Portugal: the digital Gospel On September 25-26 Portugal Church’s National Secretariat for Social Communication will promote the National Days on Social Communication for all professionals working in this field. The gathering will focus on “The Digital Gospel”. In the letter of invitation, the President of the Bishops’ Commission, in charge of Communication, Msgr. Manuel Clemente claimed, “although the religious should always be sensitive and open to new possibilities, those who work in the field of Christian-inspired social communications will find in this encounter a large amount of material to develop digital technology”. “Given that digital technology is the pre-eminent tool of our times, he added, the Days will witness the large participation of experts in the field of formation and with concrete experience in Internet networks. Participants will thus enjoy their contribution and deepen their knowledge of this subject”. The programme will include an overview of current digital technology in Portugal (newspapers, radio, televisions), a round table on the topic: “Religious news broadcast on the internet”, a conference on “InternEthics- the Internet’s moral code”, and a broad-ranging analysis of the presence of the Church in electronic media. Referring to the Pope’s message for the World Communications Day 2008, Msgr. Clemente recalled that “new social communications media, cell phones and the Internet in particular, are changing the very nature of relations between individuals. It is therefore important to grasp this precious occasion so as to redefine, or rather, to make more visible the basic and inalienable trait pertaining to the truth of the human person”. Registration to the Days is possible online at the website: www.ecclesia.pt/jornadas08. Ireland: full-time laity for the Diocese of Dublin During the ceremony marking the ordination of three priests, in Dublin’s Cathedral, Msgr. Diarmund Martin made known that the city’s archdiocese will be enriched by a new group of lay men and women engaged in full-time parish ministry. At the beginning of the year the diocese published job ads seeking lay people who would work full-time in the parishes. The first candidates to permanent deaconship will be selected next September. “All of this takes place within a more fundamental renewal which involves so many believing Catholics assuming roles of personal renewal, of leadership and of service in different ways, reflecting the diversity of ministries,” the archbishop explained. There has been a constant decline in vocations in the Irish diocese, and the priests ordained a few days ago by the Archbishop were the first in two years. Msgr. Martin gave his assurance that there is no intention to close churches nor to suppress or unite parishes except where there is a wish to do so. “We must look at new ways in which we can group parishes into broader pastoral units, within which each parish will retain its identity but where groups of parishes will be served by a single pastoral team made up of priests, deacons, religious and lay ministers in a more coordinated way, always focused on renewal and evangelization. This will mean change and challenge for many, not least for priests”, the archbishop concluded. England: health workers encountering difficulties During a conference for health workers on the topic “Faith in Health”, organised by the Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Murphy-o’Connor, Primate of the Catholic Church of England and Wales, declared that Britain’s National Health services makes it increasingly hard for Catholic chaplains to respond to patients’ spiritual needs.. “We ought to do our best to ensure that the religious dimension is granted due recognition and is not distorted into something different”, the Cardinal explained, pointing out that chaplains were given a new name, “spiritual care givers”, in other words, “suppliers of spiritual care”. “Spirituality” can include many different meaning, His Eminence affirmed, highlighting the importance of Catholic values within a health service which is guided by secularism. “I believe that in the present historical moment, the explicit recognition of the religious commitment of all those working in the National Health Service would help promote the cultural changes needed at all levels”, the Cardinal claimed.
