Scotland: abortion, the politics of numbed consciencesAfter three days of meetings, last week, with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, opposition leader David Cameron and exchanges with Catholic parliamentarians, Card. Keith O’Brien, President of the Scottish Catholic Episcopal Conference asked the politicians and Catholic congregations to examine their consciences the day after the parliamentary vote on the law on embriology and abortion. O’Brien told the Westminster parliamentarians, during a mass in the crypt of House of Commons, that we are living in an age of confusion and moral challenges. He again stressed the role of individual consciences. Even though the Church recognizes that conscience is inviolable, that sad truth is that the majority of political representatives supported various attacks against human life without feeling the slightest reproach from their consciences. According to the Cardinal, the infinite distractions of modern life have numbed the consciences of Catholics and even those who consider themselves faithful to the Church consented to “the right to choose.” In a meeting with Scottish politicians in London, the cardinal said that his message was aimed at promoting life in the widest sense of the word and included an appeal to help thoses who are dying of hunger, support for the campaign against nuclear arms and a more profound awareness of the problems tied to environmental warming. The cardinal stressed the role of the Church in the political debate, saying, “We can recall the fundamental values upon which any just society must be built, values that promote the dignity of every human life , which reconfirm the necessity of supporting human life, the limits of subsidiarity and the challenge of solidarity.”Germany: seeking courageous missionariesFor the second time, the Bonifatiuswerk, a charitable organization of German Catholics, proposed a prize named after Saint Boniface. “We are looking for exemplary missionary projects in Germany”, said the Secretary General of the organization, Msgr. Georg Austen, at the prize ceremony which took place these days in Paderborn. As in its first edition, which goes back to 2006, courageous missionaries are being sought. Participation is open to parish communities, First Communion and Confirmation groups, Bible Study groups, but also single individuals. “With our prize we want to support persons within and outside the Church who announce their faith in a decisive manner.” said Austen. “The projects do not necessarily have to be costly”, he continued. “We are looking for small, intelligent projects, but also projects that are applied with perseverance.” Days dedicated to children, musicals, panels, days of meditation, cinema projects, Lent actions: these are some of the possibilities. “We will receive the proposals with joy, as varied as our faith.” The prize for missionary actions was instituted by the former Chief Editor of the Kölner Kirchenzeitung, a weekly of the Archdiocese of Cologne. A jury composed of six experts will look through and evaluate the projects they receive (in the first edition 185 were sent in). The two prospective prizes will be awarded November 9, 2008 in Berlin, with the presence of Card. Gorge Sterzinsky, during the inauguration of actions for the Diaspora. Austria: “Process 2010″, the Church looks toward the future”The Church of Styria wants to be missionary”: this is the declared objective of Msgr. Egon Kapellari, Bishop of Graz, on the occasion of the constitution of the Diocesan Council of Styria which took place these past days at the Castle of Seggauberg near Leibnitz. “Today still, the Church is an important factor in the complex of existential human culture.” “Christians bring much heart and much brain power to the daily life of our society, often inadvertantly and without receiving any thanks, in the sign of the Gospels”, Kapellari added, reconfirming the missionary vocation of the Church in Styria, “and does not turn away”, he stated in his speech on “Prozess 2010” (“Process 2010”), an initiative launched by the Church of Styria in 1998 to meet the challenges of the future of the Diocese. The encounter was also an occasion to revisit the three stages of the initiative which has brought about great changes on the organizational, financial and operational levels – in particular the integration of parishes into parish associations in which not only priests but also pastoral assistants can carry out tasks in several parishes. Among the participants of the session dedicated to the constitution of the Diocesan Council, were the Auxiliary Bishop of Graz, Msgr. Franz Lackner, il the Bishop Emeritus Msgr. Johann Weber, representatives of the presbyteral Council of Styria plus lay organizations such as Catholic Action, the Evangelical Superintendent of Sytria, Hermann Miklas as President of the Ecumenical Forum of Christian Churches and Horst Pirker, who directed a committee of control in the context of “Prozess 2010”.
