“Where there’s God, there’s heaven” – “Almost always the bishops write pastoral letters for adults. Today I want to write one addressed to children”. That’s how Alois Kothgasser, bishop of Innsbruck, introduced the first pastoral ever to be written in Austria with the contribution of children. It was read out and distributed throughout the diocese on Sunday 23 June. The “Our Father” is the theme of the pastoral letter, proposed by seven children, who asked questions about the content of the prayer, such as: “Why does God always forgive?” or “Is God alone in heaven?”. The letter is divided into seven points, or “stations”, which explain the various passages of the Pater Noster. Apart from the bishop’s letter, the brochure distributed in churches also contains a game on the content of the text. The winners will be eligible to participate in a prize draw – the prizes include eating an ice-cream with the bishop (for ten children). Thanking the children “for having helped me to better understand the Our Father”, Kothgasser explains: “We grown-ups are adults in the faith and sometimes also a little old in our ways. When that’s the case, the faith no longer has its initial force and impetus. You children can help us to rediscover its initial inspiration”. Addressing himself to adults, the bishop of Innsbruck adds: “I am saddened to hear that there are parents who accompany their children to church by car and then come to pick them up again at the end of the service. All of us, children and adults alike he concludes can only rejoice in the faith and base our life on it if we share our anxieties, questions and hopes and if we never forget that God is and remains our ‘abba’, father”.
