On December 10th at 12.30 p.m. on ORF 2
Vienna (OTS) – Sandra Szabo will present the following articles in the ORF religious magazine “Orientation” on Sunday, December 10, 2023, at 12:30 p.m. on ORF 2:
Church and Human Rights: A Difficult Approach
Hardly a week goes by without Pope Francis raising his voice for the rights of disadvantaged people. However, for a long time the Church remained at a distance from the idea of human rights itself, as proclaimed by the United Nations 75 years ago. Above all, freedom of expression and freedom of religion were a thorn in her side. Only the Second Vatican Council and Pope Paul VI. brought the turning point. The Holy See has now signed some UN agreements such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, but not others such as the Convention on the Rights of Women. And some possible new human rights, such as abortion or the guaranteed rights of LGBTQ people, are really worrying the Vatican. Stefan Ludwig reports.
Despite the Islamic law: imam training in crisis
Ümit Vural, president of the Islamic religious community who was re-elected last week, wants to establish practical training for imams in Austria. Previous attempts to do this have failed due to a lack of financial resources. On the basis of the Islam Law of 2015, an Islamic theological course was set up to promote Austrian-style Islam. But of the more than 220 full-time imams in Austria, not a single one has completed this course; they did their training abroad. Lisa Ganglbaur reports on the background.
End homelessness? Government relies on Finnish model
The Caritas emergency shelters are overcrowded and the cold hotline is overloaded. Although Caritas has provided more than 1,880 accommodation spaces in Vienna alone, many homeless people remain on the streets – even in snow and below-zero temperatures. According to the Ministry of Social Affairs, 19,450 people in Austria are affected by homelessness and homelessness; the unofficial figures are likely to be significantly higher. In the first half of 2023 alone there were 2,912 evictions across Austria. Now the Austrian government wants to end homelessness once and for all. 25,000 apartments are to be made accessible to people affected by homelessness in such a way that they are permanently affordable. What seems utopian at first glance has already been successfully implemented in Finland. Zoran Dobrić researched how this Finnish model works.