Bishop Walter Mixa of Eichstätt has denounced any reduction of religious lessons in elementary schools in Bavaria. He expressed his view in a pastoral letter for Lent, read out in parish churches during mass on Sunday, 7 March. “We Christians cannot accept the fact of religious lessons being reduced in Bavarian schools, characterized by Christian values recognized by the Constitution”, declared Msgr. Mixa. Emphasizing the “extremely decisive” role of kindergartens and schools “for human and religious formation”, the bishop observes: “When politicians lament on the one hand the loss of values in society, we need to ask ourselves why on the other they want to reduce religious education in schools, just in a phase so important in psychological terms”. The provision attacked by the bishop involves the elimination of one hour per week in the third and fourth year of elementary school, with the number of hours of religious education thus being reduced from three to two per week. The measure of the Bavarian government, aimed at cutting costs, has already been criticized by church circles in Bavaria: Cardinal Friedrich Wetter, archbishop of Munich and Freising, has recently attacked the provision too.
