EUROPE/SPAIN - Bishops in southern Spain denounce educational problems in proposed Organic Education Law: so far parents demands have been completely ignored

Cordova (Fides Service) - Support for the 12 November protest in Madrid against a proposed LOE Organic Education Law has come also from the Catholic Bishops of southern Spain who issued a statement expressing “serious pastoral concern for the educational problems the country is living”.
In the statement the Bishops reject “any curtailing of parents rights to decide how children are education” and describe the LOE’s proposal with regard to religious instruction in schools as “unacceptable”. They say the juridical status foreseen for teachers of religious instruction “is not correct” and that the dignity of the profession must be respected.
Recalling important social initiatives by schools with a Catholic Education Project, in great demand among parents, the Bishops say there is no guarantee that this project will survive and maintain its confessional identity and this would be a violation of the constitutional principles of freedom of education. They also stress the need to respect parents’ right to choose a school and education for their children according to their own moral and religious convictions.
The statement issued by the Catholic Bishops of southern Spain concludes by calling for a state school pact to give stability to the education system and create suitable conditions to undertake the urgent task of improving the quality of education. To do this, the Bishops say, the government must listen to parents and so far, they lament, the demands of parents have been given no consideration at all. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 10/11/2005, righe 19, parole 255)