Italy: the bishops’ agenda On January 26, in the traditional prolusion to the works of the permanent Council, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, President of Italy’s Bishops’ Conference (CEI), voiced the concern for the situation of Christians in Iraq and in Orissa (India) and for the kidnappings and deaths of Christian missionaries in developing Countries. His Eminence addressed hot issues such as the economic crisis and the need to support families also through fiscal cuts. The economic crisis, he said, “was triggered by financial speculations motivated by greed and the drive to make easy money as rapidly as possible”. “It’s very likely that the most painful effects will be experienced by that part of the population who never squandered and who have been living in financial straits”. He thus called for the implementation of relief policies envisaging “family quotas”. The Cardinal also referred to officially recognized schools (mostly based on Christian teaching) that risk undergoing severe cuts. In the field of bioethics, His Eminence addressed the issue regarding the introduction of the abortion pill RU486, “whose grave side-effects are clearly documented” and defended the “human dignity” of the human embryo. As relates to “life termination” and the ongoing debate regarding the adoption of the “living will”, His Eminence drew attention upon the “ongoing pressures to comply with to the general trend…as if Italy were motivated by an inferiority complex in its strive to adapt to other’s questionable modernity”. “There is a tendency to introduce the expectation of the right to die in common belief, whereas the true right of each human person, that must be reaffirmed and guaranteed, is the right to life that cannot be disposed of”, the Cardinal declared. Finally, he heralded the diffusion of “palliative treatment” and the increase of hospices “that will accompany persons in state of irreversible coma or in persistent vegetative state (PVS), lifting the respective families from heavy burdens”. As regards the suspension of nutrition and hydration to PVS patients – that is the case of Eluana Englaro in Italy) – if it were enforced, this provision “would constitute unacceptable euthanasia”.Ireland: child protection “To renew the commitment to providing all of the information requested in Section 5 of the Health Service Evaluation -HSE- audit”, “to sign a written commitment to implement the new safeguarding and guidance materials soon to be published by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC), and to co-operate fully with their ongoing monitoring and evaluation” while “inviting the NBSCCC to undertake a review of current practice and risk in the safeguarding of children within their dioceses”. These, in short, are the commitments acknowledged by the Irish Bishops Conference at the end of the meeting on child protection and safeguard held a few days ago at St Patrick’s College in Maynooth. During the meeting NBSCCC representatives illustrated measures and provisions aimed at improving child protection. The meeting ensues the decision taken by Minister for Children Barry Andrews to investigate on the reports of alleged child-abuse by clerics in the diocese of Cloyne (Cork) following the discovery of omissions in the diocese’ reports to HSE. In a Note, Ireland’s Bishops Conference states that in order to restore credibility and trust in Church child protection commitments, “all bishops and religious congregations and missionary societies are called to adopt the guidance materials to this regard along with measures agreed with the Bishops Conference, with the Conference of the Religious of Ireland and with Ireland’s Missionary Union”. In the meantime, the bishop of Cloyne John Magee apologised to the victims of sexual abuse, to those working in this area and to the public opinion. Ccee: pilgrimage for the creationAfter the six consultations (between 1999 and 2004) and several debates on climate change and new sustainable lifestyles that took place during the Third European Ecumenical Assembly in Sibiu (2007), the “Environment” Commission of the Council of European Bishops Conferences (Ccee) would like to find new ways to work in the field of the environment. One of the new proposals that was put forward during the meeting that ended on the 26 January in St Gallen, Switzerland, is to start a “Pilgrimage for responsibility for the Creation”. As well as developing documents, the Commission actually intends to promote an experience of prayer, exchanges of ideas and a shared process to open new prospects. In view of the central challenge of climate change, the Commission intends to work to find an ecumenical cooperation so as to be able to submit all together a common position to the World Conference of Copenhagen (November2009). To promote a European network of the initiatives and workgroups that have been set up within each Bishops Conference over the last few years, the work of the “Catholic Ecology Forum Europe” (www.cefe.ch) will be promoted.
