RU 10/2006- IRAQ, FRANCE, LITHUANIA

- IRAQ: The ZENIT agency of the Vatican relates, on March 3rd, that the bishop of Kirkouk in Iraq, Mgr Louis Sako, after the explosion of the dome of the golden mosque of Samarra (Shiite mosque) of February 22nd, declared that by solidarity the Iraqian Catholics had decided to organize a collection in order to contribute financially to the reconstruction of this famous Moslem mosque. Mgr Sako explained that he visited the Islamic chiefs, to whom he expressed his 'total solidarity' in the matter of the destruction of the mosque of Samarra. The association UNEC which already undertook several collections since 14 years to support financially Catholic parishes in distress in Iraq (notably 5700 Euros in 2005), is asking herself if future collections of support have yet any sense if the Catholic bishops in Iraq revert them to the reconstruction of mosques. - (ru; cf. ZEN March 3, 2006)

- FRANCE: Revolt in the Vendee region? At Rocheservière, a canton of 10,000 inhabitants 40 km south of Nantes, a hard battle opposes the vicar of the local church to a large part of the population. It was a decided matter, the priest wanted to make remove the ancient master-altar in order to create "more space in the choir for performing the ceremonies according to the present liturgy", and the town council had given unanimously (except for 1 voice) its consent. But this was without counting with the reaction of the Catholics. They gathered on Tuesday March 7th, 70 people, containing many elder ones, to denounce vigorously this project. During the meeting the commentaries flew high: "Ten years ago, in the town hall, someone took us away the cross, today it's the priest who takes off the altar of the church", "If they touch the altar, it's because they want to remove the tabernacle and the cross", "Wait, if they do that, we shall reduce the church tax", "Hey, the ciborium and the golden ostensoir, where are they gone, we didn't see them anymore since 10 years?", and an elder one to conclude: "Now it's enough. If things continue like that, it will be necessary to take out the scythes like in 93" (i.e. 1793, the Vendée war against the Revolutionary Republic!) - The same evening all present people addressed a letter to the bishop, asking him to get personally involved in this affair of "religious and emotional heritage", with 70 signatures. The vicar had not dared to go to this meeting. Two days later the mayor of the small city, Mr Alain Leboeuf, signed a suspension of the project, since it is the technical service of the city which had been charged to destroy the master-altar. In the jargon of the vicar, one spoke nicely of a project of "displacement of the altar", while specifying that "all components will be reused elsewhere in the church, for example for the stair steps etc." - Is the Catholic soul of the Vendée waking up? May God God grant it! - (ru, cf. O.F. March 9th)

- LITHUANIA: Here is an excerpt of a letter which arrived very recently from the delegate of the association UNEC in Lithuania. "Our orphanage in Vilnius continues to work, but every year there are more problems with children... and money. We had less problems when we were in the USSR. The Government doesn't undertake anything to solve the problems of the population. They only think about how to collect the maximum of money from the European Union - for their pockets. We are without future. We tried to escape from the USSR, but in the E.U. life is even harder. It's sad, but Stalin's plan 'Everyone will speak the same language and will live in the same country' is in the process of being executed by the European Union. Everywhere one finds the English language: in newspapers, songs, computers... and soon we will have the same currency, the Euro. We other small countries will disappear in the 'big cattle'. My son bought a new apartment, because he works hard in an American pharmaceutical society, which fact procures him a better salary. But this didn't bring him happiness. He already divorced two times, doesn't have children and now lives alone. Yet he is already 40 years old..." - Of course, Stalin, Hitler and the other monsters were to be eliminated. But, as declared about twenty years ago, over the French television, in front of a dumbstruck group of journalists, the old mother of Galeazzo Ciano, foreign minister of Mussolini: "Did we see anything better since?" - (ru)