Posts tagged Europe
‘Impulse Towards Reform’: How Jewish Women Helped Shape Modern Design In Vienna

(REVIEW) The Jewish Museum’s exhibition “Modernity and Opulence: Women of the Wiener Werkstätte” highlights the pivotal role Jewish women played in Vienna’s influential design collective. Featuring nearly 200 works, the show explores how artists and patrons transformed modern art, fashion and women’s professional opportunities in the early 20th century.

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Camino De Santiago Attracts 500,000 Visitors A Year, But Climate Change Threatens It

It’s a life-changing religious pilgrimage. The Camino De Santiago trail has attracted hundreds of thousands of tourists to Spain and surrounding countries each year. But scorching heatwaves, caused by climate change, are threatening the ancient tradition and forcing hikers to rethink their plans.

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Crossroads Podcast: Politics And The Cultural Catholicism Of UK’s New Prime Minister

The new prime minister will almost certainly have a short political honeymoon. How will he handle his first public meeting with Pope Leo XIV? In terms of symbolism, will he seek a blessing?

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Escape Rooms Get Religion: Churches Turning Puzzles Into Faith Journeys

Move over history, crime and literature. Escape room themes featuring faith and the Bible are taking over in the United Kingdom. Churches and social groups are turning to this popular leisure activity and using it to challenge people to think about spirituality, life and even their connections with science.

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Defying The Russian Orthodox Church Is Risky. These Priests Did It Anyway.

Father Vladimiras Seliavko risked everything when he decided to condemn the Russian war against Ukraine. As a result, his parishioners turned into his enemies, his relatives abandoned him and he was branded a traitor. On the other hand, he said it was impossible to be a priest who blesses war criminals.

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Vatican Excommunicates Breakaway Traditionalist Bishops, Declares Schism

(ANALYSIS) Pope Leo has reaffirmed that disputes over doctrine and worship within Catholicism ultimately converge on a single question: Whether authority rests with individual movements claiming to preserve tradition or with the pope as the center of ecclesial unity.

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500 Years Ago, The First New Testament In English Caused An Uproar

(ANALYSIS) In 1526, books appeared in England that no one had seen before: printed New Testaments in the English language. The public snapped them up. For the first time, people read now-common phrases such as “the powers that be” and “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” But religious authorities condemned the English Bible and burned the copies they could find.

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Spain’s Historic Church Sex Abuse Compensation Marks First Step Toward Reparation

After decades of silence, Spain and the Catholic Church have agreed on a compensation deal for victims of clergy sexual abuse. For survivors, it is a long-awaited recognition—but also a reminder that justice remains incomplete.

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Bonfires And A Saint’s Day: How Europe Celebrates The Year’s Longest 24 Hours

(ANALYSIS) Whether cities or villages, many communities across Europe spend the day and night of June 24 celebrating Midsummer. Congregating around bonfires, or sometimes maypoles, sporting handwoven wreaths of wildflowers or oak leaves, they’ll sing, jump, dance, eat, drink, catch up and celebrate the arrival of the longest day of the year.

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Prayers Continue For Centuries-Old Kievan Lavra In Kyiv

(ANALYSIS) I am back home, writing at my desk in the Southern Highlands after two weeks visiting Scotland, Ireland, Wales and thereabouts. I remain a bit jet-lagged, as is common for folks of my age, but there is work to be done.

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‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ Puts This Italian City’s Religious Sites In The Spotlight

Milan took center stage in new film “The Devil Wears Prada 2.” The movie showcases the city’s most iconic Catholic sites, such as the Duomo, the Pinacoteca di Brera and the church courtyard and convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, which houses Leonardo Da Vinci’s mural painting “The Last Supper.”  

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Why Spanish Youth Are Leaving The Catholic Church Behind

(ANALYSIS) The trend in Spain is also a reflection of a pan-European phenomenon. According to various surveys such as the European Social Survey, in southern European countries, including Spain, younger generations exhibit less attachment to religious institutions but maintain nuanced and pluralistic spiritual orientations.

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Stage Against Hate: A Theater Keeps Jewish Culture Alive Beyond Memory And Myth

In the heart of Budapest lies a theater unlike any other. Founded 20 years ago, Gólem Theater stands as the only professional Jewish theater in Hungary. By blending humor with questions of identity, the theater seeks to engage audiences with a different side of Jewish culture.

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Holy Spirits! Cathedrals Are Cashing In On The Craft Beer Craze

Relax with a beer at a cathedral? From beer festivals to bespoke brands, beer and cathedrals are becoming an increasingly popular pairing in the United Kingdom. Cathedrals have always had links with brewing. Most of English cathedrals, such as St. Edmundsbury in Suffolk, owe their origins to monastic orders, who used to brew their own beer.

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UK Preacher Latest Convicted For Gospel Outreach In Abortion Buffer Zone

A retired Baptist pastor is the latest Christian convicted for religious activity in an abortion buffer zone in the United Kingdom, this time for holding a church service on the outskirts of a zone.

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Why Thousands Of Young People Spend Their Holidays At This French Monastery

(ESSAY) Located in the countryside of Burgundy, it attracts over 50,000 guests a year — mostly young people between ages 16 and 35 — from all around the world. Together with the brothers, they follow a traditional monastic way of life: Three prayer times a day, characterized by silence and the well-known Taizé chants, simple meals, practical work and Bible study in the mornings.

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Pipe Down: Why The UK’s Historic Church Organs Could Disappear By 2070

Are the U.K.’s church pipe organs under threat? A new report from Pipe Up, a charity created in 2022 to save pipe organs from what it calls a “wave of destruction,” claims that Britain’s church organs are heading toward extinction unless action is taken.

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Pope Leo Clashes With German Bishops Over Same-Sex Blessings

(ANALYSIS) More questions remain. Will the Vatican seek to impose doctrine, potentially provoking further resistance from the West? Or will it allow a degree of local experimentation, accepting the risk of inconsistency in the name of pastoral responsiveness? Leo’s statements on the issue suggest a preference for the former.

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Global Study Finds Catholicism Facing Big Losses From ‘Religious Switching’

The Pew Research Center analysis, released on Thursday, based on surveys conducted in 24 countries, examined “religious switching” — when people adopt a different religion than the one in which they were raised. The findings reveal a complex picture within Christianity, particularly between its two largest branches: Catholicism and Protestantism.

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What A Muslim Folk Trickster Can Teach A ‘Might Makes Right’ World

(ANALYSIS) Stephen Miller’s “might makes right” worldview reflects a broader shift toward prioritizing power over understanding in global affairs. Through the tales of Nasreddin Hoja, the piece argues that curiosity, humility, and engagement with other cultures are essential — and that relying solely on strength risks blinding societies to complexity, difference and their own limitations.

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