Switzerland: “true representative of Christ”

“When you were a cardinal you wrote one day that in no case could the pope obey his mission if he claimed to precede Christ and determine himself what the mission should be according to his own logic”, write the Swiss bishops in their message of good wishes to Benedict XVI on his 80th birthday. […]

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Spain: Europe, continuity with John Paul II

The Spanish bishops have also congratulated the Pope on his 80th birthday. Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, Archbishop of Madrid, did so on their behalf during his recent inauguration of a cycle of conferences on the thought of Benedict XVI at the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See (it runs to the end of May). […]

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England: new Catholics decreasing but not in Wales

The overall number of those received into the Catholic Church of the United Kingdom at Easter this year is lower than last year, though some dioceses in Wales and in southern England have dramatically increased their number of converts, reports the English Catholic weekly “The Tablet”. The magazine has compiled a statistical chart of the […]

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Serbia: paramilitaries found guilty for Srebrenica

The verdict of guilty handed down by a Serbian court for the Serbian paramilitaries involved in the massacre of Srebrenica “is an act of justice, and is the least that could be expected given the gravity of the actions committed”, commented Father Vladislav Varga, who heads Caritas in Serbia-Montenegro. Father Varga was briefing SIR about […]

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Czech Republic: on-line auction for the patron saint

An auction on the Internet to finance the restoration of the statue of St. Paul in the cathedral of Brno: the idea is that of the artist Stanislav Sedlacek, who auctioned one of his own paintings on the website www.idnes.cz http://www.idnes.cz> on 12 April to raise funds for the restoration of the statue of one […]

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Austria: tourism and monasteries

Father Christian Haidinger, abbot of the Benedictine abbey of Altenburg in Lower Austria, has called for a Church in which “each person would really have a place”. Speaking on 5 April, Father Haidinger underlined the need “to be open to people’s anxieties and problems, even if at times we don’t have all the answers”. “We […]

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ukraine

Towards a future of hope

“A very young or very old Church, in which the intermediate age group is lacking and it is for the most part the young who introduce their parents to religion”: that is how the Catholic Church of Latin rite in Ukraine is described by Father PAVLO VYSHKOVSKYY (oblates of Mary Immaculate), who works at the […]

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greece

The art of being a minority

“The Catholic Church in Greece is not very different from the other European Churches that have to work in the midst of secularised societies, a prey to ethical relativism”, says the President of the Greek Bishops, Msgr. FRANCIS PAPAMANOLIS, in describing the situation of the Greek Catholic Church. It too is having to come to terms, […]

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european parliament

The emergency continues

The environmental emergency continues to be one of the main talking points at the European Parliament, the institution that seems to have taken most to heart the problem denounced by all the experts and tackled in recent times, with various levels of effectiveness, also by the European Commission and Council. It’s enough to think of […]

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european commission

In first place

“European integration is good for research and, at the same time, research is good for Europe and its citizens”, says ELKE ANKLAM from Germany. She is the director of the Institute for the Health and Safety of Consumers, one of the seven institutes composed by the EU Joint Research Centre. The JRC, in turn, is […]

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