“There are signs that suggest a positive breakthrough in the Church and society, as far as vocations are concerned”, declared Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, president of the Austrian Bishops’ Conference on 20 June, during the press conference held together with the Hungarian primate Cardinal Peter Erdö at Mariazell. The Marian sanctuary, popular goal of pilgrimages, which had hosted the Katholikentag of the Catholics of Central Europe (MEKT) in 2004, was the chosen venue of a meeting between the bishops of both Conferences – Austrian and Hungarian – who met for the first time together. A positive trend in terms of vocations in Hungary too was reported by Cardinal Erdö, who said that the new vocations to the priesthood, in contrast to what had happened in the past until a decade ago, are being encountered in young men from “families mainly of intellectuals, who live in urban contexts”. “In spite of resistance and problems, the priesthood still remains a rewarding path”, said Schönborn, adding: “There’s no lack of vocations. God calls people to his service”. Apart from the question of vocations, the two cardinals expressed their own positive view about the joint plenary meeting of the bishops at Mariazell. “This is the first joint meeting of Hungarian and Austrian bishops in 150 years” (i.e. since the time of the Habsburgs), recalled Cardinal Erdö. During the meeting, a number of other topical questions were discussed: European integration, the European Constitution, the protection of life in all its forms, the family and more specific issues such as the pastoral ministry to Hungarians in Austria and the hospitality given to Hungarian pilgrims in Mariazell itself. “The exchange of views between the bishops of neighbouring countries is particularly important for the Hungarian Church to enable it to tackle its own mission and service to society”, said Erdö, who cited the Austrian experience of the civic mission, in particular that of the city of Vienna, as something worth imitating. He announced that Budapest would have its own civic mission in 2007. On the European Constitution, Schönborn underlined the unanimous position of the Hungarian and Austrian bishops: “The fact that the institutional dialogue between Churches and religious communities on the one hand, and EU institutions on the other, has been sanctioned [in the Constitution] is positive. The bishops are however astonished”, he added, “by the fact that it proved impossible to insert a reference to God and to the Christian roots of the continent in its preamble, in spite of the fact that 80% of Europeans declare themselves Christian”.
