Call to the West
CALLING AFRICA "the great forgotten continent", a participant in the special Synod of' Bishops on Africa said world powers must do more to bring about an end to massive hunger and suffering. "The only thing growing in Africa is its poverty," said Fr Bernard Prince, Secretary-General of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.
Slovakia talks
NEWLY-INDEPI3NDENT Slovakia has opened talks for a concordat with the Vatican, the nation's bishops announced this week. Slovakia formerly fell under a 1928 VaticanCzechoslovakia treaty. Diplomatic relations were suspended but not officially broken under communist rule, although the last nuncio to Czechoslovakia was expelled in 1949. In March, the Pope appointed Archbishop Luigi Dossene nuncio to Slovalcia.
Hi-tech sect A BUDDHIST SECT TN western Japan is planning to transfer 90,000 pages of Scriptures on to a compact disc to make its
teaching more accessible to its followers.
Priest charge
FR PATRICK RYAN, the priest at the centre of an Irish extradition battle four years ago, this week denied in a Dublin court charges of handling stolen property.
Beer ban
ARCHBISHOP DANIEL Pilarczyk of Cincinnati has asked parishes in his archdiocese to consider banning beer and other alcoholic drinks from their festivals. The archbishop asked priests to ponder with their parishioners the question: "Is drinking a necessary element for any parish activity?"
Getting friendly
UKRAINIAN CATHOLICS have stopped trying to convert Orthodox believers and want to improve ecumenical co-operation between the Churches, said Cardinal Myroslav Lubachivsky of Lvov this week. "Catholic pastoral activity no longer aims at proselytising among the Orthodox," he said in a pastoral letter.