Three paths” “

“The ethical and spiritual roots of our commitment in European society”: that’s the theme of the European Forum of the Laity that opened at Fatima, in Portugal on 2 July (it ends on 7 July). This is what emerged. “LAY CHRISTIANS HAVE A GREAT TO DO FOR THE FUTURE OF EUROPE”. “The courage was lacking to give a name to our identity, that of our past and that of our future”, said Bishop AMEDÉE GRAB, president of the CCEE (Council of the European Episcopal Conferences), expressing the “disappointment” of the Churches due to the lack of any reference to the Christian roots of Europe in the Constitutional Treaty. “But in spite of that – Bishop Grab says in a message read out at the Forum – it seems to me that there is a great deal for Christians to do, to fill with significance parts of the treaty such as art. 2, which enunciates the values on which Europe is based, or article 51, in which the churches are asked to be partners in regular dialogue with the institutions”. To lay Christians Msgr. Grab entrusts the task of “mediating between faith and life”, because it is “especially through studies and professional experiences that “competence on these questions” is developed”. The CCEE president indicates “three priority paths to be pursued” for the “re-unification of Europe”: first, “universality or catholicity”, which consists in a “unity without any type of frontiers, so that differences be not cancelled, but are realized in their identity”; second, ecumenism; and third, the meeting between religions, which “has assumed particular relevance after 11 September, 11 March 2004 in Spain and the crises of Iraq and the Holy Land”. “It seems almost as if religion has become fashionable – comments Msgr. Grab -. Paradoxically it may be said that terrorism has recalled the world’s attention to religions and their role for the construction (or destruction) of peace”. The bishop therefore appeals for a form of dialogue “without ambiguities or dangerous superficialities”: a dialogue that should concentrate in particular on examining the concepts of “truth, identity, dialogue, charity, and evangelization, in order to avoid sterile oppositions or reductions”. ARE CHRISTIANS ABLE TO DEMONSTRATE JOY AND HOPE? That’s the question posed by GEERT VAN DARTEL, referring to Vatican Council II’s Pastoral Constitution “ Gaudium et spes as a fundamental source of our commitment in European societies”. “As Christians – he says – we ought to be distinguished by deep joy and invincible hope. I am sorry to say so, but I cannot confirm, on the basis of my own experience, that joy and hope characterize in general the life of Christians. Moreover, the Christians who do demonstrate a too visible joie de vivre are often regarded by others with suspicion”. Today the challenge for the Church and for each Christian, he says, “is to reflect with renewed intensity on the meaning of the faith”. “To make the vision of the Church and of Europe effective, a new missionary impetus needs to inspire the Church at all levels and be developed in all directions of the European continent, so that the Gospel be proclaimed, celebrated and put into practice on a daily basis in society and culture”. To achieve this, we must ensure that the appeal to the missionary impetus be not confined “to the level of synods and conferences, otherwise it will remain nothing but a pious hope. It needs to penetrate into our personal lives and into our communities”. MAY A MINORITY CHURCH IN EUROPE HAVE A HAPPIER LIFE THAN OTHERS? It seems that the answer is yes, at least to judge from the account of the experience of the Church in Scandinavia made to the Forum by the Swede MAGNUS NYMAN, who describes it as “a rather strange mixture of converted intellectuals, a minority of [native] Catholics and an important number of recently arrived immigrants”. At Stockholm, for example, out of a population of two million only 100,000 participate in a Catholic liturgy on Sunday. In the parishes there are people coming from 90 different countries throughout the world. “One of the great advantages of being a minority – says Nyman – is that the Sunday Eucharist becomes a genuine ‘family’ celebration. Catholics recognise each other and during the meeting that follows mass they meet to chat and drink a cup of tea or coffee together; they see how people coming from various parts of the world can happily meet together. This creates optimism and enthusiasm among Catholics and we can honestly say that the faith unites peoples”. SPIRITUALITY AND SOLIDARITY, LIFE AS “LAST CHANCE”? A duality that is more than ever needed in contemporary society, which tends to transform people into categories “without value”: the unemployed, the disabled, the elderly, children. That is the analysis of PAUL M.ZULEHNER, who asks himself whether Europeans today are capable of expressing solidarity in their lives. “The answer is ambivalent – he points out -: there’s a strong desire for solidarity; we think that one of the most important things to teach a child is sharing. But often, before becoming a concrete action, our desire for solidarity is stifled by fears – especially by the fear of seeing our own prosperity diminished and our own desire to suffer as little as possible threatened”. “Even though life expectation has increased in our time – says Zulehner – paradoxically we do not live so long. In the past people lived to the age of 30 but believed in eternal live, whereas today life stops dead at 90. The consolation of living, believing in eternal life, has been replaced by a prolonged earthly life”. But this life as “last chance”, he observes, risks becoming “repressed, stressed, anguished and selfish, in other words drained of solidarity”. However, “a resistance to this type of life” is emerging, with the “revival of the spiritual quest of the 1990s, as a reaction against a more accentuated secularism”. Humanity – continues Zulehner – has a need for a “Church suited to its needs”: it needs “people who have experienced a direct relationship with God”. That is why “we need to find spiritual places, spiritual persons, spiritual rites”. “We need to invent a Church – he concludes – that tries to create a culture founded on community”, a Church that no longer blinds its eyes but that looks ahead, a Church able to integrate and not just show itself, by offering empathy and not just piety”. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF CATHOLICS. “Reconsidering the great question of relations between the organizations of the political system and those of the religious system”, in other words, relations between Church and State: that is one of the suggestions made by LUCA DIOTALLEVI, who urges that an alternative model be sought to the principle of “secularism”, in view of the many “controversies and difficulties that it is giving rise to today, ranging from the Islamic headscarf and the display of crucifixes in schoolrooms, to the question of the preamble of the European constitutional treaty”. With regard to the European questions, he recalls that “Catholic political culture and the political culture of continental Europe have in general found a solid point of contact”. But at the present time, he remarks, “the future of European public life seems once again to be thrown into doubt and Catholics themselves have their share of responsibility”.