Bishops’ meeting” “

A document to commemorate the 25th anniversary of John Paul II’s pontificate, a planned European youth meeting at Santiago di Compostela in August 2004, and the request to the Holy See to declare Saint Genoveva Torres Morales “patron of the disabled”: these are just some of the topics to be discussed by the permanent Commission […]

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Gipsy apostolate in Spain” “

There “are no recipes” in pastoral work with gipsies. Only “by experience can we discover what needs to be done in the various places and at the various times”: that’s one of the conclusions of the meeting that brought together over a hundred Spanish gipsies (gitanes), priests, religious and laity at Alcalà de Henares from […]

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Bosnia" "

A bad reform” “

A meeting between the bishops of the Bosnian Episcopal Conference was held at Travnik (Bosnia) in recent days. Discussion focused on the defence of the cultural and religious identity of the Catholic Croat minority in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the light of the threatened reform of the school system, aimed at “reuniting two schools under a single […]

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monthly agenda" "

October 2003″ “

2 Audience of the Pope to the President of Lithuania Rolandas Paksas – Annual Assembly (2-5) of the Council of the Episcopal Conferences of Europe (CCEE), at Vilnius (Lithuania) 3 Ecumenical ceremony on the occasion of the “German Day of Unity” at Magdeburg 4 Audience of the Pope to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams […]

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Switzerland: 1st national meeting of Catholic youth” “

The Swiss bishops are preparing to hold the first national meeting of Swiss Catholic youth. The meeting will take place in the ice-rink of Bern and the adjacent Allmend park on 5 and 6 June 2004. The Pope will meet the youth on Sunday morning and preside over the Eucharist in the afternoon. The event […]

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ecumenism" "

Ecumenical session of youth ” “

“We’ve succeeded in bearing witness to our faith in mutual trust, overcoming long-standing barriers”, said the Catholic Samuel, a final-year student of applied arts. “I greatly appreciated the ecumenical spirit, in particular the informal debates and the prayer in common”, says the Lutheran Johan, student of biology: just two comments on the second national ecumenical […]

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The Convention of tziganes ” “

Between 8,000 and 15,000 tziganes attended the annual Convention promoted by the “Life and Light” association of the tzigane evangelical Mission of France, which represents some 100,000 French gipsies. This year’s Convention, held in the disused aerodrome of Malbouhans (France) from 27 to 31 August, did not draw the usual 20-30,000 nomads of previous conventions […]

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The disaster of the Prestige” “

By an amendment adopted with 315 votes in favour, 183 against and 6 abstentions, the European Parliament, meeting in plenary session on 23 September, asked for the setting up of a temporary commission to investigate the causes and consequences of the disaster of the oil tanker Prestige, which sank in November 2002. The commission would […]

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EU in brief" "

Declarations on ICG ” “

Ten days before the Intergovernmental Conference is due to open (in Rome, on 4 October), declarations on the draft European Constitution continue (cf. Sir no. 62/2003). Italy has announced that it “sees no reason to re-open to renewed discussion the essential lines of the draft drawn up by the Convention”. Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, chairman of […]

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Social policies” “

The report of the Commission on the social situation in Europe in 2003 has recently been published. The document – fourth of the series since the Lisbon summit – “analyses the various factors that, on the basis of the social indicators common to the current 15 member states, concur to describe the social situation of […]

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