England: computers and "Christingle service"” “

“Clean up your computer campaign” is the project launched by CAFOD, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, for Christmas this year. CAFOD has in fact discovered that British families will spend this year approximately one and a half billion pounds, over two billion euros, on personal computers between Christmas and the New Year. But most […]

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Ireland: "a chosen way of life"” “

“Christmas challenges our increasingly bland secular culture. The time-honoured picture of the child in the stable, attended by Mary and Jesus, moves us gently through the commotion of gifts and shopping to the innocence and wonder of childhood and the fascinating miracle of a new human life”, write the bishops of the diocese of Clogher […]

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Holland: "The Splendour of the Word"” “

“We are convinced that the phenomenon that distinguishes the religious situation of our time is the fragmentation and schism of the message by the practice of the Catholic faith. That’s why the Christian faith is losing its power of synthesis and the consequence is that many people in present-day society have difficulty is seeing what […]

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Italy: "Becoming travelling companions".” “

In a recent document Catholics are urged to “become the travelling companions” of migrants and realize an “integral ministry” that may involve the various fields with a view to the preaching of the Gospel and evangelization. To this end “the establishment, or consolidation” of “forms of coordination, agile and flexible, but stable and recognized”, within […]

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WYD 2005" "

A special Christmas” “

It’s a special Christmas, the one being celebrated by the German Church this year: the slogan of WYD in Cologne “We have come to adore him” takes concrete form with the birth of Jesus and the visit of the Three Magi. The words of the Magi “Venimus adorare eum” are also the title of the […]

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CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS " "

The major absentee” “

Expectations are rising and joy growing as Christmas approaches: that’s the spirit in which Advent is experienced by European Catholic youth in whom there seems to be strong attachment to their Christmas traditions, including games, dinners and festivities but also symbolic gestures and elements of folklore linked to ancient village life. The Christmas that emerges […]

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questions of life" "

France: regularity of abortions?” “

Thirty years after the introduction of the law that authorizes abortions in France, their number has remained stable. This is revealed by “Le Monde” in an article in recent days: each year some 200,000 voluntary interruptions of pregnancy are practised in France, just as at the end of the Seventies. Instead of expressing concern about […]

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Italy: a law to be rejected? ” “

In Italy the Supreme Court of Appeal has given the go-ahead to five referendums on assisted procreation. The five petitions have been admitted by the court’s central office for referendums. Now it will be the Constitutional Court that will be called to convene a hearing in camera by 20 January and rule by 10 February […]

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Europe: crisis of civilization?” “

“Europe is experiencing a moral crisis of civilization” that is leading her to “demographic suicide”. That’s the analysis of George Weigel, American biographer of the Pope (and author of ‘Witness of Hope’), who recently spoke in Rome at a meeting organized by the Pontifical Gregorian University. He is considered one of the most authoritative commentators […]

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CCCEE, CEC” “

JANUARY 10-13: JERUSALEM – Visit of the delegates of the European episcopates, in solidarity with the Holy Land. The secretariat coordinating the event is c/o the secretariat of the English Bishops’ Conference (Rev. David Ryall) FEBRUARY 3-6: CHARTRES (PARIS, FRANCE) – Joint CCEE/CEC Committee. Central theme of discussion will be the 3rd European Ecumenical Assembly […]

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