Portugal: in tune with peopleAt a recent Conference on “Emerging trends in the evangelization of globalized and secularized Europe”, attended also by Vienna Archbishop, cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Lisbon cardinal, José Policarpo said that “a Church that gives too rigid and canonical answers to the believers’ fears, losing its own sensibility, runs the risks being out of touch.” The initiative proposed an open dialogue with the clergy of the Portuguese capital: cardinal Policarpo highlighted the positive signals in the dioceses’ overall situation: “The number of Christians in the city of Lisbon who pray and attends mass during the week is increasing: there have been also requests for a continuous Eucharistic adoration”. “Furthermore, there is a strong signal of hope from the participation of youngsters, that we are often pessimistic about, who pose wonderful examples of faith: we must be able to respond to all these needs and requests” – the Portuguese Patriarch stressed. On the other hand, cardinal Schönborn realized that “in a Europe that is still strongly featured by Christian tradition, the faithful are a minority while the number of Catholics in the future is excepted to drop”. “During this International Conference for a new evangelization (Icne) we realized that faith is a minority: we are politically a minority at a national and European level; this is true both among youngsters and in culture, we must however believe in the great interest that our religious beliefs still hold”. Luxemburg: ethical values and new generationsIn Luxemburg, most of the population deems paramount dissemination of ethical values to children and youngsters: this is what emerged from a survey carried out in Luxembourg on religion and ethical values lessons. The results of the study carried out by Sesopi – Centre Intercommunautaire Tns Ilres commissioned by the Archdiocese, on October 30 revealed that 96% of the respondents consider the transfer of these values important and 93% think that moral, religious and philosophical issues should be addressed in school. There is a broad consent (87%) on the fact that parents and children have the right to choose between classes on religion and the so called “cours d’éducation morale et sociale”, as an alternative to religion. The results are in line with the percentage of applications to religion/ethical classes disclosed by the Ministry of Education in Luxemburg in the last school year. An important data is the high satisfaction rate (84%) of parents on the classes their children were attending. Furthermore, parents pinpointed the following didactical issues as important for the future: coexistence in a multicultural and multi religious society (86%); youngsters’ personal development (78%); issues on environment, and international solidarity (76%); knowledge on faith traditions and possible ways to live faith (67%). England: for young prisonersThe possibility to concentrate on something positive to relieve, at least temporarily, from the hard prison life, a job which can offer a crime-free life, a place where to learn to become parents leaving the past behind. Are some of the opportunities offered by England’s “Prisoners’ Education Trust”, set up in 1990, which guarantees funds to more than 2300 prisoners a year in order to help them study more than 150 subjects. The organization is forced to turn down the same number due to a lack in funding. Now through the “Young Offender Institutions” project the Prisoners’ Trust is providing information to young offenders on correspondence courses, on how to receive self-finance funding and receive help in their studies. A course has also been created to enable offenders who were successful in their studies to help their colleagues do the same. The project is currently running in four juvenile prisons and twelve offenders are helping their prison-mates to follow correspondence courses.
