NOT COMPETENT SAYS CHURCH

The Catholic Church has decided to make an all-out effort to fight the Socialist government's educational reform which eliminates religious teaching in State schools. Church authorities have called on religious instruction teachers, who are paid by the government but chosen by the bishops, to sign a document backing the former Partido Popular government's Quality of Education Law, which contains a clause making religious instruction compulsory in State schools. They have also been asked to send a letter prepared by the Episcopal Conference to the Ministry of Education which sets out the argument to prove "the State is not competent" in matters of religious formation. A petition has also been sent to all priests, to be handed out and signed after Sunday mass.