England: "Faith in the Future" programme"Faith in the Future" is an important fund-raising initiative of the Catholic Church in England, which in 2006, the year of its launch, already raised almost four million pounds, equivalent to roughly four and a half million euros. It raises funds for a huge range of projects, including those in support of vocations, the family, inter-religious dialogue and the Catholic Parliamentary Internship Scheme in which graduates of Catholic faith are given the opportunity to spend a year as interns in close contact with Catholic MPs at Westminster or with Christian MEPs at the European Parliament in Brussels or to work in the public affairs department of a national Catholic organization. In 2008 alone over a million pounds was raised, despite the fact that the recession had already begun. The objective is to raise 11.5 million pounds, 12.8 million euros by 2011. The strategy followed is to organize a variety of social events with potential donors. Eight of these were held in 2008; they included a dinner at Claridges Hotel, in the centre of London, with Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor as guest speaker. According to Stephen Morgan, chairman of the conference of diocesan financial secretaries, "if we clearly communicate what we need, people are more than willing to give their support. Of course, we need to properly account for how the money is spent afterwards".France: second book of the bishops on bioethicsThe "dialogue" of the French Catholic Church on bioethics continues. The Church’s second book on bioethics with the title "Bioethics, questions for discernment" has just been published. Its author is Mgr. Pierre D’Ornellas, who chairs the workgroup on bioethics set up by the French Bishops’ Conference on the occasion of the Etats Généraux convened by the government for the reform of the law on bioethics. In February, says a press release put out by the Bishops’ Conference, the workgroup had published a document with the title "Bioethics, proposals for a dialogue", "aimed at opening a dialogue between the Catholic Church and French society on the problems raised by the progress made in biomedical sciences". In the second book on bioethics published in recent days, the Church offers to the attention of French public opinion a series of reflections and guidance on such questions as "parental project", "desire for motherhood", "same sex parenthood", conjugal love and human dignity. Structured in six chapters, the book speaks of "human dignity and civil rights”, "research on embryos and stem cells", "organ, tissue and cell transplants", and "medically assisted procreation and anonymity of donation".Spain: help of the institutions for WYDIt is hoped that between one and a half and two million people will participate in World Youth Day (WYD) in Madrid, in August 2011, "so the help of the institutions is very important", said the Archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela yesterday, in presenting the website dedicated to the event (www.jmj2011madrid.com). WYD, when youth from all over the world will congregate in Madrid from 15 August 2011, explained the cardinal, "will be preceded by a few days of meetings of youth in Spanish dioceses, which have offered their hospitality and accommodation for young people from every part of the world". So far "40 dioceses have offered to accommodate groups of youth coming from dioceses all over the world, and many dioceses are making active preparations for the WYD itself". WYD, pointed out the cardinal, "has been inserted in the law of the general budgets of the State for 2009-2010 as an event of special interest" and this will involve special financial facilities with regard to the aid that will be given to the Spanish Church for the realization of WYD, for example with regard to the maxi-screens to transmit the events, megaphones and electrical energy. "All this is very welcome, because it’s a cost we can save", said Cardinal Rouco.Ireland: anti-drugs manual for parishesHow can Irish parishes respond to the problem of drug and alcohol abuse in the framework of the pastoral plan "Irish Bishops’ Drugs Initiative" (IBDI), launched in 1997? That’s the question discussed on 16 November, during a press conference at the Drumalis retreat centre at Larne, in Ireland in which the Bishop of Down and Connor, the Most Rev. Noel Treanor, Mgr. Eamonn Walsh, Vice-president of IBDI, John Taaffe, coordinator of the initiative, and other experts involved in the programme took part. During the meeting a manual for parishes was presented, a kind of handbook for evaluating the best way to prevent these problems. The booklet, called "Alcohol/drugs. How parishes can respond" will be available from next week and downloadable from the website: www.catholicbishops.ie/drugs. The Irish Bishops’ Drugs Initiative is aimed at creating a network of collaboration between the parishes and other local services that may help to prevent the damage caused by alcohol and drug abuse in the various communities.
