Denmark, Ireland, Poland

Denmark: Religious Committee Affairs without religions The request of the Council of Churches of Denmark to carry out a public consultation with Manu Saaren, at the helm of the ministry for childhood, gender equality, integration and social affairs, in conjunction with the Commission for Religious Affairs has been received. The meeting was held past December 21. The purpose of the request was to question the minister’s choice on the composition of the Committee for Religious Affairs appointed at the beginning of January, charged with reviewing the current legislation on religious communities different from the National Church to draw up a consistent regulatory framework. No religious leader is represented in the Committee. Anders Gadegaard, president of the Council of Danish Churches had proposed, in a letter of past January 14, that five representatives of religious communities recognized in Denmark be “rightfully” included (representing the Muslim community, the Catholic Church, the free churches, as well as the Buddhist and the Jewish communities). When in the recent past a similar governmental commission worked on the legislation on the national (Lutheran) Church, representatives were part of the Committee: “Why doesn’t the same thing happen for other faiths?” Gadegaard wrote, pointing out that “in the board of the Committee the Minister for equality discriminates against religious communities that are not the National Church of Denmark”. During the consultation Minister Saaren pointed out that it would have been difficult to ensure the representativeness of 100 religious communities officially recognised in Denmark, he assured that the members appointed by the committee are “extremely competent” and that the dialogue with religious communities “will be constant”. Ireland: “Catholic Schools called to serve” “Catholic schools are called to serve all students, especially the poor and most disadvantaged of society”. “We must always be on the lookout for those who are being left behind or neglected in any way in our Catholic education system”, cautioned Monsignor Eamon Martin, archbishop of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland, in the homily delivered Sunday January 25, in the church of Saint Malachia in Armagh. Referring to the theme of the Week in Catholic Schools for the year 2015: “Catholic Schools: called to serve”, Msgr. Martin guarded against an educational system that leaves “too many of our young people, particularly the socially disadvantaged, leave without meaningful qualifications or opportunities”, where “the responsibility for children from the most deprived backgrounds, minority ethnic communities or for those with the greatest educational needs seems to fall unevenly on the shoulders of only some of our post-primary schools”. The prelate voiced his concern over the fact that two thirds of young people in Northern Ireland from socially disadvantaged backgrounds are lagging behind in English and Maths. Less than 20% of boys from socially disadvantaged background are achieving the mimum standards. “Too many of our young people are not making the transition to education, employment or training beyond the age of 16 and are ending up marginalised and often forgotten by the system”. Poland: web portal, a prayer for sick children “Assaulting the skies” (www.szturmujemyniebo.pl) is the new Polish web portal where the parents of sick children can ask for prayer to be recited for their children. The idea was born, as the father of young Dominik explained, “because the time comes when there is no longer a yearning to pray”. This is why it is necessary that someone else with an open heart prays for my son every day”. “Angels”, namely the volunteers who declared their commitment of prayer, respond to the requests for prayer sent via email or with text messages. The “angels” recite the Our Father 7 times a day and Hail Mary 3 times for each sick child. Once a month promoters assure a special liturgy celebrated for sick children, accompanied by the novena to Saint Dominic Savio, identified as the Patron Saint of the initiative. The project coordinators said they want to “reach out to hospitals, healthcare centres, parishes, and all those places where sick children are in dire need of prayer. On the website are already presented the first “results”: namely, the letters of parents who asked for prayers and who share the developments of their children’s health conditions, the outcomes of medical examinations. Some of them thanked the “angels” for their prayer that helped their child at a time of difficulty or in the healing process.