For the common good

“In the contemporary world we are called to a new asceticism and to content ourselves with a simpler lifestyle to preserve the resources of the Creation and to share them with the poorer populations” of the world, said Cardinal Franc Rodé, Prefect of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. The cardinal was one of the participants at the meeting between EU authorities and European Church leaders held in the headquarters of the Commission in Brussels on 5 May. Environmental issues were high on the agenda. Twenty-one religious leaders, representing the Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Reformed Churches participated in the meeting. Representatives of the Islamic and Jewish communities were also present. In his intervention Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria, representative of the Russian Orthodox Church, thanked the European institutions for all they are doing for the promotion of tolerance and peace, but also denounced old and new forms of persecution of which Christians are the victims in Europe and in the world, drawing Europe’s attention in particular to the situation in Turkey, Kosovo and the Middle East. Believers, Europe and the common good. “It was a very productive and interesting exchange of views, with an open and frank discussion”, explained Monsignor Noel Treanor, expert in EU questions, general secretary of COMECE (Commission of the Episcopates of the European Community), and recently appointed Bishop of Down and Connor (Ireland), in a briefing on the meeting to SirEurope . “Two questions were placed at the centre of the talks: reconciliation between peoples and problems linked to climate change, and discussion focused largely on them”. The EU was represented by the Presidents of the Executive, José Manuel Barroso, of the Council, Janez Jansa, and of the Parliament Hans-Gert Poettering, who judged the meeting “an important new step in the dialogue that is being progressively developed between the EU, the churches and the religious communities”. In his speech Poettering recalled the value of 2008, European Year of Inter-Cultural Dialogue, and he declared: “I am convinced that the EU has everything to gain from a dialogue between religions”, because “true believers are willing to pay in person for service to the common good”. Dialogue: obligation and need. Poettering pointed out, however, that “it is the responsibility of religious leaders to present a conception of faith in terms of peaceful co-existence and reconciliation”. In the modern period, moreover, “in which relativism often risks making our society more fragile, countless people find support in their religious convictions” in guiding their moral choices in life. Poettering also underlined the need to reduce social inequalities. Lastly, after stressing the importance of structural dialogue between European institutions and churches, the President of the European Parliament recalled that this dialogue would become “a legal obligation”, as well as “need”, with the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon. Climate change, safeguard of the Creation. The President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso mainly devoted his address to environmental issues: “Climate change – he explained at the end of the meeting – obliges all of us to intervene as a matter of urgency; each component of civil society must help to secure a sustainable future for our planet. Thanks to the scale of their influence and the role they play in our societies, religions and faith communities are in an ideal position to make a valid contribution to mobilizing society in favour of a sustainable future”. For his part, the current President of the European Council, Slovene Premier Janez Jansa, added: “The environment does not only have a natural, but also a sacred dimension. The concept of a compact, of a community, between man, nature and the creator is something held in common by Judaism, Christianity and Islam”. In Jansa’s view “climate change obliges us to rethink the forms in which imagination, spontaneity and entrepreneurship are channelled to create a world freed from dependence on fossil fuels”. That does not mean “we must renounce our technological gains, only that we must rethink them and consider them from a new point of view”.A High Representative for Youth? The list of participants at the meeting included twenty-one spiritual leaders of the monotheist religions of various nationalities. Christians (Catholics, Anglicans, Reformed and Orthodox), Jews and Muslims (Sunni and Shias) were the main faith communities represented. The Catholic delegation comprised, apart from Cardinal Rodé, Cardinals Audrys Juozas Backis (Archbishop of Vilnius) and Keith Patrick O’Brien (Archbishop of Edinburgh), and the Bishop of Rotterdam (and President of COMECE), the Most Rev. Adrianus van Luyn. In the course of the debate, Bishop van Luyn suggested “the creation of a High Representative for future generations”, who could be, along the EU’s High Representative for External Relations, also Vice-President of the Commission. “It would be a visible sign of our hope in a caring Europe, transcending geographical and generational divides”. In his intervention at the Palais Berlaymont, the Lutheran Primate of Sweden Anders Harald Wejryd declared that “religions have the duty to get involved in the campaign against climate change, given that this problem also raises questions of a moral order, of justice and fairness” for all citizens and all peoples.