Ireland: "heavy sadness" for child abuse"We are ashamed, humbled and repentant that our people strayed so far from their Christian ideals", declared the Irish bishops, commenting on the abuses that thousands of children suffered in Irish religious institutes in the years from the 1940s to the 1980s. They did so in a statement issued on 10 June at the end of the Standing Council of the Irish Bishops’ Conference and on the day on which thousands of people took to the streets in Dublin in a demonstration called to express solidarity with the victims. In their statement the bishops write: "The Ryan Report represents the most recent disturbing indictment of a culture that was prevalent in the Catholic Church in Ireland for far too long. Heinous crimes were perpetrated against the most innocent and vulnerable, and vile acts with life-lasting effects were carried out under the guise of the mission of Jesus Christ. This abuse represents a serious betrayal of the trust that was placed in the Church. For this we ask forgiveness". The bishops further say they devoted a lot of time at their meeting to discussing the Report. This is their preliminary reaction: "While we need time to reflect on the details of the report, we offer the following as our initial response as [Bishops’] Conference: Our first reaction is a heavy sadness at the suffering of so many for so long. We wish to invite survivors to engage with us to see how we can assist those who have been abused. We wish to respond as pastors despite the inadequacies at times of our previous pastoral responses. We urge the whole Church community to join with us in praying for the well being and peace of mind for all who suffered".Italy: Mgr. Crociata (CEI) on the economic crisis"We are living in complex times", epitomized by the term "globalization", which "is causing sometimes painful and disruptive consequences in the social fabric, characterized by the spread of unemployment, mass immigration and the marginalization of those who are ill-equipped, professionally or economically, to tackle such huge and rapid changes"; a phenomenon that "is placing severe strains on the public structures and the welfare system that have been laboriously built up over time", said Mgr. Mariano Crociata, general secretary of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI), in his address to a meeting of Banking Foundations in Siena in recent days. After having recalled the guarantee fund for large families in difficulty, which the Italian Church recently decided to set up in response to the crisis, also availing itself of the co-operation of the Italian Banking Association, Mgr. Crociata concluded as follows: "Even at a time of deep emergency, which prompts us to tackle the needs of the present with creativity and courage, we cannot forget our task for the future: that of preserving equity in the relation between the generations, by helping our communities to rediscover their own roots, essential prerequisite and foundation for a socially sustainable economic development, while maintaining respect for individual liberties and striving to serve the common good".Hungary: pilgrimage of two peoplesFor the second time, after the Hungarian-Slovak Day of Prayer on 28 June 2008, almost 1500 Slovak and Hungarian pilgrims joined in praying for the peace of the two peoples at the Marian sanctuary of Mátrverebély-Szentkút on 6 June. At the invitation of the Franciscan community, Bishop Toma Galis of Zlina, Mgr. Varga Lajos, Auxiliary Bishop of Vác, Archbishop Emeritus Seregély István and the Apostolic Nuncio Juliusz Janusz concelebrated a solemn mass and placed the two nations under the protection of the Virgin of Szentkút and Patron of Slovakia. Mgr. Janusz said in his homily: "We cannot limit ourselves to hoping that these two peoples may live as brothers. Our duty is to ask God and His Blessed Mother to help us to embrace the Christian roots of our countries, experience them in our lives and promote respect for the Church in Europe as a whole". "On what basis can we construct a common home in which our two nations may live together in charity, honour and concord?" asked Mgr Galis, who emphasized the importance of "recognizing the justice of God and living in communion with Him". "These he insisted are the most important godsends for man". The Franciscans organized the first Slovak-Hungarian Day of Prayer on 28 June 2008 with the objective explains a statement of turning the sanctuary of Mátrverebély-Szentkút into "a meeting place for the two peoples where bridges and not walls are built, and where Slovaks and Hungarians may experience mutual help and prayer together". "We don’t want to paper over the existing problems, but, in the spirit of the joint declaration of the two Bishops’ Conferences (on the occasion of the national year of prayer for reconciliation called by the Hungarian Bishops’ Conference in 2006), we intend to promote the formation of a network of quality relations in which even those who have suffered a wrong may find healing", said Antal Fejes, director of the sanctuary of Mátrverebély-Szentkút.
