Ireland: don’t forget the immigrantsContinues the Irish Church’s campaign to protect the poor from falling victim of the economic crisis. Representatives of the Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI) met government officials a few days ago urging tax cuts for those in dire needs. CORI also proposed that the Irish government expand the country’s fiscal basis. According to the religious representatives the existing system is unfair. "Considering the level of services required by Irish society", said CORI chairman Sean Healy, "we ought to take stock of the need for these services to be financed. European services shouldn’t follow American taxation criteria". To this regard the Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, Msgr. Jim Moriarty, voiced his concern over the fact that the ongoing recession and the budget cuts could negatively affect a number of services for immigrants in Ireland. Msgr. Moriarty said, "economic circumstances in the past months changed dramatically". The Bishop pointed out that a large number of immigrants are temporarily being hosted in hotels, which is far from being an ideal solution, especially in the case of children and youth. He thus urged the Christian community to act in favour of immigrants. As relates to the economic crisis, CORI member Sister Stanislaus Kennedy called for an unemployment forum. According to the religious "vocational training of the unemployed is a priority. Those who have no professional skills risk long-term unemployment, a condition that makes professional reintegration even harder". Spain: EpC objectors convene Representatives from 60 platform groups of parents who object the introduction of the school subject "Education to Citizenship" (EpC), will convene on February 28 in Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid), for the Second National Encounter of EpC objectors with the theme: "A question of freedom". The event bears special significance following the Supreme Court decision, taken after a three-day sitting, that "as relates to the case of ‘Education to Citizenship’ there is no right to conscientious objection. The ruling states that the subject "doesn’t harm the parents’ right to choose the religious and moral education they wish to transmit to their children". Organised by Professionals for Ethics and by the State Confederation of Teaching Centres (CECE), the Encounter is also being supported by the platform group HazteOir.org and will be attended by the 60 platforms and parent groups of objectors from Spain’s independent communities. Speakers for the event include lawyers, parents and objector platform representatives from all over Spain. The 2008-2009 Freedom Awards will be presented to eleven bodies and individuals in recognition of those families who firmly uphold the defence of their rights and the integral formation of their children. Student objectors will participate for the first time."It is very enriching for the youth to explain the reasons of their objection; it’s an act of citizenship and maturity" claimed Leonor Tamayo, coordinator of the initiative. Parents will be arriving from Panama, Argentina, Colombia, Perù, Canada and France. "The Supreme Court ruling hasn’t solved the question of EpC teaching in schools Tamayo declared we will therefore persevere with equal determination. But the battle isn’t confined to the Courts. We shall continue rising public awareness over this issue". Over 52 thousand petitions along with some 2000 Court appeals were filed contesting EpC. Austria: the Wagner case, "build, don’t destroy"An extraordinary session of the Austrian Bishops’ Conference was held in Vienna on 16 February. On the order of the day was the crisis of the diocese of Linz following the recent papal nomination of Mgr. Gerhard Maria Wagner as auxiliary bishop. Mgr. Wagner is criticized by the faithful for his conservative positions. In 2005, after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, he had suggested that this disaster might have been the "consequence of spiritual pollution" and in 2001 he had asserted that reading the books of the Harry Potter cycle by J.K. Rowling could lead to Satanism. On 14 February, following the uproar that his nomination had created in the diocese, Mgr. Wagner asked, and obtained, that his appointment as auxiliary bishop of the diocese be withdrawn. The extraordinary session ended with the issuing of a pastoral letter to Austrian Catholics, presented at a press conference chaired by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, President of the Bishops’ Conference. The cardinal admitted that "mistakes" had been made in Wagner’s appointment; they had been due, he said, to an "abbreviated procedure in the selection of the bishop", which under normal circumstances is "very circumscribed and well tried and tested". Schönborn reaffirmed the fidelity and union of Austrian bishops to Benedict XVI, especially "in situations that are difficult and oppressive for him". "The situation in the diocese of Linz continues to be of deep concern to the bishops even after the resignation of Wagner", continued Schönborn, who emphasized the need to "restore harmony between the general priesthood of all baptized Catholics and the special priesthood obtained through the Sacrament of ordination of priests and of deacons". The cardinal recognized many "positive aspects" in the Church of Upper Austria. At the same time, however, he said, "tensions that have been perceptible [in the diocese] for years had been exacerbated anew with the recent appointment of Wagner. It is now essential that all groups in the diocese of Linz try to dialogue together with sincerity and together find solutions to the questions that still remain unresolved. This ought to happen" the cardinal underlined "on the basis of Vatican Council II". Schönborn thanked the faithful who, instead of abandoning the Church, "have persevered full of trust". "The bishops are of the view that the present crisis represents an opportunity also for the Church". The crisis "can be overcome", he said, but we need to "learn from recent events and mistakes and draw the right consequences for the future". At the end of the press conference, some representatives of Austrian Catholic Youth (KJ) presented Schönborn with a T-shirt bearing the slogan "Build, don’t destroy". The slogan is part of an action programme promoted by KJ, which has opened a special website on www.aufbauen-statt-abhauen.at, in which Catholic youth can express their own disenchantment with events in the life of the Church, while testifying at the same time why they remain members of it. Hundreds of messages have so far been posted by young Catholics. Nina Sevelda, KJ representative in the archdiocese of Vienna, commented as follows: "Cardinal Schönborn and the other Austrian bishops deserve the greatest respect, because over the last few days they have done all in their power to find a solution to the crisis".
