Values for Europe

“Human life enjoys full dignity and must be protected from conception to natural death”, said Cardinal Péter Erdõ, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest (Hungary) and President of the CCEE (Council of the European Bishops’ Conferences), on meeting journalists in Rome on 18 December immediately after the audience that the CCEE executive had with Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican. Sacredness of human life. With regard to the problem of euthanasia and the meeting the Pope had (also yesterday) with the ambassador of Luxembourg, Cardinal Erdõ recalled that “it was only last week that Catholics and Orthodox had signed a joint declaration” on the theme of the family in which “the key points held in common” explicitly include respect for human life. “The human being – says the declaration – is the only being created in the image and likeness of God, and this fact constitutes his particular dignity”. “The sacredness of human life from conception to natural death ought to be fully respected”. “The document – commented the cardinal – speaks of natural death and not of provoked death. Science promises many things today; that’s why moral clarity in fundamental courses of action is needed”. With regard to the European election due to be held in June 2009, Cardinal Erdõ said: “Each country has its own specific situation”; that’s why the individual Churches should indicate moral values in general, obviously without making any indications about a particular party”.Citizens and parties. “Christians and Muslims must be at the same time citizens and believers. They must take a stance in Europe without diluting their principles or enclosing themselves in private life, since religions are ‘social organizations’ which can make a valuable contribution to society”, insisted Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, Archbishop of Bordeaux and Vice-President of the CCEE. He emphasized the “common commitment” of believers of both faiths: “Christians and Muslims – he said – “can dedicate themselves together to defend the family and promote everything that fosters social justice and concord, above all the right to freedom of conscience and of religion”. “This latter aspect – the cardinal explained in a briefing to SIR – was recognized in the final declaration of the Christian-Muslim Conferences of Malines” (last October), “and is already a first step, but freedom of conscience also includes the freedom to abandon a religion to be converted to another or also to decide to do without religion altogether, and this is more difficult for Muslims to accept”. Mosques respectful of the human and cultural environment. As for the opening of new mosques in Europe, Cardinal Ricard declared: “Religious freedom implies that believers should have their own places of worship, and that goes for Christians and for Muslims, both in Europe and in the Islamic countries”. The cardinal said he was in favour of new mosques in Europe, “on condition that they respect the human and cultural environment in which they are to be incorporated and adapt to their host country”. More specifically, he explains, “in some countries the building of minarets for calling the faithful to prayer arouses irritation or hostility. That’s why there are those who ‘yes’ to the mosque, but ‘no’ to the minaret”. To the fear of those who feel that the building of new mosques could pose a danger for the security of the continent, Cardinal Ricard replies: “The risks would be greater the more Islam is forced to remain underground and hidden. To make this religion more ‘official’ and visible, on the contrary, will help, in my view, to ensure greater security for the whole of the Western world”. Migrants, Africa, schools. “The Church must pay greater pastoral attention to migrants, who are above all persons, and must urge the state institutions and the International organizations to promote their dignity and rights”, said the other Vice-President of the CCEE and Archbishop of Zagreb, Cardinal Josip Bozanic. Recalling the recent CCEE-SECAM (Symposium of the Bishops’ Conferences of Africa and Madagascar) seminar on migrations (held in Liverpool in November, the second after that in 2007), Cardinal Bozanic announced that the next such meeting would be held in Africa in 2010, since “in 2009 – he said – the African continent will host the second Synod for Africa, as announced by John Paul II in 2004 at an audience granted to CCEE and SECAM bishops”. The question of Catholic schools was touched on, in turn, by CCEE general secretary Duarte da Cunha, according to whom such schools are first and foremost “schools for everyone”. It’s no accident, he pointed out, that one of the findings of a survey on Catholic schools in Europe published in recent weeks is that “a high percentage of pupils are non-Catholics, especially in some countries, and that there’s no lack of Islamic children in our schools”. Da Cunha announced that the survey in question would be officially presented in Strasbourg in the spring of 2009 “to ask for greater participation of the Churches in education”. The CCEE secretary also announced that the theme of the next plenary, scheduled to be held in Paris (1-4 October 2009), would be the relation between Church and State.