Catholic Church
27 April 2012
Carsten Frerk has written especially for EHF an article about trends in religious belief and behaviour in Germany. He is a social scientist and founder of the Forschungsgruppe Weltanschauungen in Deutschland – a group of non-university scientists sponsored by the Giordano-Bruno-Stiftung to study and publish empirical studies on religion and belief in Germany. The article is available here in the original German version and here in an English version. (27 April 2012)
19 December 2011
Massimo Redaelli writes: “With 6 billion Euro per year, Italy could accomplish miracles.” This is the slogan on the maxi-posters of the new campaign by UAAR that earlier today were posted around Genova, and that tomorrow will cover the streets of Venice, too. After the notoriety gained by the website “The Cost of the Church” (the first detailed list of the fiscal privileges and the economic contributions the Church enjoys), the association decided to… read more »
29 November 2011
The EHF has called for religious influence on EU-funded research to be eliminated. At present, funding of research using embryonic stem cells is banned – the result of religious lobbying when the current framework was agreed. The Catholic church, in its response to a new and wide-ranging EU consultation on the framework for future scientific research, has said the ban should be maintained and even extended. It has even called for research to be commissioned specially designed… read more »
1 October 2011
The EHF was represented at the 2011 conference in Warsaw (left, general view from the NGO seats) by its President, David Pollock, by its OSCE representatives Hans Christian Cars and (from member organisations) by Vera Pegna of the Unione degli Atei e degli Agnostici Razionalisti (UAAR) and Pierre-Arnaud Perrouty of the Centre d’Action Laique in Brussels. We made three interventions in the session on 27 September on “Freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief”. David… read more »
15 September 2011
The OSCE held a meeting on combating hate crimes against Christians in Rome on 12 September 2011. Vera Pegna represented the EHF and reports: There were a couple of hundred delegates, mostly Catholic bishops, archbishops, but also representatives of other Christian religions, and Jews and Moslems and a number of ambassadors to the Holy See and government representatives. Plus a number of NGOs, mostly Catholic. The first half of the morning went by with… read more »
2 March 2011
The chair of the European Parliamentary Platform for Secularism in Politics, Sophie in’t Veld MEP, has written to the President of the Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, to protest at his invitation to the Pope to address a plenary session of the Parliament. She makes the point of her complaint that “It is wholly inappropriate for plenary meetings to be used as a podium for religious messages”, drawing a distinction between plenary sessions of the Parliament and the… read more »
17 October 2010
“Blair equates secularists with religious extremists” The EHF has written to each of the 27 EU Heads of Government asking them to oppose the candidacy of Tony Blair as permanent president of the EU Council of Ministers under the Lisbon Treaty because of his prejudice against non-religious beliefs and secularists. The letter quotes him as endorsing the Pope’s view that “humanism devoid of Faith [is an] ‘inhuman humanism’ ” and a recent speech in which… read more »
1 October 2010
Attacks on the Holy See The EHF was at the OSCE’s 2010 Review Conference (which this year replaced the usual Human Dimension Implementation Meeting) for the session on “freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief” on Friday October 1. In the plenary session, EHF President David Pollock attacked the “undiplomatic behaviour” of the Holy See. His remarks are reproduced below, with a link to the full version of his paper. Vera Pegna spoke (for the… read more »
1 July 2010
A case before the European Court of Human Rights that could have marked a milestone for secularism in Europe reached a sad end in March 2011 when an appeal by Italy to the Grand Chamber of the Court succeeded in reversing the Court’s original judgement in November 2009. The Court’s judgement argued that the display of the crucifix did not amount to “indoctrination” and was therefore permissible. A summary and detailed critique of the judgement… read more »
17 March 2010
The wording says: ‘Abortion for Polish women – introduced by Hitler – 9 March 1943′ Meeting of the EP Platform for Secularism in Politics The European Parliamentary Platform for Secularism in Politics held a well attended meeting on 17 March 2010 to hear speakers on the influence of the church in matters of abortion, divorce, family planning etc, with speakers from Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain.Monika Karbowska told the meeting about the dire situation for… read more »