Germany: the resignations of the card. LehmannWith a personal letter sent yesterday to the German bishops and disclosed today, the president of the Dbk, card. Karl Lehmann, announced his resignation from his position and invited the bishops to appoint a new president at the next spring plenary meeting, due in Würzburg from 11th to 15th February. Lehmann, who had been President of the Dbk for 20 years, had already voiced his intention before and had lately confirmed it because of health problems. “The time of taking such a step is always somehow inappropriate. But it makes sense somehow”, states Lehmann, who mentions the recent turnovers in the dioceses of Munich and Frisingen, Limburg and Spira, because of the “inescapable generational turnover”. Lehmann ensured he is willing to serve his diocese again (Mainz) and the Bishops Conference, with special reference to the relations with the Christian Churches. “I have at heart the difficult situation of ecumenism”, he added. The deputy president of the Dbk, mgr. Heinrich Mussinghoff, thanked Lehmann and stressed his “extensive theological expertise, spiritual openness, prudence, and great ability to integrate and unite”.Spain: against education to citizenshipIn the course of a Conference on “education to citizenship”, introduced by Premier Zapatero’s government, Cardinal Antonio Cañizares, archbishop of Toledo and vice-President of Spain’s Bishops Conference, recalled that the rejection of this school subject is not “a question of religious confession, but of humanity”. The statement was reported by the International news agency Fides, which pointed out that the Cardinal defended the unalienable right of parents to the free choice of the moral and religious education of their children. The Cardinal expressed the will “to defend fundamental rights against the imposition of a specific conception of man and morals”. This defense “is the expression of a single view that is unrelated to the claims made by parties and is not intended to criticize the Government”. The archbishop of Toledo then added that the moral formation of students “is not within the province of the State”. It is however “an infringement” of the rights of parents, educational centres and teachers. Cardinal Cañizares maintains that the State is transmitting “a concept of man inspired by radical laicism, which leaves no space for God”. This is a moral formation that Christians cannot accept since it goes against their own faith. To this regard, he recalled that 80% of parents requested that their children follow a class on religion. As relates to the integration in other European Countries of a school subject similar to the one proposed in Spain, the archbishop of Toledo affirmed that what has been happening in Spain has happened in no other Country. The Cardinal pointed out that in other Countries there are courses on fundamental rights, on the Constitution, and even on urbanization, but nobody expects to form a “personal identity”. Lastly, he claimed that not only the Catholic Church but also other religious confessions in Spain are against education to citizenship.Scotland: protecting missionaries in KenyaCardinal Keith O’Brien, archbishop of Saint Andrews and Edinburgh, asked Scottish politicians to do their utmost to protect Scottish missionaries in Kenya. “I hope that leaders may be persuaded to ask local populations to cease hostilities and allow Kenya to return to be the peaceful land we have always known”, the Cardinal told the Catholic weekly “The Universe”. Cardinal O’Brien intervened after having received a fax from “St.Mary’s Convent” in Kericho, where a group of Scottish nuns were kept prisoners with fifteen-hundred men, women and children affected by Aids, forced to leave their homes for the attacks of gangs of men brandishing machetes. In her fax, sister Loyola Kelly, from the order of the Immaculate Conception, told the Cardinal that the Red Cross could not reach the convent since the roads were interrupted and the police were raging against men, women and children. “I went to Rwanda in January 2004 and I personally witnessed the horrors of the genocide”, the Cardinal declared. “My heart is close to these poor people trapped in Kenya’s townships. I’m sure that all men of good will in Scotland share my same sorrow for these innocent ones. We all pray that the conflict may end soon”. The Cardinal also sent a message of solidarity to the Bishops Conference in Kenya, promising he will pray for the bishops in the Country.
