Great Britain: churches open for the homelessHundreds of homeless people have been seeking shelter in churches in recent days to protect themselves from the severe winter weather – the worst in thirty years – that has struck the UK. Catholic charities, which are already under pressure because of the increasing number of people who have lost their jobs as a result of the recession, are being stretched to the limit and are having difficulty in coping with the growing demand for assistance. “The Passage”, the shelter close to the Catholic Westminster Cathedral in London, has had to have recourse to emergency measures to provide a place to sleep for some sixty homeless people each night. “We are keeping the weather forecasts under control and, if temperatures sink below zero, we increase our capacity because it’s a question of saving human lives”, explained the director of The Passage, Mick Clarke. Christian churches, throughout the country, have opened their doors to the homeless and “Housing Justice”, a charity specifically devoted to helping the homeless, has asked for new volunteers to participate in the venture. “We could double our capacity to provide shelter if other churches were to join with us in this scheme”, said Sally Leigh, coordinator of “Housing Justice” for London. The churches that have opened their doors to the homeless include Our Lady Help of Christians in Kentish Town, North London. “We have fourteen homeless”, explained the parish priest Fr. Tom Forde, “There are seven volunteers in the evening, who are substituted by another four during the night and another seven in the morning”.Scotland: battle against assisted suicide”We have challenged the law on assisted suicide, with a letter to the President of the Scottish Parliament, to examine whether the new bill [on assisted suicide] is in conflict with the European Convention on Human Rights”, says Gordon MacDonald, spokesman of the “Care not Killing Alliance”, a charity of the Pro-Life Movement supported by the Catholic Church. MacDonald, in a briefing to SIR Europe, has explained the latest initiative to stop the legalization of assisted suicide in Scotland. The bill, proposed by Margo MacDonald, an independent Member of the Scottish Parliament who suffers from Parkinson’s disease and wants to obtain from the law permission to be allowed to die, will be published on the website of the Scottish Parliament this week. The president of the SP will then have to decide whether the proposed law is compatible with European legislation on human rights. “We think that the Parliament will discuss and vote on the bill before the end of June. Almost certainly the new legislation will be rejected because the political will is opposed to assisted suicide”, explains MacDonald. Two opinion polls have however produced opposite results on this question. “The response of interviewees – comments MacDonald – often depends on the way the question is formulated. It is difficult to know what the Scots really think of the matter. I think there’s a lot of ignorance about it. Many stop at the initial feeling of sympathy and compassion for the pain of the suffering and don’t analyse the consequences of any legalization of assisted suicide”. Those who don’t oppose assisted suicide, according to MacDonald, include, it seems, the media that have run advertisements favourable to its legalization. As far as Great Britain is concerned, on the other hand, final approval of the guidelines on assisted suicide prepared by the UK Ministry of Health, on which a public consultation has been opened in recent months, is expected in mid-February. “If the final version of the guidelines is the same as that proposed to the public during the consultation, that would mean it would be automatic for a family member to be authorized to help a handicapped person or someone terminally ill to go to the Swiss clinic “Dignitas” to die. Only the relations of healthy persons would be subject to any criminal prosecutions. That’s an aberrant form of discrimination”, comments Alistair Thompson spokesman of the “Care not Killing Alliance” for Great Britain.Germany: “ethical” hopes for the Davos ForumSocial justice and the fight against hunger and poverty can “combat terrorism and war in a more effective way than any military action”, said the Most Rev. Robert Zollitsch, Archbishop of Freiburg and President of the German Bishops’ Conference on 11 January, speaking in Karlsruhe during the meeting organized by the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK). “We need solidarity and justice, at the national and global level”, added Zollitsch, expressing the hope that “this global perspective would triumph also at Davos”, at the World Economic Forum scheduled from 27 to 31 January. The archbishop underlined the need to consider not just the economic aspects but also to aim at “a global alliance for ethical values”. “We need – he said – an ethical outlook, a reliable ethical system to navigate the highways of globalization. The laws of the market, alone, lead to a blind alley or a vicious circle in which we move but without ever progressing. We need people who are able not only to read balance sheets, but who also recognize the need for social responsibility and are prepared to assume responsibility for it”, he added because “globalization requires that we abandon selfishness and focus our attention on others and on everything”.
