Portugal, Moldava, Hungary

Portugal: “educational potential” of the familyThe national Secretariat of Christian Education (SNEC) has decided to support and step up formative projects for couples in all the dioceses of the country, with the aim of “countering the weakening of the family’s educational potential”. In an interview with the Antena 1 radio channel, the Director of the Department of Education, Cristina Sá Carvalho, affirmed that “the educational capacity of parents, even if reduced, still remains utterly irreplaceable today”. “Parents need to be helped to prevent all the difficulties that spring from the complexity of present-day society, focused as it is on goals of a merely economic nature, on the glorification of individualism, and dominated by the enormous persuasive potential of television and internet”. To try to address these problems, it has been decided to reinforce the already existing experiences for groups of couples, added the head of the SNEC: “We wish to develop these projects on the basis of the diocesan secretariats and propose their dissemination throughout the national territory”. “Apart from this primary education founded in the family, other initiatives are underway, aimed at involving parents and children aged from six to nine in catechesis, and attempts at so-called religious reawakening in children aged from three to six”. “The whole dynamic of the Secretariat of Christian Education for this pastoral year is based on the importance of the family as essential place for the sharing and transmission of faith”, concluded Cristina Sá Carvalho.Moldava: first Social Week of CatholicsAbout one hundred Catholics are expected to participate in the first Moldavian Social Week. The event, which started on October 11 in Chisinau, is entitled “The courage of growing alongside the last” and will be held in a country where Catholics are a small minority. “We chose this title”, explained Msgr. Anton Cosa, bishop of Chisinau, “because it mirrors our position as a minority Church in the country, but also and especially because we feel the vocation of our Church is that of growing along with those who have nothing, those who feel excluded from society, those who have been deprived of their dignity and humanity”. “Being alongside and for the last – the bishop continued – does not, however, exempt us from contributing to the growth of Moldovan society, rather it is necessary that, as well as the material and spiritual help which we try to bring to everyone, and especially to the poorest, there should also grow in the Moldovan Church that social diakonia which will enable all our faithful to feel themselves responsible and protagonists in building the common good of the whole nation”. The meeting has been organised around three daily themes: “the social commitment of Catholics in Moldova” (Tuesday 11); “poverty and the poor” (Wednesday 12); and “the commitment of the laity in the economy and social issues” (Thursday 13). It will end on Friday 14 October with the celebration of Mass in Chisinau Cathedral. The theme of each day will be introduced by representatives from other Social Weeks in Europe: Msgr. Arrigo Miglio, Bishop of Ivrea and President of the Social Weeks in Italy; Dr Jean-Pierre Rosa, delegate from the French Social Weeks; and Msgr. Giampaolo Crepaldi, Bishop of Trieste and President of the “Caritas in Veritate” Commission for social issues of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE). There will then be reports from experts, testimonies (such as that on the economy of communion promoted by the Focolare Movement), and ample time for debate. Representing the CCEE at the Moldavian Social Week will be Msgr. Crepaldi and Fr Ferenc Janka, CCEE Deputy Secretary, who will both take part in the event. Their presence “testifies to the attention given to the initiative by the European bishops”, explains the CCEE, which “will have the task of informing the Bishops’ Conferences not just about the outcome of the work, but also on the experience in general”. According to Msgr.. Duarte da Cunha, CCEE General Secretary, the Moldavian Social Week will be “a training ground and model for many minority Churches which want to invest more in this particular form of social diakonia, a sign and invitation for all Catholic bodies so that, following this example, they may never allow themselves be discouraged by difficulties where charity and the proclamation of the Gospel is concerned”.Hungary: Caritas remembers the sludge disaster”I can’t forget the faces full of fear, begging for the food and blankets, old woman crying on my shoulder, things covered in red mud, thrown out of the houses”, with these words the regional director of Caritas in Veszprém, Richard Zagyva, recalls the sad memory of the catastrophe that hit northern Hungary one year ago. About 700 cubical metres of highly toxic red mud broke the walls of an impound of the aluminium factory near the town Ajka, leaving 10 dead and 150 wounded people, having contaminated about 1,000 hectares of cultivated ground and destroyed the houses and belongings of hundreds of families. Catholic Church in Hungary was among the first to help and the Bishops’ conference organised a collection for this purpose with generous contribution of the faithful amounting to 1,2 million euro in total. Operators of the national office of Caritas have been present at the location since the first day and until now they have helped 76 families with compensation of the losses. President of Caritas Hungary, bishop Antal Spanyi, celebrated a Holy mass on the occasion of the remembrance of the victims of national tragedy on 9 October in Devecser, and also as an expression of gratitude to all the cooperators, volunteers and donators who have put their efforts together to help the people affected by the catastrophe.