Madrid, Spain, Nov 4, 2004 / 22:00 pm
In a pastoral letter issued this week, Archbishop Agustin Garcia-Gasco of Valencia, Spain, said today in Europe there is a strong temptation to promote the political and intellectual persecution of believers. “Nothing good can come from these attitudes,” he stated.
“Attacking Christianity promotes neither freedom nor the happiness of citizens,” said the Archbishop, adding that “today in Europe, among political leaders there is a strong temptation to promote attitudes that intellectually and politically persecute believers.”
In his letter entitled, “The Purpose of Education,” the Archbishop defended the commitment to education as a commitment “to the freedom and happiness of those we are educating,” and he added that “without this commitment it is impossible to educate.”
Archbishop Garcia-Gasco criticized those states that “take advantage of the common good” rather than “serve the common good.” Such states try to make people “submit to the particular projects of the government and seek a monopoly on education, as well as making schools and universities uniform and indistinguishable in order to have more control over society.”