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Bishop Ackermann of Trier visited gay and lesbian centre not as a bishop but a pilgrim.

Cardinal accused of wanting to end the pluralism of the academic centre The Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, a cradle of Liberation Theology, on Friday released a letter to the Vatican Secretary of state where they reject Cardinal Cipriani as confrontational as a dialogue partner in the process in which they are involved. "The only way to achieve full peace that the University and the Peruvian bishops want is if Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani ceases to be the interlocutor between the hierarchy of the Church and the college authorities", says the rector Marcial Rubio in the letter sent to Cardinal...

Hardly anyone knew Henk Heithuis when he was killed in a car accident on 28 October 1958 when only 23 years old. Today, fifty years after his untimely death, the sad fate of the Dutchman is extensively covered in the international press – from the "Spiegel" to the FAZ to the "Telegraph". The media interest has a reason: The name of the young man at the centre of a scandal brings shame on the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands and also reaction in politics. This is because Heithuis, who spent nearly his entire life in Catholic homes and boarding...

Polish newspaper reporting that JPII may be canonised at WJD in Krakow in 2015

The Egyptian-Italian MEP, Magdi Cristiano Allam criticized yesterday an article published in the Italian daily newspaper Il Giornale, the Islamization of Europe. As "clear evidence", he cited the citizens of European countries, who convert to Islam. "Did you know that in Italy there are already 70,000 Muslim citizens?" Allam asks in his article. The total number of Muslims currently living in Italy comes to, according to the Interior Ministry, to more than 1,583,000. "Did you know that on average every four days in Italy a new Islamic place of worship is established?"

A 26-year-old regularly preaches in a mosque in Solingen - Cologne City Superintendent: His theses are an "impertinence", Representatives of Muslim organizations distance themselves Anti-Christian expressions of a radical Islamic preacher concern the Protestant Church Association of Cologne City. The 26-year-old Austrian Mohamed Mahmoud was released in September 2011 after a four-year prison sentence in a Vienna prison on charges of forming and promoting a terrorist organization . After a short stay in Berlin, he moved at the end of 2011 to Solingen, near Düsseldorf. Currently he is living in Erbach in Hessen(Odenwald).

Now German journalists critical of Islamists are in the cross hairs: In a video on YouTube radical Mulsims showed private photos of an employee of the "Frankfurter Rundschau" - accompanied by threats against the "apes and pigs" who published "mendacious" reports. Research by the newspaper "Die Welt" revealed that the film was created by a group associated with the Salafists, who presently are distributing 25 million Korans in German. The initiative began on Saturday in several towns. The day before the video was posted online. In Berlin, as far as we are aware, no Korans have yet been distributed.

Peter Paul Kaspar, Academic Chaplain in Linz, author, musician, executive member of the Parish Priest Initiative helped to formulate the "Call to Disobedience" and now writes an open letter to Cardinal Christoph Schönborn THE OPEN LETTER Dear Cardinal! We - the executive of the Parish Priest Initiative - have issued at Pentecost 2011 a "Call to Disobedience," because we wanted our urgent demands for reform to be made public. This has succeeded worldwide even being cited in the Holy Thursday homily of the Pope. The decades-long internal proposals and suggestions put forward were so far always put politely in the...

The Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels was definitely informed forty times of sexual abuse within the Belgian Catholic Church, according to the Flemish newspaper Het Laaste News, which relies on a correspondence between the cardinal and the victims or their families. These letters have emerged as part of the extensive investigation, named Operation Chalice.

The debate on church buildings launched by Islamicist politicians in the Gulf continues. The Sheikha Fraiha Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, a member of the Kuwaiti royal family and chairman of the Kuwaiti "Society for the Ideal Family," has attacked the Islamist parliamentarian Walid Al-Tabtabaei, because he attacked her commitment to the construction of an Armenian Apostolic Church. The lawyer for the Sheikha described the attacks of the MP as "absurd and offensive," as the foundation "Pro Oriente" reported on Friday, according to Kathpress.

Delicts include the desecration of the confessional and sexual abuse of people in confession. When I think we are grouped with the abusers, I wonder how much all of this is upside down. They say we seek to fit ourselves into a role we are not entitled to. We say: the question is whether the clergy are not being presumptious when they take the distribution of the Sacrament on themselves. In addition, we will soon no longer have enough clerics. At that stage, we will have had to have thought about how we should deal with the problem. derStandard.at: The...

At Easter, the theologian Martha Heizer returns to committing a "delictum gravis" and will hold a Eucharistic celebration in the "domestic church" – under the threat of excommunication. The Tyrolean church theologian and critic Martha Heizer has drawn the ire of many religious leaders. She and four colleagues are accused of imitating Eucharistic celebrations without a priest. In the ecclesiastical world, this is a "delictum gravis", ie a "serious offense", which may lead to the excommunication. The local clergy has now launched investigations into the case. An opinion of the Bishop, Manfred Scheuer should be be presented "in the coming...

The completion of the investigation of Holocaust denier Bishop Richard Williamson takes longer than initially planned. In about three weeks, a penalty will be sought for race hatred of of 6500€, said the spokesman for the prosecutors in Regensburg, Wolfhard Meindl,on Tuesday.

Anti-Day of Rest Protests for Good Friday. Pirate Party Dance Party banned in Frankfurt. Green Party Youth protest in Wiesbaden The Frankfurt authorities responsible for public order have banned the demonstration of the Pirate Party, which was to take place on Good Friday. During the protest loud music was to be played to "invite people to dance," says the Pirate Party. The spokesman for the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau called the project of the Pirate Party "disrespectful." The Young Greens, who organized in 2011 in the Frankfurt Römerplatz a demonstration and thus disrupted the Good Friday procession of...

After the judgment of the Supreme Court, it is now definitely established that the raids on 24 June 2010 which were made on the Archbishop's Palace, and on Cardinal Danneels obtained material illegally says Fernand Keuleneer, lawyer for the Archdiocese and Cardinal, commenting on the judgment.

In the Lassale House in Switzerland, which is run by the Jesuits, courses will now be also offered from May onwards giving "time and space for sensuality." Swiss media speak in this context of "sex courses", a term rejected by Christian Rutishauser, the Jesuit in charge.  In the Luzerner-Zeitung, Rutishauser can promote his courses, claiming that the Church has so far actually specified "particular obligations" and set "framework conditions for sex" (within marriage).

Cardinal Karl Josef Becker sees big problems for an agreement between the Vatican and the traditionalist SSPX "to combine both positions, that's difficult," the Jesuit said in an interview with the Cologne diocesan church newspaper on Sunday. He has worked as a consultant to the CDF during the negotiations between the SSPX. Pope Benedict XVI in mid-March asked the SSPX to clarify by April 15 their position and to avoid a breach with Rome.

To provide empty churches in France for Friday prayers for Muslims. At the initiative of the National Federation of the Paris Mosque , the Council of Muslim Democrats of France and the Suburbs Respect Collective, religious leaders, politicians of various political organizations in the suburbs, gathered together on Thursday March 10 2011 the at the Paris Mosque to determine the actions to be implemented to terminate the debate on secularism and Islam.

Four bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church excommunicated More in Spanish here- detailing some extraordinary career paths Former monks of the Basilian Order of St. Josaphat who appointed themselves bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in 2008 have been excommunicated for disobedience They appointed themselves bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in 2008. After trying to be recognized by the Ukrainian state as a Ukrainian Greek Catholic Orthodox Church, four former monks of the Basilian Order of St. Josaphat, a Ukrainian, Slovak and two Czechs have been excommunicated. Their relations with the Vatican deteriorated four years ago

An extract from a chapter by Fritz Gruendger in Beveridge and Social Security "Echo, effects and evaluation of the Beveridge Report in Germany". (see William Beveridge for background on the origins of the British National Health Service and Robert Ley for the biography of the leader of the German Labour Front- below with Hitler) "At last, the persistent activities of Dr Ley induced Hitler, on 15 February 1940, to charge his devoted companion officially with working out propositions for the development of comprehensive provision for the aged. Leaning on his Führer's order (Führerbefehl) Ley started among the Party and the...