Portugal: the debate on the Concordat The Portuguese Church conveyed her appreciation to the government for its efforts aimed at the regulation of the Concordat ratified in 2004 and addressing the question of spiritual counsel in hospitals, prisons, in the Armed Forces and Public Security departments. The President of the Bishops’ Conference (CEP) Msgr. Jorge Ortiga, whilst recalling that the agreements’ implementation requires the endorsement of the Holy See, declared, “Despite these problems needed to be urgently addressed, the work was done with a scrupulous and conscientious approach”. “The unprecedented inclusion of the Police Forces (GNR, PSP) as recipients of religious counsel is groundbreaking”. Services already being performed by chaplains are envisaged in current legislation, while “services of future chaplains will be regulated by a contract and will be marked by a stronger bond with the military establishment, which they will be rightful members of”, the archbishop of Braga remarked. Msgr. Ortiga protested that despite positive agreements, art.16 – regarding Portugal’s legal recognition of pontifical marriage dispensation, regulated with Law-decree May 11 2009, nº 100 – has not yet undergone parliament debate, and “a number of questions pertaining to the Concordat still need to be regulated, notably those on social assistance performed by the clergy envisaging tax deduction (art. 26), the definition of aspects related to Ecclesial properties and their integration within Portugal’s cultural heritage (art. 23), along with legislation on Catholic religious teaching in schools”. Scotland: traces of the Carmelite priorate?After two human skeletons were brought to light by workers who were preparing the route of new train tracks to Edinburgh, archaeologists declared that in all likeliness these findings are part of a Medieval Carmelite priorate located in Leith Walk. The skeletons will be analyzed to determine their exact age, however, archaeologist John Lawson suggests that “they might be part of the ancient cemetery of the medieval priorate, 100meters away from Elm Row. “We discovered the corpses of two adults – he said -. We reckon they might have been buried in the Carmelite priorate, which was later transformed into a leprosarium. According to historical records, the priorate was located on the other side of the street, near Deanside Place. We made many attempts to find it. This is the first piece of evidence that it existed”. Once the analyses will be concluded, the remains of the corpses will return to the earth with a requiem Mass celebrated by the Carmelite Family, an order with a century-long history in Edinburgh. In fact, the priorate was founded in Scotland at the beginning of the 16th century, before the Reformation. Each summer the Carmelite order holds a pilgrimage to St Mary Church, in the area of South Queensferry, the only place of worship in Great Britain that has remained intact since the Middle Ages. Judith Stones, Arbedeen Archaeology City Council chief, has been coordinating archaeological research on the medieval Carmelite houses in Scotland over the past years. Carmelites settled in Scotland in 1242. 30 friar, nun and lay communities located across England, Scotland and Wales now represent them. Info: www.carmelite.org/ Ireland: “no” to football games on Saturday afternoons The parish priest of Killarney, a town in Southwest Ireland, asked the “Gaelic Athletic Association” not to hold football games on Saturday afternoons. “On Saturdays games are held at three, five and at seven p.m. – said father Kevin McNamara -. Thus faithful fail to attend the Masses, mostly celebrated from six to eight p.m.” The priest said that the games could be still held on Saturdays but in the early afternoon, and after eight p.m., when the lights can be switched on over the soccer fields. Similarly, the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) replied to FIFA chairman Joseph Blatter who said, after Brasil football players gathered in prayer following a game they won in the United States, “In sport there is no place for religion”, and promised to ban religious statements from 2010 world football championship in South Africa. FAI declared that “it’s impossible to regulate religious events during football games and the players have the right to pray before and after the games”. “It will be hard to endorse and impossible to monitor the application of such regulation – one of the Federation’s spokesperson declared”.
