Three priorities for Catholics” “

The ecumenical Kirchentag in Berlin in late May, the conditional authorization of pre-implant diagnosis (PID) in Germany, the need for values as the foundation of international finance, and the next congress of German Catholics scheduled to be held in Saarbrücken in 2006, were some of the main questions discussed at the plenary assembly of the ZdK (Central Committee of German Catholics) held in Bonn-Bad Godesberg on 9-10 May. Values in finance: according to Michel Camdessus, president of the Semaines Sociales de France and former director of the International Monetary Fund, “a financial architecture that is not founded on values, is built on sand”. He also recalled, in his address to the congress, that “recent developments in the economy have demonstrated that reciprocal economic dependence in the multilateral institutions represents the best guarantee for peace and stability”. In mentioning the “positive, creeping revolution of values that took place in the Eighties”, Camdessus pointed out that the internal relations between the problems of the financial market and the problems of development have grown” and that “the problem of poverty has been discovered”. Words of praise, finally, for the work of the Zdk and for the final document of its research project on “International finance – justice has a need for rules”, which recommends the “reinforcement of microfinancial banks as a way of improving the opportunities for the poor to participate”. At the end of his speech he made a reference to the Christian heritage and the need to acknowledge it in the European Constitution. “A reference to Christ is needed in the European Constitution.” Kirchentag: An appeal for the promotion of unity at the ecumenical Kirchentag in Berlin (from 28 May to 3 June) was made at the plenary assembly. “All Christians are invited to pray together for good relations between the confessions and for joint action”. The actions at the national level taken during this period “must represent a sign of the link with those who go to the Kirchentag and offer, for those who can’t attend it, the occasion for an active concelebration. In this way the spirit of communion of the Kirchentag may be experienced also at the decentralized level”. The occasions for prayer, the reading of the Bible and moments of information may provide important impulses for common action by the confessions far beyond the four days of the Kirchentag itself. Conditional authorization of PID: Bishop Gebhard Fürst, spiritual assistant of the association and member of the National Ethical Council, reaffirmed his decided rejection of PID. “It’s clear”, he maintains, “that all parents would like to have a healthy child”; but this ought not to lead to the conclusion that “the embryos in which a genetic defect is diagnosed should be killed”. The danger of a limited admission of pre-implant diagnosis consists “in the fact that the tendency to select human life would be encouraged”. The very fact that, in those countries where limited recourse is had to this type of analysis, “its proponents don’t want to define what is meant by the concept of grave genetic risks in the parents, implies the impossibility of limitation”. But he has strong hopes that any such bill would not obtain a majority in the Bundestag. He expressed a similar opinion on the ban of cloning. At the end of his address the bishop made an appeal to all citizens “to form a responsible judgement on the fundamental problems of bioethics” since “ethics is not something one can delegate to ethical councils” or to others.