CHURCHES IN BRIEF
CCEE: in Warsaw discussion on vocations European bishops voiced their concern over the drop in vocations in Europe and over decreased numbers of Christian faithful across the continent. There emerges the awareness of a renewal of Christ proclamation, especially to the youth. “How can we talk of vocation to someone who doesn’t know Christ? Only after having proclaimed Christ can we propose a path to follow”. Fr Michel Remery, vice-Secretary General of European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE) presented to SIR Europe the theme of the meeting of bishops and leaders of vocational care of Bishops’ Conferences and Religious Congregations, begun July 3rd in Warsaw, ongoing until July 6. “Christ-centric education at the service of vocations today” is the title of the meeting during which will be compared various paths of education and formation undertaken in several Countries that include Poland, France, Portugal and England. Participants will also broach the theme of “God’s calling today” and the “challenges of a secularized society”. “Each kind of formation carried out for vocational purposes should place Christ at the centre. It’s meaningless to speak of vocation without referring to Christ. The calling comes not from us. The calling comes from Christ”. Germany: Caritas, an old age home in MühldorfThe new Caritas Hospital of the Holy Spirit of Mühldorf, in Bavaria, is the result of a joint project of the diocesan Caritas of Munich-Freising and the “Heilig-Geist-Hospital Foundation”, administered by Mühldorf’s town council. The hospital was erected on the site of an old ex-Caritas old age home, and it will be operative as of the month of August. The first guests will be the current 45 patients of the structure that will shut down. During the presentation to the press, the mayor Marianne Zollner described the new old age home as a “cornerstone in the lives of the old people of Mühldorf”. It’s a unique cooperation between two very different organizations, a local administration and Caritas: the separate management of two rehabilitation centres led to the creation of a modern old age home. It is located near the city centre and offers great advantages to old people that could take part in the social and cultural life of Mühldorf. The new Hospital of Holy Spirit-Caritas offers individual care to old people and therefore a better quality of life in old age. Once it’s fully operative, it will have 112 beds, most of which in single rooms. It also offers support to couples and several double-bed rooms. The four-storey hospital is designed as a “group home” with large halls and several dining rooms, so that the experience of loneliness may be countered through socialization. In cooperation with the Hospice Association Mühldorf the new structure will provide assistance to terminal patients, with a special focus on palliative treatments. Spain: religious communication coursesThe bishops’ Commission for Social Communication (CEMS) of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference has promoted in conjunction with CONFER (Spanish Conference of Religious), two summer courses at the Pontifical University of Salamanca (UPSA), addressed to leaders and collaborators of religious or diocesan delegations, as well as to teachers, educators and catechists. The first course – held June 30 through July 2nd – was centered on “Media Training for religious communication”. The second focused on “Corporate Communication in multimedia environments”, and was held July 2-4. Each course envisaged morning and afternoon classes, held by ten professors of the Pontifical University of Salamanca, which is also the seat of the courses. There is also another initiative that features cooperation of CEMS with the Pontifical University of Salamanca and the Fundación Amparo del Moral: a course to obtain a qualification as expert in social communication, addressed in particular to priests, seminarians and to all those who are interested in religious communication. Info: http://www.upsa.es. Czech Republic: solutions for unemployment The Catholic Church is actively cooperating to the resolution of the problem of unemployment in the poorest areas of the Czech Republic, mainly through support to employment activity, cooperation in the field of social enterprises and sustainability of new job opportunities. The diocese of Litomerice has responded to the invitation of the Register and of the Agency for Social Integration with the creation of dozens of job opportunities, especially in the field of the management of church property. According to the general vicar of Litomerice, Stanislav Pribyl, the diocese intends to be seen as a stable employer, in compliance with “ethical principles and Christian values”. He believes that the activities that fulfil these needs represent “the priority and mission that will be more easy to implement in the light of the process of the Church-State agreement and reconciliation on church property and the preparation of a bill on social enterprises”. The new jobs are planned to be available as of 2015.
