Time of responsibility” “

A new stage in the contribution that the Church can make to the process of European integration: that is the sense of the congress that COMECE, the Commission of the Episcopates of the European Community, has been holding (from 21 to 23 April) at Santiago de Compostela, at the end of the pilgrimage that started out from Santo Domingo de Silos on 17 April. The Congress, with the title “European Union: hope and responsibility. Theological readings of the future of united Europe”, has brought together some 140 representatives of the Episcopal Conferences of the 25 member countries of the EU and various experts and academics from the four corners of the continent. Various contributions have been made by politicians and academics, including PETER SERRACINO INGLOTT , former rector of the University of Malta and representative of his country to the Convention, and MICHEL CAMDESSUS , president of the Semaines Sociales of French Catholics. THE CONTRIBUTION OF CHRISTIANITY TO EUROPE. The archbishop of Santiago de Compostela, Msgr. JULIAN BARRIO BARRIO, who opened the congress, explains: “The theme we wished to tackle at this congress was suggested to us by some imminent deadlines of the EU, beginning with enlargement on 1st May. The Pope has given us a key to interpreting this phase and an indication of the task of Christians: that of contributing to build a Europe of peace that finds its vital source in the Gospel. This continent has a need for hope and we are called to make it present and concrete with a responsible involvement in the situations of men and women in our time”. According to the archbishop, “the Union will be fruitful for its citizens and enduring so long as it is able to recognise its own Christian origins”. Julian Barrio Barrio devotes priority attention to the young: “We must look to the future in our countries and in our continent, and to do se we must involve the young who are the embodiment of our future hope”. “With this congress our aim was to reflect on the contribution that Christianity can make to united Europe”, says Msgr. JOSEF HOMEYER, bishop of Hildesheim and president of COMECE. Homeyer, in his keynote address, insists of the significance of the Beatitudes, a significance “which is not just religious and spiritual, but also political. It’s a message for people today and for those of us who are engaged in realizing a Europe founded on the rule of law, development and peace. Particularly striking – continues Homeyer – is the passage in which Jesus affirms: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. This Beatitude involves us at the social level: it indicates to us a precise task in the polis. So faith is not a legacy to be relegated to the private sphere: it must strengthen and inspire our everyday life”. Also for this reason, “Christians and the Church as a whole must feel committed to the denunciation of injustices and to the attainment of a life of peace that may give to each and everyone the opportunity to achieve self-fulfilment. Christians need to work to defend the dignity of life and imbue citizens with hope”. Homeyer, however, does not disguise the difficulties of this task and the fact that “today Europe no longer appears as a multiconfessional continent. It has become instead a multireligious reality, in which an open dialogue between different identities and faiths, in the greatest mutual respect, is needed”. In this sense, according to Homeyer, a willingness to enter into dialogue between faith and intellect, between religion and the modern world, needs to be demonstrated by everyone, Islam included. LET’S OPEN OUR HEARTS. Msgr. HIPPOLYTE SIMON, archbishop of Clermont and vice-president of COMECE, opened the proceedings by presenting the reactions to the document Let’s Open Our Hearts, that the Commission of the episcopates of the European Community had sent to the Christian communities as preparation for imminent EU enlargement and the work of the intergovernmental Conference on drawing up a Constitution for the Union. Simon explains that the opinions collected will contribute to a second draft of the text, which “indicates the road of the full involvement of Catholics in the process of European integration”. The bishop further points out that “the EU is a great project, open to the contribution of the new countries that will enlarge the frontiers of the EU on 1st May. It’s a long and ambitious process, that is based on free membership, but that at the same time requires the progressive surrender of national sovereignty to the common institutions”. Simon explains to SirEurope that “Christian communities are close to each other and support this project, though reticent or sceptical Catholics are not lacking either. We therefore need to take these positions into account and pursue our effort of education and awareness-raising which the Pope too recommends to us with a view to realizing the ‘common European home'”. EUROPE AS PROMOTOR OF RIGHTS, DEMOCRACY AND PEACE IN THE WORLD. “A more united Europe may be useful for the development and prosperity of member countries, but may also become a way of promoting the defence of rights, democracy and peace in the world”. Msgr. ADRIANUS VAN LUYN, bishop of Rotterdam and vice-president of COMECE, stresses the role that the Union may play on the world scene. “If Europe is to do so – he says – it’s essential that within the Union, especially now with 25 member countries, a common spirit should prevail, and not national or particularist interests, as happened at the time of the drafting of the Treaty of Nice”. According to Van Luyn “this could lead to some states being called to make some concessions to the EU”. The Dutch bishop also poses the problem of the frontiers of Europe. He emphasises the need to clarify “how far the continent extends and, at the same time, to trace a possible scenario for cooperation with neighbouring countries”. For his part Msgr. GIUSEPPE MERISI, auxiliary bishop of Milan and member of COMECE, points out that “believers are called to renew a passion for evangelization and make a concrete commitment to the construction of Europe, in the way the Pope indicates in his Ecclesia in Europa“. And, with regard to the drafting of the Constitution, he points out: “We still hope in an explicit citation of the Christian roots in the Preamble to the Treaty. At the same time – he continues – we need to renew our commitment to bearing witness to the Christian heritage in everyday life, in such a way as to actualise the European historical legacy. I think this is the main sense of the document Let’s Open Our Hearts promoted by COMECE”. ALBANIA TOO IS “ROOTING” FOR THE UNION. Even those not immediately involved in it are “rooting” for the process of EU integration. Msgr. ANGELO MASSAFRA, bishop of Scutari, explains to SirEurope that “Albania is looking with attention and confidence to united Europe”. He also recalls that his country began roughly a year ago a process of “rapprochement” to the EU, with a membership application made by the government. “The forecasts are long term, but already Albanians are beginning to feel encouraged by the fact that the country is proceeding to a supranational union that has brought development, democracy and peace over the last fifty years. Albania was excluded from this ‘family’ by the Communist regime, but now that period has been overcome and our European culture and aspiration are re-emerging, albeit in the conviction of the need to safeguard what it is that is special about our national identity”. Massafra also recalls “the exertions but also the first positive results at the level of peaceful internal co-existence, social and political reforms and mutual respect between the religions. In this sense too the Albanian Catholic Church is engaged in fostering dialogue, mutual understanding and a new opening of the country to the international world”. Patrizia Caiffa and Gianni Borsa SIR correspondents at Santiago de Compostela The Pope at Lourdes? The president of the French Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Pierre Ricard, and Msgr. Jacques Perrier, bishop of Tarbes et Lourdes, have invited the Holy Father to go on pilgrimage to Lourdes on 15 August, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the promulgation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. The invitation is published in a communiqué issued by the French Bishops’ Conference today. The press release adds that “a delegation of the Holy See went to France to study the conditions in which such a pilgrimage might take place”.