(Vatican Radio) The Permanent Representative of the Holy See to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Msgr. Janusz S. Urbańczyk, addressed the Organization’s High Level Meeting on the 20th Anniversary of the Hague Recommendations on the Education Rights of National Minorities, taking place Wednesday and Thursday of this week in Geneva.
Below, please find the official English version of his prepared remarks
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Mr. Chairman,
The Holy See takes this opportunity to reiterate its gratitude to the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities for her role in providing early warnings and, as appropriate, early action in relation to tensions involving national minority issues that have conflict potential within the OSCE area.
We are gathered here today to reflect on the Hague Recommendations which were not intended to be comprehensive but to serve as a general framework whose goal was to “assist States in the process of minority education policy development”.
At this point in human history, when various negative forces threaten the legitimate aspirations for peaceful co-existence that exist in many regions of the world, my Delegation would like to use this opportunity to explore the responsibility shared by all participating States, as well as by civil society, in doing everything possible to educate their people, especially the young, so that they become peace-makers and promoters of true tolerance and nondiscrimination.
The Holy See wishes to underline the importance of the religious identity of national minorities. It has a distinctive duty to insist on the role of religion, not for purely partisan reasons nor because it is uninterested in other aspects of the issue, but because it feels that religion has left, and continues to leave, a mark in the history, identity, culture and social life of our societies and communities.
Education, especially at school, plays a great role in the promotion of religious tolerance and non-discrimination because it addresses the roots of the phenomenon. Mingling with students who belong to different religions is in itself a great help to understand the unity of mankind. Moreover, it is important that schools teach about different religions and allow each student to manifest and express plainly and openly her or his belief. Knowledge about the other’s religion can reduce harmful misunderstandings and stereotypes.
Educational programmes should be developed and strengthened in order to promote a better understanding and respect for different cultures, ethnicities and religions. These programmes should also hand on some paramount values like the dignity of every person and the solidarity amon g peoples. Education in respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms is no less important, both for students at all levels, as well as for students attending military, police and public service schools.
According to the indivisibility, interdependence and interrelation of human dimension commitments, in developing and implementing these programmes, participating States should always respect the right of parents to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions, a right that is enshrined in both the International Covenants on Human Rights as well as in the OSCE commitments.
In this regard, it should be noted that such parental right s do not imply only the right of parents to choose their children’s schools, other than those established by public authorities, or the rights to establish and manage alternative educational institutions; it also requires States to ensure that instruction in public schools does not pursue an aim of indoctrination and to ensure that children are not forced to attend lessons that are inconsistent with the convictions of their parents.
Many States, in fact, provide – or intend to provide – in public schools, compulsory classes on ethical or religious subjects. Such instruction is appreciated but it should be borne in mind that States cannot pursue an aim of indoctrination and that children shouldn’t be forced to participate in courses that are not consistent with the convictions of their parents. Therefore, it is preferable that such teachings be facultative, and, when they are compulsory, participating States should provide non-punitive and non-discriminatory opt-out possibilities.
In the Catholic Church’s view, all people of whatever race, nation, religion, sex or age, in virtue of their dignity as human persons, have an inalienable right to education. This education should be suitable to the particular destiny of the individual person, and should be conducive to fraternal relations within diverse societies in order to build stable multi-ethnic societies and promote true unity and peace between the countries of the OSCE region.
Children and young people who are molded by an education oriented towards respect for national and religious minorities today, will be the building blocks on which the society of tomorrow can be constructed. But in order to reach that goal, there is a long way to go, since building a just and peaceful society: “requires a wholehearted commitment to eliminate not only evident discrimination but also all barriers that divide groups…The increased awareness… regarding the situation of minority groups constitutes for our own times a hopeful sign for the coming generations and for the aspirations of minority groups themselves… respect for minorities is to be considered the touchstone of social harmony and the index of the civic maturity attained by a country and its institutions” .
Finally, my Delegation is confident that, through the commitments of the OSCE and the efforts of its High Commissioner on National Minorities, participating States will make progress in ensuring that national minorities enjoy a quality education that will be a helpful tool in preventing conflicts, by inculcating values of tolerance, pluralism, respect and international and intercommunal harmony, capable of preserving regional peace and security.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday prayed for the victims of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station disaster 30 years from the tragedy.
Addressing the various groups of pilgrims of different nationalities present in St. Peter’s Square for the General Audience , the Pope had special greetings for those from Ukraine and Belarus.
Mentioning the International Conference that has been organized to mark the anniversary, Pope Francis said he is “praying for the victims of that disaster while expressing appreciation and gratitude to those who have assisted them and for the initiatives aimed at alleviating their suffering and the damage.”
Vatican Radio’s Linda Bordoni asked Kate Hudson, General Secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, to recall what happened at Chernobyl on April 26, 1986:
Listen :
Kate Hudson explains that during routine activity at the Nuclear Power Station there was an unexpected power surge and attempts to deal with it the resulting in a reactor fire which provoked an enormous disaster at the Power Station.
She says it was located in the former Western Soviet Union, just inside the Ukrainian border, but it “very much impacted on Belarus and Russia and of course Western Europe as well eventually, through the transportation by air and the weather systems of the radiation”.
Hudson says the result was an absolute catastrophe for the local population: “the nearest city, Pribyat, had to be evacuated and hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated from the area and permanently re-located away from their homes”.
“Of course the environmental consequences – huge areas that are not allowed to be lived in – the health consequences are still very much with the community there. The instances of childhood thyroid cancer and leukemia are very much more prevalent in that area” she says.
Hudson points out that it is a tragedy ongoing.
”It was wonderful to hear the Pope’s words on this subject: his humanitarian response to the needs of that community and of the support that they continue to receive” she says.
Kate Hudson goes on to speak of the 2011 Nuclear Power Station disaster in Fukushima and of how, in many respects, it does not appear that the world has learnt its lesson.
She talks of the need to be vigilant and to advocate for alternative energy production, of the many large and small nuclear power station incidents that have happened and continue to take place, and of the role of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
“We urge people to look at the consequences of government decisions, whether they are on nuclear energy or on nuclear weapons: it’s a technology that is too dangerous to retain” she says.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis this week presided over the first meeting of the XIV Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops. A statement released on Wednesday said the meeting, which took place from 18-19 April, began with a speech by the Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri. In his remarks, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri thanked Pope Francis for his presence, as well as for the recent publication of the , Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia. The Ordinary Council then considered the results of the consultation taken to identify the theme of the next Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. The consultation included offices of the Roman Curia, Episcopal Conferences, the Eastern Churches, and the Union of Superiors General. After much discussion, a list of proposed topics was submitted to the Holy Father for his consideration. Finally, the members of the Council discussed the revision of the Ordo of the Synod of Bishops. Bishop Fabio Fabene, the Under-Secretary of the Synod of Bishops, gave a report on the study seminar organized by the Secretariat following the speech given by Pope Francis on October 17, 2015. From earlier group discussions on the matter, it emerged that synodality and collegiality must always be joined with the exercise of the ministry of the Bishop of Rome, in a way which fruitfully combines primacy, collegiality and synodality. (from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) In his continuing catechesis for this Holy Year of Mercy during his weekly General Audience, Pope Francis drew inspiration from the Gospel episode of Jesus’ dinner at the home of Simon the Pharisee.
He said, “All of us are sinners, so many times we fall into the temptation of hypocrisy, believing that we are better than the other ”, but he continued, look at your sin, all of us need to look at our sins, our mistakes and look to the Lord,” because, he added, “this is the lifeline, the relationship between the sinner and the Lord.”
The Pope was referring to the story from St Luke in which a woman known as a sinner comes up to Jesus, and bathes his feet in her tears and anoints them with precious perfume, but the Pharisee judges the woman by appearances. However, Jesus, underlined the Holy Father, distinguishes between the “sin and the sinner.”
The Lord, continued Pope Francis teaches Simon that “the woman’s act, as an expression of faith and trust in God’s mercy has merited the forgiveness of her sins.”
The Pope told the faithful gathered in St Peter’s Square, it is a lesson for us all that “God’s mercy reaches out to everyone; it overcomes prejudice and surmounts all barriers.”
He added, that “through faith in Christ, we too have received the forgiveness of our sins and the new life of grace.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis during his weekly General Audience on Wednesday again appealed for Ukraine, reminding those gathering in St Peter’s Square that for a long time the country’s population has been suffering the consequences of armed conflict, forgotten, he said, by many.
On April 3 rd during his Regina Coeli address the Pope announced a special charity collection to support the people of Ukraine telling the faithful it would be possible to contribute to the collection in all Catholic Churches in Europe on Sunday April 24 th and saying that, “this gesture of charity, beyond alleviating material suffering, expresses my personal closeness and the solidarity of the entire Church”.
On Wednesday, the Holy Father thanked in advance those who will contribute generously to this initiative this weekend.
The Pope also greeted pilgrims from Ukraine and Belarus on the occasion of an international conference marking the 30 th anniversary of the tragedy at Chernobyl. While praying for the victims of the disaster, he expressed gratitude to all those involved in alleviating their suffering.
During the Audience and speaking in Spanish, Pope Francis also expressed his closeness to the people of Ecuador who were hit at the weekend by a massive earthquake which has left over 500 people dead.
(from Vatican Radio)…