Displaying items by tag: Europe

The Pope's chief financial adviser has decided to take a leave of absence after being charged with historical sex crimes. Cardinal George Pell, the third most senior Catholic at the Vatican, has fiercely denied the multiple allegations against him. At a news conference on 29 June, he said the two-year investigation had been fuelled by ‘relentless character assassination’. He has now been called back to Australia, to appear before Melbourne Magistrates' Court on 18 July. ‘I am innocent of these charges. They are false. The whole idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me’, he told reporters. ‘The court proceedings offer me the opportunity to clear my name and then return to my work in Rome.’ In another story, former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey has been asked to step down from an honorary role in the Diocese of Oxford, after being criticised in an independent review of the church’s handling of sex abuse. The review into disgraced former bishop Peter Ball, who was jailed in 2015, revealed that Lord Carey had failed to pass key information on Ball to the police in 1992. See

Forest fires raging in Portugal since 17 June and which have killed more than sixty people have been brought under control, the civil protection agency says. The largest fire, in Pedrógão Grande, which ravaged 30,000 hectares (74,000 acres) of forests, was doused late on 21 June, and the second biggest blaze, in Góis, was contained the next day. Water-bombing planes and nearly 2,400 firefighters were involved in tackling the fires. Antonio Ribeiro, who led the Pedrógão operations, said that higher humidity levels and lower temperatures had allowed the firefighters to contain the fire and extinguish the remaining hotspots. The president of the League of Firefighters said he believed arson had caused the fire, contradicting an earlier police account.

After only six months, Romanian prime minister Sorin Grindeanu has been forced from power, losing a no-confidence vote in parliament by 10 votes to 241. His left-wing Social Democrat party (PSD) had accused him of failing to carry out necessary economic reforms. He had also been involved in a power struggle with party leader Liviu Dragnea, who was barred from office after a conviction for voter fraud. The decision by his own party and its allies to oust him was seen as a first, even for Romania's turbulent politics. The PSD won elections in December, but within weeks protests erupted across the country over a decree seen as weakening anti-corruption measures in one of the European Union's most corrupt member states. Although Mr Grindeanu withdrew the decree, the crisis weakened his government and soured relations between himself and Mr Dragnea. In its most recent report, the EU's executive praised Romania's anti-corruption agency (DNA), but warned that the fight against corruption was under serious threat from political and media attack.

Senior figures in Europe have been pondering how the result of Theresa May’s election gamble will affect the Brexit negotiations. The newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung said that the European Commission views the election result as a sign that most Brits don’t desire a ‘hard exit’ from the EU. The European Commissioner, Günther Oettinger, has reportedly said that it may now be possible to discuss ‘closer relations’ between the UK and the EU than Mrs May had originally planned. However Wycombe MP Steve Baker, a committed Christian and one of the most vocal Eurosceptic Tory MPs, was moved in the cabinet reshuffle to an important role in the Brexit department. The choice of Mr Baker is likely to anger those hoping the election result would force Mrs May to adopt a more conciliatory tone on Brexit and drop threats to leave the EU without a trade deal. See also

EU institutions playing a significant role in the Brexit negotiations are: a) the European Council,which defines the general political direction and priorities of the EU and consists of the heads of state or government of member states, together with the President of the European Commission. b) the Council of the EU, which represents member states' governments. That is where ministers from EU countries meet to adopt laws and coordinate policies. They play a key role in negotiating and approving EU legislation and international agreements; c) the European Commission, the only institution with the authority to initiate legislation in most areas. It draws on input from a variety of other bodies; d) the European Parliament, comprising 751 MEPs elected by citizens of the 28 member states. Its role is to scrutinise, amend and vote on legislation.

The German foreign minister has announced extra aid to improve conditions at refugee camps. He warned of growing instability, and urged warring parties to overcome their differences and support the UN-backed government. Berlin will provide 3.5 million euros to Libyan authorities to improve conditions at refugee camps in the country. The money is expected to complement relief funds provided by Germany aimed at easing Europe's migration crisis. It is Germany’s goal, to work with the Libyans to resist the instability that has arisen from the absence of established structures. Meanwhile the UNHCR said that Libya must release refugees held in detention centres. Germany called the three rival Libyan authorities to overcome their differences through dialogue and said that conflicting parties should abide by UN-brokered agreements signed in 2015, which established the government of national accord led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj.

Experts from Microsoft, Audi and others gathered with UN leaders and academics to debate the pros and cons of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Geneva. ‘AI is probably the most significant technology we will ever create,’ said Peter Diamandis, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Experts discussed the huge unleashed potential of AI that can heal healthcare, make travel safe, and boost wealth. There is a desire to harness AI for good, but also a stark warning that AI also has the power to harm. Weapons already in service are capable of selecting targets, and there are no technical boundaries to machines making(?) decisions to take a human life. Automation of the battlefield lowers the threshold for the use of deadly force and transparency, meaning that accountability in the use of force is needed to keep these AI tools in check.

Since 2012 the German birth rate has been increasing. In 2014 the Huffington Post reported petitions circulating to warn the public about the threat to the midwifery profession. They called on expectant families to put pressure on the German government’s health minister to come up with a solution to the massive increases in insurance rates on midwives, especially those who assist in birth. The July 2017 German Intercessors newsletter requests prayer for midwives’ working conditions. ‘Anyone looking for a midwife before childbirth must expect many refusals. More and more freelance midwives are leaving the profession. They cannot afford the unbelievably high contributions for personal liability insurance, even though subsidies are now provided by the state.’ The midwife association is asking for a fund to cover liabilities for self-employed midwives. Full-time salaried midwives have another problem; their working conditions allow them no time to rest.

Disillusioned with protectionism and the US government’s rejection of low-carbon economic models, the European Union hopes that China will stick with the climate change agreements made during the summit in in Brussels. China has a very big air-pollution problem, especially in Beijing. Also the policy for China’s domestic economic development is very clearly a green economy policy. Preventing dangerous climate change is a key priority for the EU. Europe is working hard to cut its greenhouse gas emissions substantially, while encouraging other nations and regions to do likewise. Key EU targets for 2020 are a 20% cut in greenhouse gas emissions compared with 1990; 20% of total energy consumption from renewable energy; and 20% increase in energy efficiency.

During the Herrnhut Consultation, we had a strong focus on praying for revival in Germany and Europe. Here is an encouraging word. Eric Metaxas notes some trends that point to an increased spiritual hunger among Europeans and asks: “Has the demise of Christianity in Europe been greatly exaggerated? There are some encouraging signs of life.”

“It’s become customary to refer to Europe as “post-Christian.” But this is an overstatement—and it obscures large differences in religious practices across the continent: For instance, Poles are far more likely to attend church on a weekly basis than Scandinavians—and even more likely than Americans. Still, it’s difficult to dispute the idea that Christianity’s influence in Europe, on both a personal and societal level, is in decline.

But a pair of recent stories suggests that this may be changing.

The first story was a column in the U.K.’s Telegraph newspaper. The headline read “Our politicians are more devout than ever—so it’s time we started taking their faith seriously.”

In it, Nick Spencer, whose just-released book is entitled “The Mighty and the Almighty: How political leaders do God,” notes that rather than European politics becoming a “God-free zone,” one of the “most striking trends of the last generation or so is how many Christian politicians have risen to the top of the political tree.”

Whereas in the thirty-five years following the end of World War II, only one Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, could be described as “devout,” since then, at least three of his successors—Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, and now Theresa May—could be described that way.

And it’s not only Britain. As Christianity Today recently told readers, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christianity is “deep,” “genuine,” and “important” to her life.

Even in France, the country that invented and institutionalized modern secularism, what the French call “laïcité,” Catholicism has become a kind of “X Factor” in the upcoming presidential elections.

And that brings me to the second story. In the most recent issue of the Jesuit magazine, America, Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry told readers that a few years back, he noticed that “Whenever I was less than five minutes early for Mass, I had to go to the overflow room.” His church “was filled to the gills every Sunday, with young families and children most of the time.”

He decided to see how widespread this phenomenon was, so he visited parishes all over Paris and found the same thing: Sunday high Mass is packed in most parishes in Paris. The same is true in France’s second largest city, Lyon. It’s even true, albeit to a somewhat lesser extent, in his family’s home village.

What was once a revival that “you could fleetingly smell in the air,” has become more tangible, nowhere more so than in the movement called La Manif Pour Tous, “protest for all.” La Manif got 200,000 people in Paris alone to march in protest against legalizing same-sex marriage.

This in turn spawned other Christian movements in a country that supposedly had moved beyond that sort of thing. What these movements share is an opposition to liberalism, which in the French context means “a drive for ever-greater individual liberty.” As Gobry writes, “Liberalism, in this view, is responsible for sexual depravity and the culture of death,” and “leads both to abortions and to quasi-slaves in third world factories making disposable consumer items of questionable worth.”

While French Christianity still has a ways to go, what Gobry describes brings to mind the “cloud as small as a man’s hand . . . rising from the sea” Elijah’s servant saw in 1 Kings 18. Secularism has left Europeans “in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” Let us pray that God sends much-needed rain to both sides of the Atlantic.”

Eric Metaxas, Breakpoint Daily, May 2, 2017