England: a Mass for immigrants Like each year, on May 5, national English holiday and feast of Saint Joseph the Worker for the Catholic Church, a Mass for Immigrants will be celebrated in Westminster’s Abbey by Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor, archbishop of Westminster and Primate of England and Wales, by the archbishop of Southwark Msgr. Kevin McDonald together with the archbishop of Brentwood Msgr. Tom McMaho. Mass will be said in different languages and will begin with a procession of parishes and religious groups. London is a rapidly-expanding city and the image of the Catholic Church changed with the arrival of millions of foreigners. In line with the social doctrine of the Church, Catholic bishops have always been fighting for the respect of immigrants’ rights, even illegal ones, who amount to half-a-million in the United Kingdom. In 2006, Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor launched the proposal of granting the right of permanent residence permit to those whose visa expired but have been living in Great Britain for at least four years, and who have had a working permit for two years. The Cardinal’s proposal stimulated the “Strangers into citizens” movement, an alliance of Churches, associations and local communities who vouch for the recognition of this illegal minority both in documents and within the social and economic life of the Country.Ireland: peace is most valued by CatholicsAccording to a research conducted by scholars of the Queen’s University in Belfast, whose results have been published in the latest issue of the Catholic weekly “The Universe”, Catholics have been capable of making the most of the opportunities offered by the new peace in Northern Ireland. Ten years after the signing of the Good Friday agreement, Catholics, who are fewer than Protestants, have been capable of grasping the best working opportunities, completing their University degrees, studying for a longer time and reducing poverty. The middle class collected the fruits of peace more than others. Richard English, in charge of the research, explained, “we cannot speak about winners and losers. However, the Catholic community was able to benefit from the advantages of the new peace in a more uniform manner compared to Protestants”. According to Mr. English, “different sections of society reacted to the change brought about by peace in different ways. As relates to education and job opportunities less advantaged groups of the Protestant community didn’t gain the same results of corresponding groups in the Catholic Community”. The research shows that since the Good Friday agreement the number of unemployed Catholics dropped from 12% to less than 6%. While 13% of Protestants with high-school diplomas entered college, amounting to an 5% increase over the past five years, 20% of Catholics in the same age group entered college, representing a 6% increase. Catholic high-school students also registered progress.Spain: from the Salesians to the Olympics in BeijingWhile rallies in Tibet’s support continue, creating obstacles along the route of the Olympic torch, strictly sports-related preparations for the most important world competition are under way. Qualifying events of athletes representing their native Countries at the Games are currently being held throughout the world. Olympic qualification was achieved by Merche Peris, ex-student of the Salesian Institute “San Juan Bosco” in Valencia, Spain. The news was given by Spain’s Salesians who added that “the athlete was awarded the gold medal in Spain’s 100 meter backstroke swimming preliminaries with a time of 1.01.32, 28 tenths of a second less than the olympic record. With her victory at the Son Hugo sports centre in Palma de Majorca, Merche established also Spain’s new backstroke record.
