“The Lord’s Day must not become a day like any other”. That’s the warning made by the Bishops’ Conference of Belgium, reacting to the proposal of the liberal-socialist government of premier Guy Verhofstadt, which in March this year decided on a “modernization” of the regulations on retailing; the plans envisage, among other things, raising authorized Sunday openings to nine. The proposal was immediately rejected by the trades unions and by the Federation of distributors. The bishops of Belgium have now added their voice to the chorus of disapproval. In recent day they issued a communiqué in which they oppose the government’s plans and express the hope that “Sunday would remain a day of rest from work. In a society already so much marked by individualism, a limitation of the time of work is essential to permit a minimum of family contacts, a cultural life and time in which to cultivate shared recreations. To submit Sunday to economic pressure would be to the detriment of family and community life”.
