission of the metropolis of Katowice, after having examined the files concerning some 500 priests involved in pastoral service in the diocese, has revealed that only in 2 or 3 cases was their attitude to the security services of the Communist regime such as to justify the opening of an ecclesiastical procedure against […]

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Warsaw: given a home even if disobedient

“A sad affair”, said Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz of Warsaw, commenting on the expulsion on 10 October of a group of women, former sisters of the Family of Bethany, from the convent of Kazimierz Dolny, a little town on the banks of the river Vistula in southern central Poland. The archbishop recalled that the affair of […]

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ECUMENISM

The mother of unity

An international mariological symposium was held in Rome in early October, with the participation of Catholic, Protestant and Anglican theological of various European countries. For three days they discussed the Virgin Mary, reviewing the latest findings of theological dialogues and proposing new approaches for study in the future. The theme of the symposium – organized […]

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EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

Provisional solution?

From the election in 2009 the European Parliament is expected to have 750 constituencies, including a new national distribution of seats that differs from the present one. At least that is the decision taken by the EP during its session in Brussels on 10-11 October. After the recent enlargements of the EU, the number of […]

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Unemployment stable

Eurostat – the statistics office of the EU – has published the data relating to unemployment in the EU, according to which the rate of 6.9% in the Eurozone remains unvaried in September 2007 over the previous month (compared with 7.81% in August 2006), while a slight reduction from 6.8% to 6.7% was registered for […]

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Employment: EU satisfied

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the European Strategy for Employment, launched during the summit in Luxembourg in 1997 to coordinate labour policies at the EU level within a common framework in which member states would implement national policies corresponding to shared objectives and priorities. The results are satisfactory: the employment rate has risen […]

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X-rays of European regions

The “Regional Yearbook 2007” was published on 5 October. It provides a statistical review of the 268 European Regions in terms of their GDP, labour market, families, science, business, transport, tourism, education, agriculture and many other socio-economic sectors. Some significant data emerge from the publication: there are only fifteen regions (seven of which in the […]

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CAP reimbursements

Brussels is tightening the screw on EU funds for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). With its Decision of 3/10/2007 the European Commission has thus requested reimbursement of 145.2 million euros “corresponding to sums improperly disbursed and charged to the EU agricultural budget”. The member states from which the refunds (the 25th such measure since 1995) […]

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European dailies and periodicals

“What can the West do to promote the democratic cause in the post-Soviet area?”: that’s the question posed in one of the editorials in the British weekly THE ECONOMIST ( 6-12/10 ). “The answer is: not a great deal in Russia. Putin is sensitive to foreign criticism, but not enough to become more democratic”. According […]

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