The first task” “

During the plenary assembly of the Council of Episcopal Conferences of Europe (CCEE), to be held in Sarajevo from 3 to 6 October, the presidents of 34 Bishops’ Conferences will publish a reflection by Bishop Amédée Grab of Chur (Switzerland), president of the CCEE. The preaching of the Gospel in Europe is our first task. As Council of the Episcopal Conferences of Europe, we are impelled by the need to proclaim the Word of God in the current situation of our continent. Although the situation in central and eastern Europe is different from that in western Europe, we are conscious of the fact that the preaching of the Good News requires our maximum effort everywhere. Many of us were present at World Youth Day in Toronto. Many European youth participated and accepted Christ’s invitation, making it a programme for their life: “You are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world”. If they have not forgotten that invitation, today those same youngsters will ask us how to be salt of the earth and light of the world. We must give them an answer, and not simply in terms of encouragement. The delegates at the symposium of the European bishops held in Rome at the end of April this year clearly said so. We have the responsibility to make the preaching of the Church understandable and the places in which the community of faith may be realized, accessible to them. Performing a constant ecclesial work with the young is more difficult today than the organization of big events. Being able to experience something powerful even in daily life is today one of the greatest expectations the men and women of this continent have of the Church. In the course of the last meeting promoted by the Pontifical Council for interreligious dialogue and by the CCEE in Strasbourg two weeks ago on the theme of Buddhism in Europe, the following question was tackled: Why are ever more people in our countries seeking a spiritual home in Buddhism? It’s not enough to permit access to the centres of community life in the parishes and movements, in a period of growing individualism. What’s needed is to act is such a way that spirituality may become part of people’s daily experience. In our Europe, many don’t expressly pose questions about our faith, and don’t in the least ask us to account for the hope that is in us. But the witness of faith that occurs in an open, non polemical way, born from love, opens the hearts of many of our European fellow-citizens, especially if it is combined with the witness of love. Our social commitment, our care for the sick, of social outcasts, of immigrants and refugees, our proposals for families, for politicians, for artists, for professionals in the world of art and the media, are being increasingly accepted. All this, without forgetting the problems of dialogue between the Church and political life within the European Union, also in view of its future enlargement, nor the more burning ethical problems of our time: bioethics, euthanasia, paedophilia. Our preaching must directly concern itself with these problems, which presupposes sound knowledge and constant collaboration with the political protagonists and with science. September 11, 2001 shocked the world and brought home to everyone that the survival of humanity depends on the urgent need to define the bases of co-existence between all peoples. The fight against poverty, the recognition of the human dignity of the poor, the availability of water, access to healthcare, education, effective recognition of human rights: to the great problems of our time will also be dedicated our work in the days ahead.