” “In Sicily, "many immigrants who ask for the Sacraments of Christian initiation are not in order with the laws that govern their stay in our country and so they are in precarious living conditions as to health care and employment". This was reported today by Maria Restivo from the diocese of Palermo, as she illustrated the work of the local catechumenal centre to the over 200 participants in the national meeting of the directors of the diocesan catechistic offices, which is in progress in Olbia (until June 22nd) about: "The tale of hope". "In our islanders’ reality of a land of migration she reported many of those people who ask for the Sacraments come mostly from north Africa Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, Algeria, Ivory Coast as well as from other countries, for instance Mauritius, the Ghana, Senegal, Cape Verde, Sri Lanka and the Philippines and more recently Albania. Their conditions deserve attention because of their different religious backgrounds or their lack of religion: sometimes these are some sorts of do-it-yourself religions steeped in magic or superstition". However, quite a few young locals "have not been baptised at birth" due to "their parents’ estrangement from the Church" or to "a very peculiar use of freedom whereby children are left free to choose ‘when they are older’ whether to be baptised or not".” “
