Madrid, Spain, Aug 22, 2007 / 09:00 am
Bishop Jose Sanchez of Sigüenza-Guadalajara announced he will ask families next Sunday to demand religion be taught in the schools their children attend.
In his most recent pastoral letter, Bishop Sanchez said parents have the right to request religious education for their children based on the Spanish constitution and on the accords between Spain and the Holy See.
“To take religion out of schools,” he said, “would give the impression that it is something problematic, that it is not something that should be learned like other subjects, or that it is irrelevant and that it’s not worth giving it the time that is taken away from other subjects.”
In a reference to the Education for Citizenship course, Bishop Sanchez also noted that parents “have the right to not have their children bothered or confused in their convictions and in their religious faith by the teaching of other subjects.”
He pointed out that “good Christian education will also result not only in good Christians but in good citizens. Free citizens, always respectful, but critical, as well, of the powers of this world.”