For everyone’s good

“Each citizen must value, in conscience, which candidate they will vote bearing in mind everyone’s utmost benefit today”. This is the appeal of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference (Conferencia episcopal española, Cee), for the next general elections, due to take place November 20. For the next elections. In a note released on October 21, at the end of the 221st meeting of the Permanent Commission, the Spanish prelates reiterated their intention to offer “a set of considerations starting with the horizon of pre-political legal foundations, refraining to delve into political parties’ stances and without pretending to impose a given political program”. The bishops called for “truly free and responsible” elections. In this sense CEE recalled: “political decisions ought to be moral and just, not only consensual and efficient”. Thus Iberian bishops have addressed a set of momentous issues pertaining to the social realm of the country, notably, the protection of the right to life, from conception to its natural termination; then the defense of marriage based on the union between man and women aimed at the common good of the spouses and of their offspring. The bishops also highlighted the problem of the ongoing global financial crisis “which demands the implementation of responsible social and economic policies that will promote the dignity of the human person and bring employment for everyone”. The families and the youth. With a special emphasis on the families and on the youth, the Spanish Bishops’ Conference underlined the importance of “policies in favour of free social initiatives, for equal wages and which will highlight the needs of the more vulnerable brackets, like the elderly, the sick and the migrants”. Furthermore, Spanish bishops have called attention on parents’ rights to impart to their children “the philosophic, moral and religious education they want for them”, avoiding “State impositions”, since “the teaching of religion and of Catholic morals in state schools, as a fundamental non-compulsory subject, guarantees both the rights of society and of the parents”. The prelates thus affirmed they “recognize the moral legitimacy of those regionalisms, which, with peaceful means, demand a new asset of the unity of the Spanish state'”. Moreover, at the same time, it was underlined the need “to protect the common good of the Spanish nation as a whole, avoiding risks of manipulating the historical truth and public opinion triggered by separatist or ideological claims of any sort”. The prelates thus condemned terrorism, which they describe as an “intrinsically perverse practice, alien to a fair and sound vision of life”.The quest for peace. The last item of the bishops’ statement is an appeal to the international community to implement fair policies aimed at “the authentic quest for peace, based on the respect of national and international law, and on the promotion of solidarity between peoples and cultures”. In addition to the release on the forthcoming national elections, CEE issued a briefing on the meeting, which tackled the themes of religious freedom and Christians’ discrimination. To this regard, the bishops welcome the OSCE Resolution adopted past July, and resumed the exhortation to “protect the religious freedom of Christians and promote their contribution across society”, so that, with their example, they may promote “the defence of the dignity of all human beings, that starts with freedom and social cohesion”. New evangelization. The permanent Commission has started working on a new pastoral plan, that will be dedicated to the new evangelization and examined a document dedicated to the transmission of faith within the family, in parishes and in schools. Finally, it was agreed that in the Plenary Assembly scheduled to take place November 21-25, the Committee for Saint John of Avila will present a program for the promotion of the figure of the Saint, due to be elected Doctor of the Church, as announced past August by Benedict XVI during his apostolic visit to Madrid, on the occasion of the World Youth Day.