Portugal: sufferings of the Tzigane ethnic minorityDuring the public presentation of the Report on the auditions concerning the Portuguese tzigane (gipsy) community, as part of the European Year of International Dialogue, the Executive Director of the national Catholic pastoral mission for Tziganes (ONPC), Francisco Monteiro, appealed for “concrete measures to be adopted, aimed at solving the urgent problems of the Portuguese tzigane ethnic minority”. “This community is suffering a great deal, and the origin of this hardship lies in factors of exclusion that involve housing, education and work”. Describing the situation of Tziganes in Portugal today, the director of ONPC pointed out that “local authorities are progressively abandoning their support for fairgrounds, which are the daily bread of Tziganes”. Citing the case of the school of Barqueiros (Barcelos), he reported that “in a wholly unconstitutional way, and against the very directives of the Ministry of Education, there is a tendency to create separate classes and give separate lessons [for gipsies]: tzigane children are relegated right to the back of the classroom and have their own recreation grounds, separated from the rest of the pupils”. Many difficulties are also presented by the world of work: “When the employer realizes that the worker applying for a job is ethnically a gipsy, in many cases he opts not to hire him”. In response to numerous situations of discrimination, Francisco Monteiro charged that the mass media don’t pay the least attention to the Portuguese tzigane community, though it consists of some 50,000 people: “They are forgotten and inconvenient persons, because there’s no political advantage to be derived from them”. “The introduction of cultural mediators might be the key to solving the educational and vocational problems of the tzigane ethnic minority – concluded the director of ONPC – but unfortunately the law is not being implemented because the Minister of Education does not wish to solve the problem of the career of gipsies. The result is that scores of cultural mediators remain unemployed”.Austria: youth, “a strong renewal”Hope in a “strong renewal” of Austrian Catholic youth was expressed by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, President of the Austrian Bishops’ Conference, on 16 March. The cardinal was speaking in St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, during a special mass for youth. The celebration marked the beginning of the youth event “Concordia 72”, launched by Jesuit Father Georg Sporschill. The project is aimed at giving Austrian youth a positive attitude to life, enabling them to encounter youth from Western and Eastern Europe and involving them in such issues as justice, peace and solidarity. The Mass in St. Stephen’s, as also the meeting that followed it with Schönborn in the Archbishop’s Residence, was animated by 120 former Romanian street children, who have been rescued and given a fresh start in life by Father Sporschill. Interviewed by the Austrian Catholic press agency Kathpress, the Jesuit gave an upbeat account of the event: the participation of youth (over one thousand) “far surpassed my hopes and expectations”, he declared. “The real objective of the project was achieved – namely, to find at least 72 youngsters [a reference of the Gospel passage in Luke 10: 1] who are willing to develop social projects by themselves or who wish to participate in already existing projects”, continued Fr. Sporschill. During the meeting in the Archbishop’s Residence, the social projects already being implemented were described: there are ten of them and they are being run in Romania, India and also in Vienna, especially in hospices.Northern Ireland: Catholic schools at risk The future of Catholic schools in Northern Ireland is at risk due to new legislation prepared by the government, according to Cardinal Sean Brady. The Primate of All Ireland, speaking at the inauguration of St. Patrick’s College at Dungannon, in the centre of Northern Ireland, made a passionate appeal to the government of Northern Ireland to change the proposed legislation which, according to Brady, would destroy Catholic schools in Ulster. In Northern Ireland, as in the rest of the UK, schools run by the Catholic Church but funded by the State, co-exist alongside state schools. The Cardinal’s objections to the new legislation on Catholic schools, which is still in a phase of consultation, concern in particular the State’s decision to strip Catholic schools of their power to decide what teachers to hire. The Cardinal also asked Catholics to lobby their political representatives. “I would like to appeal to the politicians of Northern Ireland to continue to respect the right, which Catholic parents had to struggle to achieve, for Catholic schools to obtain just and appropriate State support”, said Cardinal Brady.
