- Title: SLOVAKIA: POPE JOHN PAUL II WILL VISIT SLOVAKIA THIS WEEK
- Date: 11th September 2003
- Summary: (EUROPE) BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA (SEPTEMBER 9, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. GV PAN SHOT OF BRATISLAVA SKYLINE; SLV CATHOLIC CHURCH; MV STATUES (4 SHOTS) 0.18 2. SOUNDBITE (Slovak) VOX POPS, AN OLD MAN SPEAKING SAYING "The Pope belongs to the top World authorities and he deserves to be appropriately welcomed. However, personally I think that everyone has the right to treat him in accordance with their religious beliefs." 0.35 3. SOUNDBITE (Slovak) VOX POPS, A MAN SPEAKING SAYING "Certainly it is a big event but in my opinion the Christian believers should have been the ones to cover the expenses of this visit and not the state. I would be more than willing to contribute to this event." 0.46 4. SOUNDBITE (Slovak) VOX POPS, A YOUNG GIRL SPEAKING SAYING: "I will not be there for his visit because there will be too many people and I don't like crowds. It is a shame he is not coming to Eastern Slovakia where I come from, so I will not see him." (TRAM PASSES BY) 1.13 5. MV/SCU INTERVIEW WITH THE POLITICAL ANALYST 1.21 6. SOUNDBITE (English) MICHAEL VASECKA, POLITICAL ANALYST SPEAKING SAYING "This visit however is probably going to be in support of the Christian-democrats who at the moment are struggling with Liberal side of the society about issues like abortion and about so called religious education in schools. This is probably the most important dispute of Slovak society in the year 2003 and in the upcoming years. Pope's message will probably very much support positions of Christian-democrats." 2.00 7. SCU BOARD ON WALL READING IN SLOVAK SLOVAKIAN APOSTOLIC NUNCIATE WHERE THE POPE IS GOING TO BE STAYING DURING HIS VISIT TO SLOVAKIA; SLV EXTERIOR OF SLOVAKIAN APOSTOLIC NUNCIATE (3 SHOTS) 2.16 9. SLV/MV WORKERS BUILDING STAGE FOR POPE'S MASS (5 SHOTS) 2.58 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 26th September 2003 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA
- Country: Slovakia
- Reuters ID: LVAEY3L6ZIVAFAUGHM2FDJ1CY8NF
- Story Text: Pope John Paul II will visit Slovakia this week,
making another foray into central Europe to promote
traditional Christian values.
The trip has intensified a row over the role of
the Catholic Church in state affairs that has split the
rightist cabinet and worried young progressive Slovaks who
are drawn by the more secular values of western Europe.
The 83-year-old Pontiff's fragile health will be under
the spotlight during the four-day trip, his 102nd abroad
and his third to Slovakia, during which he will tour the
west Slovak town of Trnava and head east to Banska Bystrica
and Roznova.
His visit will finish on Sunday with an outdoor mass in
a communist-era housing development in Bratislava, where he
will beatify Greek Orthodox Bishop Vasil Hopko and nun
Zdenka Schelingova, who the communists persecuted in the
1950s.
According to Archbishop Jan Sokol, the Pope will urge
Slovaks to enter the EU, but with Christian roots, which
analysts say is a key element of Vatican plans to push for
more traditional values in the expanded European Union.
In Slovakia, that means support for contentious
initiatives pursued by religious-conservative politicians
to block laws barring discrimination against gays, prevent
abortion, and push for Catholic doctrine to be taught in
state schools.
Joblessness and poverty are still common as Slovakia
struggles to embrace capitalism and democracy, and many of
Slovakia's 5.4 million people, 70 percent of them Catholic,
look to the Pope for spiritual encouragement in the face of
an onslaught of liberal ideas and commercialism from the
West.
"It's wonderful that he's coming," said Mardita
Ludasova, an 83-year-old pensioner selling flowers on a
street in Bratislava.
Media have complained that the visits 80 million crown
(2.2 million USD) price tag means worthy projects will go
unfunded.
More significant is the growing political battle
between liberal secularists and religious conservatives
over the influence of the Catholic Church on public policy.
The Church has joined the Christian Democrats, a small
but vocal party in the ruling coalition, to secure
government funds for Church-run schools and may win
approval for a treaty with the Vatican requiring religious
instruction in state schools.
The Christian Democrats have also blocked a law
required by the European Union that would give gays equal
rights in the workplace and are fighting in the
Constitutional Court to strike down Slovak laws allowing
abortion.
The result has been open hostility between the
Christian Democrats and their liberal ruling partners that
threatened to topple the government last month and is
worrying young, progressive liberals.
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