CHURCHES IN BRIEF
Poland: initiatives for start of the school year”The education of the young is everybody’s duty”, the Polish bishops recall on the occasion of the start of the new school year and launch – for the first time – the “Week for Education”, aiming to emphasise the importance of “the person’s full and complete development” against the risks of “an incomplete education influenced by modern culture, where new technology and market laws prevail”. The Week for Education, due to take place from 12th to 18th September, will have to be not just an opportunity to pray for “a truly Christian education” but also an opportunity to reflect, together, on different aspects of the educational process. In a pastoral letter about education, the Polish bishops review the quick changes taking place in contemporary world and point out that today parents often feel inadequate in their educational role. “So they must remember they are not alone and can rely on effective help from the school as well as from the Church”. “Being an educator today – the bishops point out -, and therefore teaching and educating, is a great job, which consists in teaching young people to ‘swim against the tide’”. “The purpose of pedagogy – the letter ends – is God’s presence in every child’s heart”. It is communicating to the young “those foundations that apply throughout one’s lifetime and cannot be effaced by any life experience”. In Poland, 540 Catholic schools officially started the school year on 1st September (they were 530 the year before). Last year, students at such schools were over 57 thousand (out of a total of over 5 million students). According to father B. Dufaj S.P., director of one of the schools run by the Scolopian Fathers in the capital, given the number of Catholics in Poland, Catholic schools of all rank and level are few, if compared for example with the number of such schools in other, much more laicised European countries. “This year, I have taken in just 76 new students, while applications exceeded 200”, states father Dufaj, who regrets he could not establish five new classes in the primary school or in the grammar school. In the school run by father Dufaj, spaces for curricular activities (and the opening of new classes) cannot be easily extended, lacking a district plan in the area where the school stands. “Most parents send their children in Catholic schools because they are practising Catholics”, but there are “also children of families of other faiths and other religious confessions, not just Catholics”.Moldova: first Social Week in October”The courage to grow along with the last ones”. This is the theme chosen for the first Social Week of Moldavian Catholics, due to take place in Chisinau from 11th to 13th October. This was announced by the “Regina PacisInform@” news service. The preparatory stage of the event has already been started, with the establishment of a Work Committee. Bishops and experts “will speak of poverty in Moldova and the economic crisis; theological reflections and careful readings of the teachings of the Church about world poverty will be shared. Social economy will also be discussed, and real experiences of pastoral and social commitment will be presented”. Guest speakers include mgr. Arrigo Miglio, as the president of the Italian Social Weeks, mgr. Giampaolo Crepaldi, as the president of the “Caritas in Veritate” commission at Ccee, and mgr. Marcello Semerano, bishop of Albano. Speeches will be given by such experts as the economist Luigino Bruni, Carlo Costalli, president of the Movement of Christian Workers, Nicola Paparella and Vitalie Pirlog, Moldavian expert in international law. The goal of the Social Week, as pointed out by the organisers, is the need “to learn more about Moldova and the commitment of the Catholic Church at the service of the last ones” and to “improve dialogue with the other Moldavian players, to develop together a shared process of service to the benefit of the poor”.France: a catechism in step with the times The National Service of Catechesis and Catechumenate (SNCC), directed by Father Luc Mellet, has held a press conference to review the organization of the catechism in France, in view of the fact that between September and October, French dioceses and parishes are preparing for the rentrée du caté , an activity that has experienced a new lease of life over the last five years in France, a new “springtime in the proclamation of the faith” in society. The situation of catechesis in the country has been radically transformed in recent times: it no longer involves just parents and a few catechists alone, but all the baptized. That’s why it is being planned over more years of catechism; courses of catechesis are now of variable duration (ranging from a few weeks to a few months). Inevitable too is recourse to the most advanced interactive methods – from internet to e-mail, and to the social networks such as blogs, facebook or twitter – so as to make catechesis more readily accessible and within everyone’s grasp. A recent survey on the Christian initiation of children and adolescents in France has revealed that the time spent in catechism together with those of their own age represent for younger children an important event in their life.
