The notorious Monsignor Derio Olivero, Bishop of Pinerolo, President of
the Ecumenical Commission of the Italian Bishops' Conference, has
proposed to abolish the optional hour of Catholic religion in state
schools and replace it with a compulsory hour of "religious pluralism".
The
Church official made his proposal public in the Rivista del clero
italiano. 'No longer an optional Catholic religion lesson, but a
compulsory lesson on the religious phenomenon in a pluralistic key, in
order to accustom the student to becoming a citizen capable of better
understanding the society in which he finds himself,' he wrote.
In
this way, the [Novus Ordo] Church 'will be able to take a step
backwards, renouncing a space that rightly belongs to it, in order to
make society [whatever that may be] take a step forward. Religious
pluralism, understood as an educational theme, helps to rethink
secularism in an inclusive way'.
Olivero's hidden motive may be
that the compulsory "inter-religious" lessons would be assigned to the
current "religious" teachers, which would mean more money for them.
Apart
from that, "religious" education in the context of the Novus Ordo
Church has been so watered down that pupils would hardly notice if
"religion" were replaced by "inter-religion" or by nothing at all.
Following his proposal, it is likely that Olivero will be on Francis' next list of cardinals.
Picture: Derio Olivero © wikicommons, CC BY-SA, #newsNycvtfqdaf