I cannot permit the death of His Imperial and Royal Highness Otto von Habsburg at age 98 on July 4th to pass unnoticed. To look into his face was to gaze into the map of the 20th Century, and to hear him recount his ideas, insights and encounters was worth more than an entire course in European history in most universities.

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The Acton Institute captured the attention of the Italian secular press when advocating a Judeo-Christian, value-based economic model to ensure continued free and healthy economic growth in Asia.

The press was eager to interview the conference speakers who articulated this perspective at the Institute’s international conference held at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University last May 18: “Family-Enterprise, Market Economies, and Poverty: The Asian Transformation” .

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This past April 1, Istituto Acton held a private viewing and debate on The Call of the Entrepreneur in the romantic city of Verona, better known for its romantic association with Romeo and Juliet than with one of Italy’s most enterprising commercial regions.

Arranged and sponsored by the investors group – Noi Soci – of Cattolica Assicurazione, a private insurance company founded 115 years at the turn of the 19th century , the documentary was shown to a private audience of 220 of the company’s stakeholders, colleagues and business partners – who actually showed up early – a rarity of time management and courtesy not often experienced in the southern city of Rome, where Acton’s Italian office is located.

The Rome Reports news service has put together some video and text based on Acton’s Dec. 2 conference in Rome, Italy, “Ethics, Aging, and the Coming Healthcare Challenge” Acton has also created a special web page where you can download the speeches and presentations from the event. Report follows:

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The market place is very complicated and intricate in terms of decision making processes and human relationships. We have to start thinking in terms of multiple layers, multiple dimensions and an astonishing level of complexity when making sense of human beings and their moral behavior.

The Catholic News Service has published a report on “Philanthropy and Human Rights: Creating Space for Caritas in Civil Society,” a conference held Dec. 3 in Rome by the Acton Institute.

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International aid groups have criticized the EU and many of its member states for falling behind their promises to step up foreign aid to 0.5 per cent of GDP by 2010 and 0.7 per cent by 2015.

Read more on European foreign aid caught between dishonesty and incompetence…