FRONT PAGE

Solidarity in crisis?

Often presented as a model in terms of social welfare, Belgium soon risks not being able to boast of its record in this field, unless it acts rapidly. According to a study carried out by the Centrum voor Sociale Beleid in Antwerp, it seems in effect that the gap between those who work and those […]

di Pascal André Belgium

Poland: the meditations of Wojtyla in a film

The film based on the “Roman Triptych” of John Paul II, the cycle of meditations first published in 2003, simultaneously in Italy and in Krakow, is to be released in cinemas throughout Poland on 9 March. The book was officially presented by the then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal […]

di Redazione

Hungary: few streets dedicated to St. Elizabeth

Seventeen years after the fall of Communism in Hungary there are still many streets and squares that bear the names of the leaders of the dictatorship, whereas few are dedicated to the national saint, St. Elizabeth of Hungary. That’s what emerges from a survey promoted by the Jubilee Committee for the eighth centenary of the […]

di Redazione

Bulgaria: building sites of solidarity

“Building sites of solidarity”: that’s the name of a project devised by Italian Caritas in Bulgaria and to be realized in collaboration with the local Caritas and the Bulgarian Catholic Church. To launch it, two young volunteers from Italian Caritas have arrived in the country; they are helping the parishes of the city of Rakovski, […]

di Redazione

ITALY

Within European history

On 7 March the Holy Father accepted the resignation, for reasons of age, presented by Cardinal Camillo Ruini (born at Guastalla, diocese of Reggio Emilia, on 19 February 1931), from the post as President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI) and has appointed in his place Monsignor Angelo Bagnasco, Metropolitan Archbishop of Genoa, former Archbishop […]

di Redazione

KOSOVO

The risk of emigration

A young community, but suffering from mass emigration: that’s the reality of the Catholic presence in Kosovo: out of a population of 2,100,000 inhabitants, Catholics amount to some 65,000; over 40,000 have emigrated. 33% of the population of Kosovo is under the age of 14, only 7% is over the age of 65. Of the […]

di Redazione

ECUMENISM

Switzerland: towards the assembly in Sibiu

2000 people are expected to congregate in the Cathedral of Lausanne tomorrow, 10 March, for an ecumenical meeting in preparation for the Third European Ecumenical Assembly due to be held in Sibiu, in Romania in September. Organized by the workgroup of the Swiss Christian Churches and the Council of Churches of Canton Vaud, the meeting […]

di Redazione

Cec/Kek: a “Plan D” for the Lisbon Strategy

A “Plan D” for the Lisbon Strategy: that’s what the European Churches and diaconal organizations have proposed to the German Chancellor and current President of the EU Council, Angela Merkel, on the eve of the spring summit of the European Council, which ends in Brussels today (9 March). The Conference of European Churches (Cec/Kek representing […]

di Redazione

Poland: an ecumenical women’s day

A large group of Protestant and Catholic women participated in an ecumenical liturgy in Poznan in recent days, on the occasion of the World Day of Prayer for Women. The liturgical material was prepared by an ecumenical group of women from Paraguay who asked for forgiveness for “having remained silent about acts of vendetta, violence […]

di Redazione

Russia: nuclear weapons, the challenge of dialogue

“Nuclear disarmament in our time is a utopian idea”, says the assistant director of the Department of External Relations of the Patriarchate of Moscow, Father Vsevolod Chaplin. “I stress – writes Chaplin in a letter published in the journal “Index of Security” – that all weapons, and especially nuclear weapons, are an evil. But evil […]

di Redazione