Dear Friend of Communicantes,
Thinking about moving from one place to another and about how to send our friends and partners a meaningful change of address, I remembered a recent news article. It mentioned the Italian Roman Catholic priest, angelologist and demonologist Renzo Lavatori, who claims that angels are ‘shards of light’ rather than winged entities with human features. Continue reading
Communicantes is going to move from Nijmegen to Tilburg. Yesterday, we have been packing up books at our Nijmegen office. On the shelves, we found several articles by the Dominican Father Professor Magister G.P. Kreling (1888-1973). Communicantes’ founder, Father Jan Bakker s.s.s. (1914-1982), was a student and great admirer of the famous Kreling, who in turn was a great admirer and advocate of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Continue reading
So, Frans Hoppenbrouwers of the foundation Communicantes recently visited the 17th Renovabis conference Free and Solidary. Christians in Responsibility for Europe in Freising, Germany (28/30 September 2013). It was an interesting gathering, meeting old acquaintances and making new friends… ‘Music to my ears’, as such he described the remarks of Renovabis’ general manager Father Stefan Dartmann SJ at the end of the conference. They underlined Communicantes’ plan to put dialogue between Christians in Europe at the heart of its activities. Continue reading
Last Sunday, Frans Hoppenbrouwers of the foundation Communicantes returned from Lviv (Ukraine), where he had been discussing our plan to promote discussion and dialogue among believers in Europe (East and West). Then tomorrow, Wednesday 19 June, he will be off to Cluj-Napoca in Romania, where he will stay for several days. Hungary is next on the list. Monday 24 June Hoppenbrouwers will be in Budapest, Thursday in Szeged and then he will return to the Netherlands. It will be interesting to know the opinion of our partners about our plans and to compare these very different countries with one and another. Then it is time for some well-deserved holiday time.
Dear Friend of Communicantes,
Please have a look at our Annual Report 2012 in English: read in pdf.
For copies of previous annual reports (2005-2011) in Dutch language, follow this link.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Benno Jacob, Katharina Staritz and Edith Stein, what is the legacy of these four theologians for us? This was a central question during a discussion at the Edith Stein House in Wroclaw. About twenty participants discussed on 13 December 2012 about how the Lutheran Bonhoeffer, the Jew Jacob, the evangelical Staritz and Catholic Stein looked at culture. How did these thinkers, who were all born in Wroclaw (Breslau), view the relationship between culture, society, civilization and religion? Continue reading
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Benno Jacob, Katharina Staritz en Edith Stein, wat is de boodschap van deze vier theologen voor de 21ste eeuw? Deze vraag stond centraal tijdens een gespreksavond in het Edith Stein Huis in Wroclaw. Ongeveer twintig deelnemers bespraken op 13 december 2012 de cultuurvisie van de lutheraan Bonhoeffer, de jood Jacob, de evangelische Staritz en de katholiek Stein. Hoe zagen deze in Wroclaw geboren denkers de relatie tussen cultuur, maatschappij, beschaving en religie? Continue reading
The board of the foundation Communicantes wishes you a merry Christmas and a blessed New Year. Leave the bad news for what it is. Let the good message be heard, because, if heaven is out of view, our earthly wishes, regrets, art and work lose their meaning. Please, read the Communicantes Christmas Newsletter to know a bit more about our activities in 2012 and outlook on 2013:
Communicantes Newsletter 2012/2 Christmas (English)
Communicantes Nieuwsbrief 2012/2 Kerstmis (Dutch)
On Saturday 8 December, my travel to Lithuania and Latvia came to an end, when the WizzAir Airbus A320 safely touched down on the tarmac of Eindhoven Airport (EIN). It was an interesting and inspiring trip, which started two weeks earlier on the same airport. I had some thirty meetings, in Vilnius, Kaunas and Panevezys (Lithuania), in Ludza, Jekabpils and Riga (Latvia). Once again, I say a great “thank you” to everybody whom I have met, for sharing your time and thoughts. As an inspirational endnote, I have added a picture of the original coat of arms of bishop Jonas Kauneckas of Panevėžys. The bishop himself is holding it. Because it was considered to be too different from the usual coats of arms, it was not used officially. However, to my opinion it was well designed. The motto is a challenge to all people of good faith, “Žiūrėti Jo žvilgsniu”: To see with His eyes. For a short first impression of my trip, see Facebook.
Opposition against notions such as “feminism”, “gender” or “political correctness”, either shallow or profound, cannot be an excuse for inaction, when sensitive issues like trafficking of women, inequality, typecasting, discrimination of women, prostitution or domestic violence are being discussed. Similarly, moral indignation or feelings of moral superiority can never justify passiveness, when sins are committed against women. These were the key findings of our Communicantes conference last 3 November 2012. At castle Hernen, an audience of about twenty listened to three guests from Eastern Europe: Caritas Lithuania’s Kristina Mišinienė, Romanian journalist Márta Bodó and Sister Rebeka Anić from Croatia. Read the introduction to the conference by Communicantes President Professor Nico Schreurs and the lecture of Sister Rebeka Anic. For the work of Kristina Mišinienė, see www.anti-trafficking.lt (with pages in English language as well). Read also the announcement of the conference and some background information at http://communicantes.nl/?p=5066 (in Dutch).
