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An open letter addressed to the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon and the Bishop of Aveiro criticizes the association of the two prelates to the manifesto In defense of educational freedoms – against mandatory citizen discipline -, that “represents a new manifestation of a disappointing and undesirable conservatism.”
“To avoid new associations of this type, we challenge our bishops and the entire Church to better reflect on the paths we follow, asking ourselves where Jesus Christ is in the choices we make,” explains the letter addressed to Manuel Clemente and António. Windmill.
The bishops’ subscription to the document “represents a new manifestation of a disappointing and undesirable conservatism and a new sign in the very worrying movement of rapprochement” and, at times, of alignment “between the” Church and the political forces well identified with the right and even the rightmost one. “
This “group of Catholic citizens”, as they identify themselves, therefore questions whether Christ is “a force of faith for good, a motivator for transformation and solidarity, or is a distorted instrument or pretext for political legitimation.”
Among the 22 subscribers to this letter are Maria João Sande Lemos, from the movement We are Church the university professor Manuel Brandão Alves and the journalist Jorge Wemans.
“We want to say, frankly as Christians, that it is due to our bishops, that your support by subscribing and adding the In defense of freedom of education Faced with the compulsory nature of the Education for Citizenship and Development classes in basic education, we were disappointed and upset, ”the open letter says.
A disastrous form of civic intervention by the Church
The subscribers of the letter consider that the “signing of said manifesto is a disastrous form of civic intervention”, which can be felt “as an aggression against Catholics who do not see themselves” in the document.
Observed The “programmatic contents of the discipline” do not “foresee issues that may, in themselves, be inconvenient or in any way inappropriate for the training of young people,” the letter continues.
The group considers that gender equality, which “is not an ideology, as the Portuguese Episcopal Conference (CEP) and the” conservative Catholic circles “erroneously insist, was the” great motivation “for the position of patriarch of Lisbon and the bishop of Aveiro.
Citizenship “is not an option, but, at the same time, a right and a duty of all”, from which “Christians must not only be exempt, but for whose realization they must fight.”
To say that it is granted, of course, that education is not neutral, which should never disturb the subscribers of the manifesto (or at least our bishops), since it always has a purpose and this, in this case, is positive and socially fair, it is, therefore, a value and not a devaluation ”, continues the open letter.
For this reason, the association of the two bishops to the manifesto – which also has the support of the former president of the Republic Cavaco Silva and Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho (PSD), as well as the former centrist presidents Adriano Moreira and Ribeiro e Castro – was “unnecessary”. and politically and pastorally irresponsible. “
