Slovakia: MPs attend seminar on bioethics” “

A project promoted by the Slovak Episcopal Conference involves teaching Slovak MPs about bioethics and family policies. The seminar will be held on 3 October and is addressed at all the deputies of the national Parliament, but it is expected that others from neighbouring countries, Poland included, will also take part. Theme of the event: […]

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European Churches" "

France: violence against women ” “

“For how long will our society tolerate these innumerable acts of violence? For so long as these victims be abandoned to their suffering, reduced to silence, and stripped of any desire to live?” These are the painful questions posed by a book published by the social Commission of the French Episcopal Conference with the title […]

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Malta: the Synod and the lighted candle” “

An appeal to priests, religious and laity to put into practice the conclusions of the Synod of the diocese of Malta that ended on 7 June has been made in recent days by the archbishop of Malta Msgr. Joseph Merciega, in a pastoral letter published on 27 September. The Synod’s final document, the archbishop points […]

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Switzerland: reservations about the new law on drugs” “

“Major reservations” about Switzerland’s new law on drugs have been expressed by the Swiss Episcopal Conference, which issued a statement on the matter in recent days. Discussion of the new law in the Swiss National Council has meanwhile been postponed. The Swiss bishops criticise the new law on two main counts: its State’s abdication of […]

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Spain: Migrations Day” “

“We must never see in the immigrant the stranger, the foreigner, still less someone to be rejected. The migrant is a person with whom we need to work together to build together a future of hope”. That’s the position of the Spanish bishops responsible for immigrants in their message for Migrations Day, celebrated in Spain […]

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England: spiritual renewal” “

A programme of “spiritual and pastoral renewal” inspired by John Paul II’s Apostolic Letter “Novo millennio ineunte” began in the Wembley arena, in the presence of 12,000 people, on 26 September. It will move into top gear in October. In a pastoral letter to the parishes of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’ Connor, archbishop of Westminster, […]

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Germany" "

Rediscovering a treasure” “

The plenum of the German Episcopal Conference ended in Fulda at the end of September. The questions discussed included Europe, the European Constitution, the protection of life, the family and the recent sentence on the “Islamic headscarf”. European Constitution and Christianity. Endorsing the concept of the EU as a “community of values”, the bishops “approve” […]

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Czech Republic" "

Disabled, but "not forever" ” “

Caritas Prague. Residential pastoral weeks, meetings with priests, rehabilitation projects, are just some of the measures promoted by the Catholic Church of the Czech Republic in favour of the disabled. “The activities in question – explains Jaroslav Nemec, director of Caritas in Prague – have long been promoted in the various dioceses. So the European […]

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ecumenism" "

Towards the unity of the Russian Orthodox Church? ” “

“I believe that God will lead us towards unity because the historical reasons for division – the revolution, the civil war and the cold war – no longer exist”. So said the spokesman of the Patriarchate of Moscow, arch-priest Vsevolod Chaplin, following the meeting held in recent days at Russia’s consulate general in New York […]

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First woman pastor ordained in Poland ” “

The first woman pastor in the history of Polish Protestantism was recently ordained in the reformed evangelical parish of Zelòw (near Lodz). Wiera Smetana-Jelinek, aged 43, married with two children, graduated in theology and has for years acted as assistant to her husband, the pastor in charge of the congregation of Zelòw. The reformed evangelical […]

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