chURCHES IN BRIEF
Slovakia: a pilgrimage at Our Lady of Sorrow”Welcome home! Our spiritual home is near our spiritual mother, who is the Mother of God”, said Msgr. Stanislav Zvolenský, President of Slovakia’s Bishops’ Conference, to the participants in the national pilgrimage to Our Lady of Sorrow – the patron Saint of Slovakia – held from September 15 (solemn liturgical festivity of Our Lady of Sorrow) in the town of Sastín. Slovakian President Ivan Gasparovic attended the event. The Apostolic Nuncio to Slovakia, Msgr. Mario Giordana, conveyed the greetings and the blessings of Benedict XVI to the faithful and asked them to pray for the Pope and for his mission. In his homily, the Archbishop of Olomouc, Msgr. Ján Graubner (Czech Republic), underlined, “Christians have received the gift of faith not only for themselves, but also so that they may more effectively bring God to the world and in the lives of individuals, so that thanks to their honest lives this world may be healed”. According to Msgr. Graubner, the contemporary world is different, but the outcome will be positive “if we fulfil our mission, and teach this world to love with the love that springs from God”. Hence the exhortation: “You must have the courage to receive the invitation of Our Lady of Sorrow for the salvation of your families and your nations. She intercedes on your behalf, but she also asks for your cooperation”. Our Lady of Sorrow was proclaimed Patron Saint of Slovakia by Pope Paul VI in 1996.Portugal: social action parish servicesAt the end of the 27th Meeting on Social Pastoral Care, on the theme, “Local Development and global charity”, that closed a few days ago in Fatima, the Pastoral Episcopal Commission (CEPS) released a document with annexed “practical instructions” for “the establishment of social action parish services across Portugal”. “The serious financial crisis urges us to examine and review the modes of problem-response, so as to adapt to ongoing changes and continue stepping up social action services across Christian communities”. The document underlines that over 4300 parishes spread across the Country must “plan operative profiles that comply with the current circumstances, creating a service integrated with volunteers and coordinating and animating social action at local level”. The tasks that still need to be accomplished, include “detailed data on the local realities and cooperation in the quest of solutions to the problems of people seeking the help of the parish, with the involvement of other public and private bodies”. Whilst reaffirming that “fraternal service” is a Christian dimension and a charitable duty of the community as a whole, the document underlines “the unbalance of pastoral attention within ecclesial structures, currently focused on the cult”. CEPS “Practical Guidelines” propose proximity, universality, radicality and graduality as the distinctive features of Catholic Social Action, for “concrete intervention aimed at the humanization of social, economic, political and cultural structures, following the principles of the transcendent dignity of the human person: the common good, the universal sharing of goods, subsidiarity, participation and solidarity”.Switzerland: the figures of the complaints for paedophilia146 sexual abuse complaints were submitted to the Swiss Catholic Church in 2010. The statement was released a few days ago by the Swiss Bishops’ Conference with a press conference in Bern. According to the provisional report “Sexual assault in Pastoral Care”, presented to journalists, most abuses took place before 1990, while in the decade 2000-2010 there were 13 registered cases, 9 in the 1990s. “Behind each figure there is a person we have to deal with”, underlined abbot Martin Werlen di Einsiedeln during the press conference. “Since sexual abuses are no longer a taboo, it’s easier for victims to present their cases. However, this process is just at the beginning”, he added. The president of the expert panel set up by the bishops’ Conference Adrian von Kaenel, spoke of ” increasingly efficient preventive measures”, that led to a decrease in the complaints. But the numbers of the cases of abuse, he remarked, “make prevention even more important”.
