CHURCHES IN BRIEF
Portugal: survival of the Christian press The Christian press association (AIC) is committed in the development of "new strategies" to ensure the release of diocesan publications despite the economic crisis and the digital revolution. At the end of the General Assembly, that brought some 40 people to convene in Fatima, AIC president, canonical António Salvador dos Santos, declared: "There should be effective complementarity between adopted solutions and the new technologies". "In a situation of recession marked by lower earnings from publicity, in a realm of communication where digital technology plays an ever more important role, each newspaper and magazine must be profit-bearing and self-sufficient". For the director of the national Secretariat of Church Social Communication (SNCS), don João Aguiar, printed publications will survive provided they "diversify content and language, learning to gradually migrate to different platforms, taking different forms and shapes". For the safeguard of Christian magazines, the General Assembly highlighted the need to focus on the "professional skills of Catholic journalists", since "considering the specific area of religious communication, this measure will raise the general quality of Christian bodies enabling to best convey the contents to our readership", concluded don Aguiar.England: no to cuts to childcare Aids In a joint release, the archbishop Peter Smith, deputy president of the Bishops Conference of England and Wales, and the new archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, took position against the British government’s decision to prevent childcare Aids rising by the inflation rate, which they would cap at 1%. "Right now, the cost of childcare is increasing at the same rate as the inflation rate, which is 2.2%", explains Liam Allmark, spokesman for Csan (Caritas Social Action), the Catholic Church organisation that brings together all charities working in social areas. "But the government wants such rise to be capped at 1%. We would like the House of Lords, during next Tuesday’s voting, to ask that childcare Aids be exempted from this new measure and keep rising at the same rate as the inflation rate". "Protecting the most vulnerable members of our society is a key principle in Catholic social teachings", archbishop Smith stated in a release. "There’s no excuse for the poorer children, who sometimes have no other safety net, to be left to bear the burden of economic problems – the archbishop said – as the consequence of real cuts to welfare". The Catholic agencies too "are already facing a major rise in children’s poverty".France: meeting of Pax ChristiThe encyclical "Pacem in terris" turns 50 (11 April 1963). To celebrate the anniversary and the yearly National Day, on 16th March Pax Christi France will be promoting a study day at the Institut Catholique of Paris to offer a new "reading" of the encyclical "in tune with the current times, the world of today and tomorrow", a release explains. "Since its proclamation – the release goes on -, Pax Christi has taken inspiration from such document, especially because it clearly states the rights of every individual and of the States and because it states that conflicts should not be settled through weapons but through negotiations". "Peace – father Bernard Lalande of Pax Christi International points out – is not merely the lack of war, it is everyone’s effort". Guests will include father Alain Paillard of Pax Christi France, who will "read" the "Pacem in Terris" in connection with Benedict XVI’s message for the Day of Peace 2013; Jean-Baptiste de Foucauld, former general commissioner, who will highlight its potentials for the XXI century; José Henriquez, secretary general of Pax Christi International, who will put forward some of its key ideas to build cohabitation on real foundations of peace. Three young people will share their understanding of the encyclical and their hopes. Info: www.paxchristi.cef.fr/.
