chURCHES IN BRIEF
Hungary: Nuncio, “Christian values” the basis”The presidency of the EU, which Hungary holds from 1st January, is a great challenge” for the country and “at the same time a great opportunity to make Europe and the international community understand that Hungary has the will and the character to be a leader even in difficult times”. That’s a passage from the address given in the Hungarian capital by Mgr. Juliusz Janusz, Apostolic Nuncio in Hungary and dean of the diplomatic corps accredited in Budapest. Speaking on behalf of the diplomatic corps on 11 January, the nuncio’s remarks were addressed to the President of the Hungarian Republic, Pál Schmittusz, on the occasion of the customary exchange of good wishes for the new year. Recalling the “renewal of the conditions of Hungarian society” over the last two decades, following the country’s transition from communism to democracy, Mgr. Janusz said that the international community was looking “with particular interest at how the country’s legislators intend to build its future on the basis of a new constitution”. In expressing appreciation for the repeated declarations – also during his audience with Benedict XVI on 2 December – of President Schmittusz, according to whom “the new fundamental law in Hungary ought to derive its force and legitimacy” from the fact that Stephen the Saint had wished to found the Nation “on Christian values”, the Vatican diplomat recalled the emphasis placed by the Pope on the “value of the family founded on the principles of the natural law”. It is “undoubtedly in Hungary’s interest – maintained Mgr. Janusz – that the family should recover its traditional status, in a country whose population has drastically decreased in recent years, dropping to less than ten million citizens”: hence his appreciation of the government’s measures in support of large families and women in maternity. “The Catholic Church too – he added – joins with the State in this effort by proclaiming 2011 the Year of the Family. The rebirth of the family in Hungary – he concluded – can contribute to the common good of the international Family of nations” to which “peace and prosperity” need to be assured. Portugal: CEP, schools under state monopoly risk The permanent Council of the Portuguese Bishops’ Conference (CEP) has expressed “great concern” in response to the new rules for state funding introduced by the government for private and cooperative education, speaking of “threats to democracy in the country”. At the end of a recent meeting held in Fatima, the secretary of the CEP, Mgr. Manuel Morujão declared that “the changes to education introduced by the government represent a non-democratic step backward. We continue to hope that the government authorities may open their hearts and minds to the reality of scores of schools that will be forced to close, placing thousands of teachers on the dole and causing problems of social instability”. In fact Decree no. 1324-A/2010, which is due to come into force in the present month of January, is one in which the Ministry of Education has fixed an annual subsidy of 80,080 euro, to be granted to private and cooperative schools. “These cost-cutting measures amount to some 30% of their total expenditures and will inevitably impact on alternative and quality projects, and have a particularly damaging impact on schools situated in places that offer no other educational opportunities, creating irreparable social damage”, added the spokesman of the Portuguese episcopate. Also referring to the recent pronouncement of Benedict XVI to the diplomatic corps, urging greater freedom for the educational projects of the Catholic Church, Mgr. Morujão ended by declaring that “the Pope’s speech is very clearly placed in an anti-totalitarian perspective, opposed to any attempt to impose an educational monopoly, since even in a free country contradictions to the spirit and declarations of democracy may exist. In the view of the CEP, it is the duty of the State to support the freedom of parents who wish their children to be educated according to the models and moral values that they prefer”.Spain: John Paul II new patron of WYD John Paul II, under whose pontificate World Youth Days began, has been nominated the new patron of the WYD in Madrid, following the news of his impending beatification on 14 January. Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, made the announcement in the Spanish capital in recent days, speaking to over 200 delegates of 84 countries and of 44 movements and associations throughout the world, during the preparatory meeting for the Spanish WYD. So John Paul II is added to the other patrons of WYD such as St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila. In 1985, the year in which the first WYD was held, John Paul II declared: “The whole Church must feel herself once again committed at the world level to support youth, their worries and anxieties, their yearnings and their hopes, in order to meet their expectations by communicating to them the certainty that is Christ”.
