Tag Archives: Religion

Roma in Maribor

Published by:

Roma in Maribor

According to the article, the Maribor Roma community is specific, as it is largely Muslim and therefore, according to some sources, even more introverted and patriarchal, and the Roma women in it are doubly underprivileged.

No comments, but this is pandering to stereotypes.

A good story?

Published by:

A good story?

Martin Halík, a successful IT worker, left all behind an moved to a Roma settlement in Gemer. He does concrete help, charity, but also is a priest and as such also preaches.

Nice intentions, one needs to understand more.

Saint Bibija

Published by:

Saint Bibija

St. George’s Day is just the time when Erdelezi is celebrated, the Spring Festival, important for Roma of all European traditional religions. However, many will proudly say that they celebrate Aunt Bibija (Bibi means aunt), a saint who is not canonized in the Serbian Orthodox Church, but who is very important for Roma. Families celebrating Aunt Bibija are most often blessed by an Orthodox priest. A small chapel on Gospodara Vučića Street in Belgrade is dedicated to this saint.

Religion and School

Published by:

Religion and School

Bulgaria introduced a mandatory religion subject with two options “Orthodoxy” and “Islam”. According to the Centre for Interethnic Dialogue and Tolerance “Amalipe” (a Roma organisation), this may cause tension in ethnically mixed areas and deepen educational segregation. Additional tension may also arise in communities that follow forms of Christianity other than Orthodoxy and Islam other than Orthodoxy, for example, various Protestant denominations, Catholicism.

Bulgaria, Politics, Religion, and Elections

Published by:

Bulgaria, Politics, Religion, and Elections

In this article, a “Gypsy” pastor agitates his people from the Druzhba district to vote in the by-elections for Yasen Rusev the PP-DB mayoral candidate. Marin Tikhomirov became famous after a pre-election event in the “Filipovtsi” district, to which he personally invited several politicians.

  • Цигански пастор агитира “неговите хора” от кв. “Дружба” да гласуват на частичните избори за кандидата за кмет на ПП-ДБ. In: Tribune. 23.06.2025. https://tribune.bg/bg/obshtini/tsiganski-pastor-agitira-negov/

The Church and Roma

Published by:

The Church and Roma

The German Catholic Foundation Renovabis and the Bishops’ Conference of Slovakia (KBS) announced that in 2025 they will also financially support the development of Roma pastoral centers and Catholic Roma missions through the Capacity Building for Roma Pastoral Work and Its Sustainability program and its Small Projects Fund.

The aim of this joint initiative, which began in 2015, is to strengthen the spiritual service, social inclusion and human development of Roma in Slovakia in accordance with the Christian values ​​of solidarity, respect and integration.

Well, in terms of combatting racism and exclusion, the catholic church, and the Slovak one in aprticular, haven’t got a real track record…

Saintes Maries de la Mer

Published by:

Saintes Maries de la Mer

The yearly pilgrimage of Saintes Maries de la Mer has started.

International Catholic Commission for the Roma

Published by:

International Catholic Commission for the Roma

The annual meeting of the International Catholic Commission for the Roma (CCIT) took place in eastern Slovakia in recent days, attracting approximately 100 participants from 14 European countries. Slovakia was represented by more than 20 participants from cities and municipalities.

Slovenia: Book

Published by:

Slovenia: Book

In the Miran Jarca Library in Novo Mesto, Matic Vidic recently presented his book Guide to Meaning: Journeys of a Proven Logotherapist.

Matic chose to study theology and philosophy because he was already struggling with difficult life trials as a teenager. With the death of his mother and his father’s alcoholism, he began to wonder at an early age what the meaning of life was. Today, he is a permanent deacon of the Novo Mesto diocese, does pioneering work in Roma pastoral care and the integration of Roma into society, is an attentive husband to his wife Petra and a father to four-year-old Izak. Some of his stories in the book are powerful, others sad, but with each one he wanted to light the light for the reader that gave meaning to his life.

Pastoral Care

Published by:

Pastoral Care

Peter Bešenyei is a Roman Catholic priest who dedicated himself to the pastoral care of the Roma in eastern Slovakia for over thirty years. In that he is an exception in the Catholic clergy. He lived for several years in the Luník IX housing estate. like the other residents in an apartment without water and electricity.

Pope Francis

Published by:

Pope Francis

Residents of the Košice housing estate of Luník IX still remember the pope’s visit there.

“Dear brothers and sisters, too often you have been the subject of prejudice and merciless judgments, discriminatory stereotypes, derogatory words and gestures. Thanks to this, we have all become poorer. Poorer in humanity,” with these words Pope Francis addressed the Roma in the Luník IX housing estate. The news of his death also affected the local community.

A Roma Mission in a Settlement

Published by:

A Roma Mission in a Settlement

The story of a Czech man, who founded the Christian Roma Mission in a Roma settlement in Slovakia. Success and difficulties.

The Church and Roma

Published by:

The working group for Roma of the Ecumenical Council of Churches has published a letter in which it calls on the church community to be more open to Roma believers. “In practice, it is not the case that a Roma comes to a Christian community, where they throw him out ‘by the collar’, saying that he has no business there. But they will let him know that he is not desirable, often behind closed doors,” explains one of the initiators of the challenge, evangelical pastor Mikuláš Vymětal.

Bible in Romanes

Published by:

The world’s first complete Bible in the Romani Carpathian dialect was presented on Sunday in Sabinov, Slovakia. Dozens of people worked on the translation for a total of 15 years. TASR was informed about this by Patrik Sýkora from The Word For The World organization.

rroma.org
en_GBEN