Portugal: a petition against divorce legislation In relation to upcoming parliamentary debate, the Family Forum launched a public petition on Citizenship – Families -Marriage to protest against the draft-bill on divorce submitted by the Socialist Party. The document opposes a legislative document aimed at introducing “the supremacy of statism and penal code as the solution to all ills, along with the institutionalization of children and irresponsible personal relations and legal contracts”. “It’s a question of citizenship and social organization: families are the basic cell of society and marriage is the institution which best protects individuals, their emotional relations and belongings. In it children are generated, and natality, on which society’s development depends, should be granted with subsidies. It requires policies favoring the couple’s stability”. According to the petition, “the draft-law is aimed at eliminating the inner responsibilities of marriage, while the violation of family duties isn’t punished. For example, those who hit their wives can use it as a motivation for divorce (art. 1781, paragraph d). In this framework, the logic of irresponsibility and laxity prevails”. Furthermore, “a final settlement of accounts between spouses is established (art. 1676), which benefits economic interests and utilitarianism, completely destroying the concept and feeling of life-unity and mutual intents”. The petition finally underlines the perversity “of a legislative approach whereby divorce is fomented and facilitated harming children and the socially and economically weaker spouse. In full awareness of the harmful effects of broken-up families, the draft-bill solves the problem by criminalizing the behavior of absent fathers. This is a completely legal transformation of the family establishment”. Germany: late abortion, brutal murderLate abortions “are brutal forms of murder”. The statement was pronounced by Msgr. Robert Zollitsch, President of Germany’s Bishops Conference (Dbk), in a public interview published the past few days by the daily “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”. In the interview the archbishop of Friburg reiterated the Church’s firm condemnation of late abortions. He explained that “it’s unacceptable for individuals to decide which disabilities enable people to live or to die”. According to Monsignor Zollitsch, “it’s no longer advisable to opt for abortion in the case of the child’s envisaged disabilities”. Msgr. Zollitsch said that a “small step forward was taken” with the draft-law submitted by the Union (Cdu/Csu) envisaging limiting pregnancy interruptions carried out after the 23rd week through a series of measures. He equally underlined the common stands adopted by the Green party as regards ethical questions, such as legislation on stem cells or environmental protection. The bishop expressed his criticism of biofuels since these “strip people of their nourishment”. Ireland: Catholic schools and minoritiesCatholic schools don’t discriminate and don’t exclude foreigners or difficult pupils. This was the conclusion of a survey conducted by Ireland’s Education Ministry in response to the claims by teachers and politicians accusing Church-run school establishments to be “elitist environments which reject foreigners and poor children”. Polemics sparked off past September, after a few foreign children were excluded from a school in Dublin. On that occasion, politicians and school-union members accused the Church of implementing “educational apartheid”. The Church declared that the lack of places was caused by governmental mismanagement, by politicians and members of the teachers’ union, who hadn’t envisaged an increased number of foreign families. The lack of places, according to the Church, was due to organizational oversights on the part of the government, which had not foreseen the arrival of a large number of foreign families. It now appears, from the study, that “the registration, in Catholic elementary and higher schools, of foreign students, children of gypsies and with difficulties is higher than average and in some cases twice the number of those in non Catholic schools in the same area.” Msgr. Dan O’Connor, Secretary General of the “Association for the Management of Catholic Elementary Schools”, has declared that “this recent study proves that Catholic Schools are always in the avant garde with respect to the education of minorities. The study demonstrates what we have been saying for years, that Catholic schools, while maintaining their ethos, have always kept their doors open to foreign students and those with special difficulties” said the Secretary General.
