I am one of the Protestant teachers at a Catholic school of the diocese of Mainz. Before the winter break, one of our music teachers asked if a group of students and colleagues would sing at the Bishop's New Year's reception, which was today. I agreed to take part, because I like singing and Bishop Cardinal Lehmann is one of the Catholic bishops in Germany I like and respect a lot.
In his short speech he talked about the terrible earthquake in Haiti. He talked about how Haiti became one of the poorest countries in the world and he talked about the responsibility that we in the Western world have. How our exploitation made countries like Haiti poor. This was kind of remarkable, because I had not expected a Catholic bishop to be so outspoken on political issues, but, as I said, Bishop Lehmann is a special person.
Anyway, the choir sang very well. It was wonderful to see these young people who had sacrificed free time for rehearsals and a Saturday for the event. In the end the choir was given an envelope with 200 Euros to spend on some fun activity. The man who gave it to them said explicitly that this money was not for the music department, but for the members of this choir.
It took them five minutes to decide to donate the money for the earthquake victims in Haiti. None of us teachers had anything to do with it, it was the students' own decision.
Seeing this made me very happy - as long as there are young people like these in this world, we can be hopeful.
(Photo: Mainz Cathedral, www.mainz.de)
Great story!
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