England: dioceses address the economic crisis The joint wholesale purchase of gas, electricity and fuels through a centralized system that will enable costs reduction: this is the proposal put forward by the dioceses of England and Wales to face the economic crisis, as reported by English weekly “The Tablet” in an in-depth article devoted to this issue. Accordingly, a number of dioceses depend on the interests or dividends of the stocks affected by the recent market collapse. The diocese of Salford, for instance, invested over 25 million pounds – over 31 million euros – in recently plummeted stocks and property, forcing the government to bring it into public ownership. Also the diocese of Leeds invested over 17 million pounds, over 21 million euros, in stocks and property that fell by 10% at the beginning of the year. The dioceses of Plymouth and Birmingham appear to be in a better state, since they had envisaged the crisis thus shifting investments to safer areas. According to the “Tablet”, profits from dividends usually amount to 10% of the annual earnings of a diocese, while most funds come from voluntary donations such as Mass offerings and legacies. Past experience has shown that parishioners tend to preserve their generosity towards the Church also in difficult moments. However, dioceses could now find it hard to subsidize new building plans and send funds to the Bishops’ Conference that counts on these donations. Ireland: the bishops against education cuts The recent cuts to the education budget are detrimental to weak social brackets such as the children of poor families, nomads and immigrants. The data was conveyed in a report issued by the Education Commission of Ireland’s Bishops Conference and by the education department of the “Conference of Religious of Ireland”, representing a number of different religious orders that criticize the cuts envisaged by the Irish government. Bishops and religious orders voiced their concern over the government’s decision to eliminate the system providing schoolbooks to indigent school establishments; to halve the funds in support of the children of nomads that will be ensured only to the most disadvantaged brackets, and to set a limit to English language tutors thus negatively affecting newly-arrived non-English-speaking students. The bishops pointed out that the envisaged cuts thwart their hopes in having a future just like that of other students and underlined that Irish education receives less public funding than any other OECD member country, since only Greece and the Slovakian Republic invest less in education than Ireland does. “We’re asking the government to reconsider this budget”, wrote the bishops and religious orders representatives, “since our society is defined according to our approach towards the weaker population brackets”. Croatia: 50 homes for the victims of the 2004 tsunami Caritas agencies in Croatia and Germany financed reconstruction in Sri Lanka. On October 21, the archbishop of Colombo, Msgr. Oswald Gomis, inaugurated, to the presence of the chief coordinator of Croatia’s Caritas, Ivan Milovèi?, 50 homes for an equal number of families who lost their homes after the 2004 tsunami. The project had been undertaken in 2006 and entailed also the purchase of land, the erection of infrastructures, and the covering of administrative costs. Local subcontractors employing local labour were hired to improve the project’s impact . A total amount of 614 000 Euro were collected, 360 000 of which were provided by Croatia with a national humanitarian campaign. The recipients of the housing units are homeless families that are in most need of lodging in Pallansena, a fishers’ village some 40km away from Sri Lanka’s capital city. In addition to the homes, the funds collected in Croatia were used for the purchase of medicine, children’s food, water pumps and filters, school materials, fishing nets and boats, gas stoves, tents and mattresses.
