CHURCHES IN BRIEF
Turkey: Catholic bishops on confiscated propertyThe provision announced by Turkish Premier Tayyip Erdogan and published in the Official Gazette on 27 August, on the return of real estate confiscated from the religious Foundations after 1936, does not regard the Catholic Church. The qualification is made by the spokesman of the Bishops’ Conference of Turkey, Rinaldo Marmara, who explains to SIR: “This provision concerns the minority communities (Greek, Armenian, Jewish) which have their real estate registered in the name of the Foundations. These communities – of Turkish nationality – are accorded a legal status through their Foundations. That’s not the case of the Latin Catholic Community/Church, which has been considered a foreign personality. At the next meeting of the Bishops’ Conference of Turkey on 26 September, the chances of a recovery of the real estate lost by the Church in recent decades will be examined”. With the publication of the present decree law, all the properties that the Turkish administration has with various subterfuges expropriated in the past, after the census in 1936, will be returned to the religious foundations. By non-Muslim religious foundations what is meant are those recognized by the various international treaties signed by the Turkish Republic after 1923. The Decree is published just a few days after the request made by Patriarch Bartholomew I for the return of expropriated properties to the minorities, because unjustly usurped. To demand the return of some properties of the Greek-Orthodox community, Bartholomew had sought the support of various European institutions. In commenting on the government’s decision, the Patriarch also wished to extend his thought “not only to us Orthodox Christians, but to all the minorities that have for centuries been living in these lands”. He further exclaimed: “Better late than never”, adding that “if Turkey considered itself a constitutional state under the rule of law, everything should take place in the context of justice and not of illegality”.Portugal: no to indiscriminate economic cuts The chairman of the Portuguese episcopal commission for social ministry, Mgr. Carlos Azevedo, has declared that the new government must go beyond the measures agreed with the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission to reduce the country’s public deficit: “The provisions need to be extended, because the economic recession and the budgetary errors that are being registered in some sectors require even greater savings that those that are being asked of us: otherwise we won’t succeed in respecting the commitments we have made”. The Auxiliary Bishop of Lisbon also referred to the measures announced by the Portuguese Minister for the Economy Vítor Gaspar on Friday 2 September, which make swingeing cuts to the budgets of the Ministries of Health (800 million euro), Education (507 million), Solidarity and Social Security (205 million). “The planned reduction in public expenditure – he said – shows that all Portuguese must acknowledge the gravity of the situation. However the cuts must not be made blindly or be too drastic; they must show themselves to be a cure and not an assassination, and especially target pointless expenditures, wastage and superfluous administrative costs”. “We are a poor country and have pretended to be otherwise: that’s why we are being asked to pay a steep price”, added Bishop Azevedo. “We ought not to hope we can return to things as they were before. Rather, we need to change completely our lifestyle, to achieve a Portugal that is more serene, balanced and disciplined in the management of its own resources”. The bishop with responsibility for the pastoral work of the Portuguese Church predicts that “many years will be needed to re-balance the public accounts, but what’s really needed is a reform of the social state, so as to create a sense of solidarity in the community and a society that is formed of citizens less dependent on any cuts implemented in the bureaucratic organization of the State and in public expenditure”. The question will be on the agenda at the Social Week planned to be held in Porto in 2012, but in the more immediate future, from 13 to 15 September, the Commission chaired by Mgr. Azevedo has organized its 27th national meeting at Fatima on a similar theme: “Local development, global charity”.Czech Republic: Vatican at the Philatelic FairAn extraordinary experience for all collectors of stamps and coins will be represented by the 14th International Collectors Fair, due to be held in Prague from 8 to 10 September. A guest for the first time at an event of this kind being held in a Central and Eastern European country, the Philatelic and Numismatic Office of the Vatican will participate in the Fair, traditionally the most important international forum for stamp and coin collectors in the region. According to the organizers, stamps and coins with religious themes or works of art in Vatican collections “represent an important focus of collecting”. Negotiations to obtain a positive response for the Vatican’s participation in the Fair lasted for three years. The event will be followed by an Investors’ Fair: a market for investments in gold, coins, stamps and precious stones. Both international fairs, being held under the auspices of the Ministry for Education, Youth and Sport of the Czech Republic, will host at least 260 exhibitors from 35 countries, 20% more than in last year’s event. For further info: www.sberatel.info.
