A new spring?” “

Just over 5 months ago John Paul II made his third visit to Slovakia. On Saturday 14 February over 2500 pilgrims, over 200 priests and the whole Slovak Episcopal Conference, together with a government delegation, repaid the Pope’s visit. In this regard we are presenting a brief reflection by the spokesman of the Slovak bishops, Msgr. Marian Gavenda . Alongside Slovakia, another country close to EU membership (2007) is Bulgaria: her hopes and fears are described for us by EMANUELE Patashev, general secretary of Caritas-Bulgaria . SlovaKia. “In the light of Slovakia’s imminent entry into the European Union (on 1st May), it is becoming increasingly clear that this historic event will shape the country’s development in the field of morals, respect for the human person, the family, culture and national and local traditions. It is in this context that the recent pilgrimage to the chair of Peter should be read. It’s an historical and prophetic event for the Slovak Church and not only for it. Though the emotions that accompanied the Pope’s visit in September 2003 have dimmed, the memory of it remains alive in the Slovak Church, whose pastoral ministry is having to tackle all those tendencies that wish to sideline the Church and the faithful from public life and block the dialogue between society and Church. The message of Saints Cyril and Methodius, whom the Pope recalled on their feast day, 14 February, is now more relevant than ever: “The testimony of these two great apostles of the Slavs represents – said the Pope – a strong appeal to rediscover the roots of the European identity of your people, roots that you share with the other nations of the continent”. By their preaching and apostolate, these saints linked the Slav lands to the birth of Western Europe. In Slovak history the return to the tradition of Cyril and Methodius has always been a sign of a new spring in the cultural and missionary field. Let’s hope that this pilgrimage and our country’s forthcoming entry into the EU will be a sign of a new age”. Bulgaria. As a country aspiring to entry into the EU, Bulgaria has made great progress in development, but, according to the experts, there still remains a lot to be done. Bulgaria is in ninth place among the 27 states in a state of transition towards democratic processes, but according to the human development index defined by the UN Development Programme it is in 62nd place (Croatia is in 48th place and Slovenia in 29th). The average Bulgarian citizen, according to the statistics, spends half of his income on food and says he is very worried by unemployment, which has risen to 60% in some rural areas. People fear the rigidity of the labour market, the inefficient social services, and the lack of social security programmes. “The elderly and handicapped children are the groups most at risk”, says Emanuele Patashev, general secretary of Caritas-Bulgaria. “Unfortunately the healthcare system works very badly and the elderly find themselves isolated from society without being able to pay for the necessary treatment and medicines with pensions of around 60 euros per month”, adds Patashev. “The other group at risk is that of handicapped children, because they were locked away in specialized schools and centres during the Communist period. Efforts are being made to re-integrate them with other children in the centres run by Caritas. In this way they have more contacts with the real world and with children of their own age groups”. The other Catholic charitable organization in Bulgaria, which helps the poor without any ethnic or religious distinctions, is the CRS (Catholic Relief Services), a member of Caritas Internazionalis. Based at the North American Bishops’ Conference, this organization works a great deal in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe. Its main objective is education, “key to prosperity and development”. Its collaboration with Caritas Bulgaria consists also in this. When Bulgaria eventually becomes a member of the EU, the CRS will cease its work in the country. At the meeting of the presidents of the Episcopal Conferences of South-East Europe held in Belgrade from 20 to 22 February on the theme “Poverty as a new challenge for the Church”, the guests included Cardinal McCarrick, archbishop of Washington, president of the Commission for aid to Central and Eastern Europe. During his third visit to Bulgaria he said: “The Balkans are a beautiful area, but extremely complicated by the presence of so many different ethnic groups”. The recipe for peace, in the cardinal’s view, is to act in such a way “that everyone may work together because difficulties, violence and discrimination are often born from unresolved problems”.