Church in the World

Spanish teachers to sign petition against education law

Europe

Spain's bishops are urging parishioners and teachers of the Catholic religion across the country to sign a petition against government plans to lower the status of religious education in state schools.

The campaign comes nearly a month after the Spanish Bishops' Conference promised a series of initiatives to tackle the Socialist Government's plans on social and educational policy. Catholic educational groups allege that proposed Socialist reforms amount to a "relegation" of religion in the classroom.

Between 400 and 500 petition forms were distributed in Madrid on 14 October at a meeting of staff who teach the Catholic religion in state schools. Worded
by the Bishops' Conference, the petition charges that the state "is not competent" in dealing with religious education on its own.

The Socialist Government is considering whether to make Catholicism a subject that is both optional and ungraded in state schools. This proposal contrasts strongly with Conservative reforms passed last year which would have made religious education both compulsory and graded.

On winning power in March, the Socialists froze the Conservative reforms, which would have come into effect in September. Last month, the Spanish education ministry released an online questionnaire about its new education proposals.

The Bishops' petition has been drawn up to respond directly to this questionnaire, openly rejecting the Government's plans. The petition describes the Government's promise to incorporate religion into other assessed subjects, such as history or philosophy, as "inadequate". It also defends the position of religious education at the heart of the curriculum, adding that "the State is not competent in this formative subject".

This petition will soon be distributed among the rest of Spain's 9,000 Catholic schoolteachers, who are appointed and trained by the Church, but whose salaries are paid by the state.

The bishops have also thrown their weight behind a similar petition that aims to gather signatures from parishioners opposed to the Socialists' educational reforms. The lay group, Catholic Confederation of Parents of Pupils (CONCAPA), has been distributing such a petition for many months now, and says it has assembled half a million names so far. Last Thursday, the bishops' education commission announced plans for a nationwide Platform in Defence of Religious Education to further the reach of the existing CONCAPA petition.

The Government, meanwhile, cites its consultative questionnaire as an example of its good faith on educational reform.

The ruling Socialists have also guaranteed 101.4 million euros next year to pay the salaries of Spain's 9,000 Church-appointed teachers of Catholic religion - an increase on last year's expenditure.

Supporters of the Socialists' educational policy also point out that parents can still choose, if they wish, Catholic education for their children, a choice guaranteed by the 1979 Spain-Vatican accords.
Julius Purcell, Barcelona

|snip!| Violence may erupt in Beslan, Archbishop warns. As 40 days of mourning for the hundreds of people killed in last month's Beslan school massacre in North Ossetia came to an end last week, Orthodox officials warned that further violence may escalate in the volatile region of North Caucasus. According to Archbishop Feofan of Stavropol and Vladikavkaz, the relatives of the Beslan victims blamed the 3 September tragedy on the neighbouring Ingush and are debating whether to seek revenge. "People are still full of anger and violence can erupt at any time", Feofan told the Russian media last week. The Beslan massacre left more than 330 children, school teachers, and other adults dead. Feofan remained on Beslan's central square together with the relatives of hostages during all the three days of the crisis in early September and has been in close contact with the victim families ever since.

Bad blood between predominantly Christian Ossetians and Muslim Ingush goes back to 1992, when the Ingush attempted to reclaim land they occupied before being sent into exile by Stalin in 1944. Scores of Ingush were deported to Siberia, and their land was handed over to North Ossetians.

Hundreds of people died in fighting over North Ossetia's Prigorodny district in 1992, and thousands of Ingush fled the republic. About 21,000 Ingush are believed to remain in North Ossetia today.

As the September hostage drama in Beslan escalated the Ingush were immediately blamed for organising the raid. The group of 32 terrorists who seized the Beslan school trained across the border in Ingushetia and most of them were ethnic Ingush and Chechens, according to investigators of the attack. The Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, who claimed responsibility for the hostage-taking, said in a statement on a rebel web site that nine of the terrorists were Ingush.

Since the Beslan massacre, leaflets have been hung on buildings in North Ossetia demanding that Ingush people leave the republic before the mourning period ends and threatening them with violence if they stay.

Remembrance services for Beslan victims were held in Russian Orthodox churches across the country last week. "Revenge is not a solution", Feofan said at a special service in Beslan.

The Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, Alexis II, said "Malicious people tried to sow discord in our society, but their schemes flopped, because our people always stand united to face the times of trial and we definitely saw how our compatriots sympathised with the victims of the tragedy."
Josef Pazderka, Prague