Spain: criticisms of the government’s immigration policy” “

Over Easter, some twenty Spanish Christian organizations – including Catholic Worker Action, Diocesan Caritas of Barcelona, the Union of Religious of Catalonia, Christianity and Justice, and Justice and Peace – joined together in denouncing the current immigration policy of the Spanish government. “We express our concern about the difficulties we ascertain in the process of […]

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Belgium: Cardinal Danneels in China” “

The pastoral visit to China of Cardinal Danneels, archbishop of Malines-Bruxelles and president of the Belgian Bishops’ Conference, began on 28 March and will end on 6 April. This is the first official invitation made to a cardinal to visit the People’s Republic and came from the Chinese Deputy Minister responsible for religious affairs. The […]

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England: renewal of the diocese of Nottingham” “

An attempt to respond to the problem of the shortage of priests and prevent the risk that many parishes could be abolished as a consequence are the main objectives of the pastoral plan launched by the Bishop of Nottingham, Malcolm McMahon, at the time of his nomination in 2000. This is the first attempt of […]

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spain" "

Decision within 90 days ” “

2005 is the year of the great “normalisación” in Spain: the amnesty that ought to regularize the position of some 800,000 irregular immigrants. The pros and cons of the measure are reported by the Italian Migranti-press agency, which recently visited the “Delegatión diocesana de migraciones” in the Spanish capital and met its head, Father Antonio […]

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bulgaria" "

Integrating with Europe” “

Bulgaria’s journey towards the European Union is proceeding ever more rapidly. Her membership of the EU is expected to take place in 2007. The Bulgarian Catholic Church is also busily preparing for the event. The president of the Bulgarian Bishops’ Conference, Msgr. Hristo Projkov , recently participated in a meeting held by Comece, the Commission […]

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monthly agenda" "

April 2005″ “

The main events involving the Catholic Church, the other Christian Churches and the main institutions of Europe in April 1 Meeting of the coordination group of the European Committee for university apostolate (1-3), under the aegis of the CCEE (Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe), at Bratislava. 2 Denmark and other countries of Europe […]

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Legislation on divorce ” “

The European Commission began a public consultation last week to collect data and opinions on future EU legislation on divorce between spouses who are citizens of two different member states. The new legislation is supposed to be adopted by 2006. The Executive accompanied the launch of the consultation with the presentation of a Green Paper, […]

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Declining birth-rate alarm” “

The decline in birth rates in the European Union has reached alarming proportions, according to a study presented in Brussels by the Commissioner responsible for social affairs and employment, Vladimir Spidla. The majority of member states in fact present by now a birth rate just above one child per family (the European average was 1.48 […]

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Tolerant or intolerant: European identikit” “

The European watchdog on racist and xenophobic phenomena (EUMC), based in Vienna, published a Report with the title “Attitudes of the majority to minorities” on 15 March. The document analyses the data gathered between 1997 and 2003 on emigration and minorities. It also presents a kind of identikit of “tolerant Europe”, of a Europe favourable […]

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Directive on asylum: the concerns of UNHCR” “

The UN High Commission for Refugees has expressed renewed “concerns” about the draft Directive on asylum procedures, on which the European Parliament must still express its own opinion before being formally adopted by the European Council. The Directive regulates the procedures through which asylum applications should be assessed. The UNHCR, which already commented adversely on […]

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