CROATIA
Church says deregulation at work has gone too far
Jonathan Luxmoore
CROATIAN CHURCH representatives have urged a rethink of the “neo-liberal model” of economic and social life. They are demanding greater state involvement in protecting work- ers’ rights and in ensuring that businesses behave in a “socially responsible” manner. “The tendency till recently to weaken the state, which meant the neo-liberal model at the European and world levels, has been inter- rupted by the intervention of the states in solving the financial crises”, the church rep- resentatives said in a declaration. “The state and its institutions should begin
acting socially to gain the trust of citizens and facilitate the development of society, which has currently stopped. We must finally dis- mantle the system of governance which, under the totalitarian regime, was designed to mon- itor citizens, not serve them – such a system
is inappropriate for democracy. But with such low and declining social capital, distrust for institutions and anti-social activity, it is difficult to expect any development.” The document was signed by over 300 diocesan delegates at the Croatian Social Week in Zagreb, organised with backing from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference. It said research data suggested confidence in European insti- tutions was lowest in Croatia, whose citizens faced particularly harsh problems of unem- ployment, exclusion and overwork. It added that the state should take respon-
sibility “in a stronger and more concrete way”, by addressing harassment at work, workers’ rights and regular payment of wages”. In August, the Church’s Justice and Peace Commission condemned the deregulation of employee rights, and demanded protection of workers from “arbitrariness of unscrupulous employers and ruthlessness of big business”.
AUSTRIA Initiative sticks to its guns on disobedience
AT THEIR ANNUALplenary meeting at Linz on 6 November, the Austrian Priests’ Initiative decided to stick to the original title and word- ing of their “Call to Disobedience”, writes Christa Pongratz-Lippitt. Eighty-one of the 380 members nationwide
attended the meeting. A group from Tyrol wanted to change the title of the “Call to Disobedience” to “Call to Self-Responsibility” as the word “disobedience” had caused such an uproar in church circles, but the majority voted in favour of keeping the word “disobe- dience” in the title.
According to a poll commissioned by Austrian state television’s department for reli-
SPAIN Ex-priest takes case to European Court
A FORMERSpanish priest is taking the Spanish Government to the European Court of Human Rights claiming his rights have been denied after he was sacked as a religious-studies teacher, writes Graham Keeley. José Antonio Fernández became a priest in 1961 but in 1984 he asked to leave the priesthood because he wanted to get married. But the bishops’ conference did not respond for another 13 years and while he waited, he married in a civil ceremony and had five children. Between 1991 and 1997, he worked as a
religious-studies teacher in various schools in Murcia, eastern Spain. But in 1996, Mr Fernández’s situation changed when his photograph appeared in a newspaper at a meeting of the Movement for Optional Celibacy, a liberal Catholic group. The then Bishop of Cartagena ordered his expulsion as priest and teacher. The constitutional court in Spain supported his dismissal, but the European Court of Human Rights is due to decide on 22 November if Mr Fernández’s sacking “was a denial of rights of privacy and liberty of expression”.
gious affairs, 70 per cent of Austria’s approx- imately 3,500 active parish priests see the “Call to Disobedience” as a positive impulse for reform with 28 per cent against. Eighty-six per cent were in favour of allow- ing remarried divorcees to receive Communion after consulting a priest and 71 per cent said “married priests with families are an enrichment”. The Austrian bishops discussed the Austrian Priests’ Initiative at their plenary this week (7-10 November). Cardinal Christoph Schönborn has already let it be known that he shares the priests’ worries “but not their solutions”.
RUSSIA
Silence over religious abuses deplored
A VETERANrights campaigner has warned of growing restrictions on religious freedom in Russia, and urged Western governments to do more to highlight the problem, writes Jonathan Luxmoore. “Although the Soviet Union collapsed 20 years ago, the story hasn’t ended and religious believers still face serious problems,” said Canon Michael Bourdeaux, president of the Keston Institute, which he founded in 1969 as a “voice” for persecuted Christians. “What really worries me is that no one is holding Russia to account. The right and duty to monitor each country’s human-rights record, established in the 1970s, seem to have been forgotten.” The Anglican priest was speaking during
the Institute’s annual meeting in London, which took place amid rising concern about the fate of small religious communities in Russia. In a Tablet interview, he said Russia’s 1990 law on religious freedom, enacted in the final year of Communist rule, had been “probably the most liberal in world history”, but had been replaced under pressure from hardline politicians and the Orthodox Church by “disgraceful” discriminatory legislation in 1997. ■Russia’s Orthodox Church has backed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s controversial call for a new “Eurasian Union” of ex-Soviet republics.
UNITED STATES
Bishop reveals why he had to resign
BISHOP Thomas Gumbleton, the retired auxiliary in the Archdiocese of Detroit, revealed last week that he was forced to resign as bishop after he testified in support of a law in neighbouring Ohio that would have lifted the statute of limitations for prosecution of sexual abuse of children. The Ohio bishops were opposed to the law. In 2006, Bishop Gumbleton submitted
written testimony in favour of the Ohio law. In that testimony he also revealed that he had himself been abused by a priest in high school. Shortly afterwards, the Vatican wrote to Detroit’s Cardinal Adam Maida, indicating that Gumbleton’s testimony had violated the communion episcoporum. Gumbleton had already passed the mandatory retirement age of 75 for bishops but had not submitted his resignation to the Holy See. In the wake of the controversy, he submitted his resignation on 21 January 2006 and was also subsequently removed as pastor of St Leo parish.
12 November 2011 | THE TABLET | 33
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