(from our correspondent) "The opposition that we are facing in Europe today, as Christians and as Catholics, recalls the persecutions against the Church of the origins": it was stated this morning by mgr. Tom Burns, ordinary bishop of the British armed forces, as he spoke at the workshop on "Slavery and new slavery" which is under way until November 18th in Cape Coast, the Ghana, on the initiative of the Council of European Bishops Conferences (Ccce) and the Symposium of the African and Madagascan Bishops Conferences (Secam). Mgr. Burns speaks of "a new form of slavery", that of a society that "can do without the Church" and "wants to "subtract from people the freedom to follow God, their own conscience and to live according to the values of the Gospel". "Our secularised society he highlighted wants to do everything without God: especially in the schools, in the hospitals, in the prisons, in the armed forces, wherever the Church and the State are confronted every day". Despite this, he added, "we remain firm in our values and principles, to spend time praying and in pastoral and charity deeds, that speak of the presence of God in this secularised world". Because "we are not born Christians, we become Christians concluded the bishop , and baptism is not enough. It is a time-consuming, painstaking work that we have to do all our life".
