Comece: blessings to the EP on May 11″A sign of good partnership of the European Parliament with Church representatives in Brussels, expressed in art. 17 of the new Treaty on the Functioning of the EU”: thus stated father Piotr Mazurkiewicz, Secretary General of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE), commenting on the invitation of MEPs from different political groups. Indeed, on the eve of the campaign for European elections (June 4-7), the bishops of COMECE have been asked to bless European Parliament offices. The blessing ceremony will take place next May 11, on the occasion of the meeting of the President of European Institutions with the representatives of Church and faith communities, to be held that same say at the European Commission. While thanking MEPs for their invitation, COMECE made also known that the ceremony will close with an ecumenical celebration in the EP meditation hall. For the occasion prayers will be recited asking for a good turnout at the polls and a good conduction of the elections. Austria: silent march for Iraqi Christians Each year during the period of Lent Austria’s chapter of Christian Solidarity International organizes a silent march for persecuted Christians, and every year a religious representative from a Country deserving attention is invited as special guest. The march of 2009, held a few days ago, was attended by some 800 people who finally gathered in St. Stephen’s Cathedral in the centre of Vienna. Msgr. Louis Sako, Caldean Archbishop of Kirkuk, was invited to bring his testimony of faith. Msgr. Sako voiced the “tragedy” of Iraqi Christians. Two thirds of the Christian population of Iraq have left the Country, some 750 Christians were killed, reported the Bishop, who pointed out that the situation of the Christian community hasn’t changed after the fall of the regime. “We previously enjoyed safety without freedom, now it’s the other way around”. The bishops said that the situation has improved in Baghdad and in Bassora but serious difficulties are being experienced in Mosul due to the presence of the Wahabi radical fringes, whose theological current in Saudi Arabia is the State’s predominant ideology. “Fundamentalists want to establish an Islamic state”, he declared, “and they view Christians as foreigners”. In recalling that the presence of the Christian community in Iraq dates back to two thousand years ago, Msgr. Sako complained that Christians’ rights are infringed, while strong emigration narrowed down their numbers leading to the loss of part of the Country’s culture and history. He also suggested that the best support to Iraqi Christians could be granted through personal visits, by realising in person in what conditions they live in. Participants in the march included the Cardinal of Wien, archbishop Christoph Schönborn, father Ra’ad Washan Sawa who leads the Caldean Catholic community in Austria, along with other Austrian and Iraqi religious dignitaries. Scotland: seminarians to transfer to Rome”The main reason for the closing of Scotus College, the seminary in Glasgow, is not the low number of students, but the difficulty of finding staff”, said Peter Kearney, spokesman of the Scottish Bishops’ Conference, explaining the decision taken by the bishops this week to concentrate the training of future priests in the seminary in Rome, the Pontifical Scots College. So the nine seminarians who until now have been studying at Scotus College in Glasgow, together with the eleven already in Rome, will study in the historic seventeenth-century building in the eternal city from the 2009-2010 academic year on. In this way they will be able to benefit from the spiritual, cultural and academic opportunities of the Pontifical Universities and the other university institutions at the heart of the Church. “It’s a sad decision, but with our priests very busily involved in the parishes because there are so few of them, given that vocations are in decline, it’s difficult to find teachers for the seminary in Glasgow”, says the spokesman. “By concentrating everything in Rome we won’t need two rectors, two assistant rectors and a doubling of staff; besides the building in Rome is better than the one in Glasgow”. The training of priests was also suspended, five years ago, at the Scots College in Salamanca, in Spain, a building that is still used for courses and education. “The Spanish seminary was donated by the king of Spain to the Catholic Church 250 years ago and we don’t have the right to sell it. It’s possible it may be re-used as a seminary in future”, adds Kearney. In the press release in which they announce the closing of the seminary, the Bishops thank all those who have worked so hard to keep it open and don’t exclude its possible re-opening in future, if the number of seminarians were to increase.
