With the style of don Bosco

“Europeans – some 707 millions of them, including the European parts of Russia and Turkey – are by a large majority Christian (560 million, of whom 285 Catholic; 161 Orthodox; 77 Protestant; 26 Anglican; and 11 other)”. But Judaism, with 2.5 million faithful, also belongs to the historical roots of Europe. Also present in the continent are some 35 million Muslims (5 million in France alone), 2.5 million Buddhists and numerous followers of so-called “alternative religions”. This, in sum, is the religious situation of Europe described by Monsignor ALDO GIORDANO, general secretary of the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE) , in his address to the recent meeting held in Rome on “Europe: mission land”. Promoted by the Congregation of the Salesians, with the aim of raising awareness of the need for evangelization and the challenges it poses in Europe, the meeting was attended by over 150 religious and laity from 20 Salesian inspectorates of 11 different countries of the continent. In Europe the Salesian congregation comprises some 7,500 religious and almost 300 schools with a student population of 154,000 children. The Salesians also run 117 professional training centres with 30,000 young apprentices; a further 200,000 children and adolescents are involved in the congregation’s youth centres. 5,000 students live in university hostels and student homes run by the Congregation and a further 9,000 are involved in its projects of social promotion and recuperation. THE NEW SCENARIO . “With the fall of the Berlin Wall – explained Msgr. Giordano – the European ecumenical scenario also changed: the fundamental problem that needs to be addressed” seems to be now that of the dialogue “between Latin tradition and oriental tradition”, with which “painful questions” are bound up, such as “that of proselytism or the relation between Orthodox Churches and Greek-Catholic Churches”. A further problem for the Churches of Eastern Europe is that of “the secularisation of the West”: according to the CCEE President, “East and West must tackle this problem together”. As for ecumenism, Giordano pointed out the “paradox” according to which “there’s great theological and spiritual affinity with the Orthodox Churches, the greatest difficulty being that regarding the question of primacy”, but in reality we are separated from them by “a great cultural, historical and psychological divide”. With the Reformation Churches, on the other hand, in Giordano’s view, “there is a closer cultural and historical affinity, while the theological difficulties are greater, especially of ecclesiological type: primacy, apostolic succession, ministries, sacraments”. Also ethical questions “separate us, especially those concerning bioethics and the protection of life”, concluded Monsignor Giordano. EAST AS THERAPY FOR THE WEST. Eastern Europe, which “still powerfully feels the presence of religion in culture and civil society in several countries”, may “become a therapy for a secularized Europe averse to religious experience”, suggested the Rector Major of the Salesians, Don PASCUAL CHÁVEZ VILLANUEVA . In his view, “the re-evangelization of an increasingly de-christianized Europe is an urgent task for the whole Church” and “is the necessary response to the claim of wishing to cancel God from the life of European citizens”, and reduce “religious convictions to a personal choice”, without reflections “on culture and on society”. Today, “Europe is a mission land”, declared don Chávez, who also pointed out the “secret” for the new evangelization: “a strong experience of God that arouses people from their somnolence” and “communities that help to mature in faith because they are creative minorities capable of changing the reigning culture”. THE JOY OF A PRESENCE. “An ever more secularised environment”, characterized by “a trivial and marginal view of faith and the Church that are perceived as an obstacle to human development and freedom”, but, at the same time, “a society that is charged with questions about the meaning of life, suffering and death”: that, in short, is the European context described in the final document of the meeting. “Complaining about the present, or indulging in nostalgia for the past, will not help us to become real evangelisers”, says the document. There is therefore an urgent need to “adopt a more explicit method of evangelization” and a “language suited to dialogue with youth culture, and able to present the Good News” as “a message of joy and of hope”. For the Salesians, moreover, there is a need to “rediscover, by following the example of their founder Don Bosco, the joy of an animating presence among the young and the personal accompaniment of each one of them”. Some guidelines for action flow from this: greater collaboration between parishes and youth clubs; a two-year project of formation for laypeople with particular attention to the evangelization of families and young couples; and a “more creative” use of the means of communication. With reference to the latter, a Salesian website will be launched in 2007.