The information on the salaries of teachers of religion published by the Spanish daily “El Paìs” is “a grave calumny” and “aimed, as part of the current campaign being waged against religion at school, at discrediting the Church and confusing public opinion with falsehoods”. So says the secretariat of the episcopal Commission for teaching and catechesis, which contests an article published on 9 December, in which the Church is accused of withholding 6,623 million pesetas that the Ministry of Education had given to the bishops for the payment of teachers of religions, who remained without remuneration for four months in 1998. “All the dioceses have always allocated the total sum that the Ministry of Education transferred for the payment of the stipends of teachers of religion says the statement Neither the Episcopal Conference, nor the dioceses siphoned off sums of the funding they received from the State for ends other than the remuneration of teachers”. In January 1999, explains the secretariat, the Ministry of Education transferred to the Episcopal Conference “the amount corresponding to the last month of 1998. From January 1999 the Ministry of Education assumed direct responsibility for the payment of teachers of religion”. The Episcopal Conference and the dioceses fulfilled their obligations to distribute state funds to teachers of religion.
