CHURCHES IN BRIEF
Hungary: Church status to religious communities Another 17 religious denominations are proposed to be granted Church status under a motion approved on 10 February by Parliament’s committee on human rights, minority and religious affairs. Parliament is scheduled to amend the Church law accordingly next week. The motion was approved in a unanimous vote by all pro-government members of Parliament, while the opposition members of the committee abstained from voting. Hungary’s Church law, approved last year, officially recognised 14 Churches and enabled other religious denominations and communities to apply for Church status. Applications had to be submitted to the Ministry of Justice, which then passed them onto Parliament for a decision. According to the website Politics.hu, among the 17 religious communities now proposed for approval there are 10 Christian denomination, 1 Hindu community, 1 Islam community and 5 Buddhist congregations. New law came into force on 1 January 2012. The aim of the legislation is to stop expansion of associations that have benefited from public financial support under the mask of religious communities since the fall of the communist regime. Ukraine: German bishops’ support to UGCC As a part of his visit to Germany last week, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk met with the head of the German Bishops’ Conference, archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg. The meeting was attended by the representative of the charitable organization Renovabis, Mr. Albert, auxiliary bishop, Mons. Helmut Wizman, and Fr. Ivan Machuzhak from the UGCC. "The German clergy inquired about the situation of the Church in Ukraine, its problems and achievements. Patriarch Sviatoslav thanked the archbishop of Freiburg for the ‘great help to the victims of recent frosts’ (the Freiburg archdiocese allocated a considerable amount of money for those who suffered from the weather in Ukraine)", said Fr. Machuzhak. According to the Religious Information Service of Ukraine, His Beatitude Sviatoslav emphasized the importance of the role of the Church "in present difficult social situation of the Ukrainian state" and noted that currently "the Church is the only guarrantee of truth and trust in the society, independent of ideologies and party trends". The German prelates assured the head of the UGCC of their "support along this difficult but very important path". According to His Beatitude Sviatoslav, "it is not only a material help, but also political, social and especially spiritual support", stressing that in the process of the construction of Europe, Ukrainians also must bring their contribution, despite political problems in the country.Spain: more Church contributors in 2011 In 2011 the number of citizens who made donations to the Spanish Church by affixing their signature in the dedicated form of their tax statement increased for the fifth year running. Nonetheless, the Spanish Catholic Church received one million euro less from taxpayers compared to the previous year. "There are 200 thousand more statements but 1.162.820 euro less, owing to the crisis", explained Msgr. Juan Antonio Martinez Camino, Secretary and spokesperson of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference. In the 2011 tax returns, donation statements to the Church increased by 194.685, amounting to a total of 7.454.823 euro. Thus over the past five years there have been at least one million more tax returns. According to Msgr. Martinez Camino, these figures highlight the true support given to the Church by society, since ticking the box referring to donation to the Church "is a real choice as well as a concrete and reliable figure". Owing to the crisis, the overall amount of money donated to the Church fell from 249,4 to 248,3 million euro. The Spanish Bishops believe that the outcome of the accounting period is positive and that they will enable to maintain support to basic Church activity at levels of austerity and efficiency similar to the ones kept until now. Belarus: two prizes awarded to “Pro Cristo” publishing housePublishing house of the Minsk-Mohilov Archdiocese, Pro Christo, was awarded two prizes on the 51st National competition "Book Art 2012" on 7 February. In the category "Spirituality" the credit was given to the photo-book about the visit of cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state, to Belarus, entitled "Prepare the way for the Lord". Another prize was awarded for the contribution to preservation of spiritual heritage to the book "In Nomine Domini". According to the first deputy of the belarussian Minister of information, Lilia Ananich, 40 publishing houses with 190 books had aspired for the victory. She affirmed that the Book Art is a "tribute to the printed word, presentation of the best domestic books of spiritual value, spiritual message to the future generations and visible reality of national culture".
