CHURCHES IN BRIEF
Spain: preparing for marriage The dioceses of Galicia, in Spain, jointly promote marriage and family preparation courses (CFMF) due to begin the coming months. The initiative will prompt a reflection on the vocation to love of marriage and on its Christian sacredness. It is meant to address the question of love from an integral perspective of the human person, in the light of the faith. Delving into the truth of love is therefore the overall purpose of the course for couples, priests, families and family pastoral care workers. The vocation to love will be addressed in each meeting, thereby prompting in-depth understanding of the phrase contained in the encyclical “Gaudium et Spes”: “man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself”. The CFMF project has been developed in Galicia for Galicia, the organizers explained, adding that all families and couples who wish to participate are facilitated by its timetable, frequency, care of the children, and by the geographic vicinity to all dioceses in Galicia. The course will focus on the testimony of experience, not on theoretic content. “CFMF wishes to provide concrete help for the renewal of the Pastoral Care of the Family in Galicia, and especially for the families. To make families stronger in their vocation, helping them to live the happiness that God wants for each of their members, to ensure that they may successfully overcome the challenges to live the greatness and the beauty of the vocation they have been called to, is the ultimate meaning and mission of this course”. Italy: Social Weeks on the family and the future “The family, hope and future of Italian society” is the title of the 47th Social Week of Italian Catholics (September 12-15), that opened on September 12 in Turin with the greetings of the authorities and the prolusion by Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI). “Overcoming ideologies and prejudice”, recognizing that “the family is not a Catholic ‘problem’, it is a resource for us all” is the invitation of the President of the organizing scientific committee, the archbishop of Cagliari Arrigo Miglio, who underlined that “recognising the primacy of the family doesn’t mean to ignore, nor to trample over the rights and duties” pertaining to other forms of cohabitation. “Listening, debating and proposing” are the three pillars of the Social Week, aimed at “rediscovering the architecture of the family”, as underlined by the spokesperson of CEI Secretariat Monsignor Domenico Pompili. First of all, he underlined, “to listen to the family and its transformations”; then “to interpret not by separate segments but through an integral understanding of the family”; finally, to develop “concrete proposals for the family in the social and economic fields, as it would be myopic to relegate the family in the private sphere”. Over 1300 registered participants – over 1000 lay people and 90 bishops – are already taking part in the meetings. Debated themes include: educational mission and alliances, relationship between young people and work, fiscal issues, welfare, migrant families. Czech Republic: Church-State Concordat The press office of the Czech Bishops’ Conference published a list of answers to the most frequent questions regarding the concordat on Church property and the State, with the purpose of avoiding misunderstandings and present the facts as they are. At the beginning of September, the President of the Czech Republic Milos Zeman, mentioned the possibility for a revision of the law for an agreement on property that came into force this year, especially as regards financial compensation. According to the general secretary of the Bishops’ Conference Tomás Holub, “the Catholic Church can negotiate with the new political representative of the next anticipated political elections the question of the Church’s position in our society”. “It is necessary to reach an agreement on the position of the Church in a liberal and democratic society. These are the grounds on which all concrete measures should be built. We are presently unable to envisage future developments”. The Catholic Church thus continues her information campaign addressed to all citizens, to explain the fundamental rules and the consequences of the law regulating the concordat on property and the financing of the Church, which should gradually bring to the economic independence from the State by 2043.
