Will politics return?

“Deregulation has high costs when the ‘duty to regulate’ is not viewed as a priority”, and “thirty years without rules have risked blowing up the planet”, claimed Henri Madelin in the December issue of “Europe Infos”, the montly magazine of COMECE (the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community) and of OCIPE (Europe’s Catholic Information and Initiative Office), that opens with a note by COMECE Secretary General Piotr Mazurkiewicz on the risks of a “populist syndrome” in Europe (cf. SIR Europe 87/2008).The teachings of the Church. Delving into the “return of politics in Europe and elsewhere, acting as the guarantor of economy performance” to prevent “irresponsible actions of certain officers and counter widespread mistrust”, Madelin remarked that in the short run “the State will be called to supervise the best possible allocation between speculation and traditional banking operations; shareholders and wage-earners; enterprises and public powers” in view of a true “solidarity between the poor and the rich in our Continent and in the rest of the world”. Henri Madelin pointed to the almost 1900 billion euro allocated for the recovery of EU’s financial system and of the economy. Given these facts, he adds, “thirty years” and “only” 150 billion euro would suffice to “uproot world hunger”. According to Madelin, “it’s the moment to review the concept of regulation proposed in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church, whose Magisterium, starting from the encyclical “Rerum novarum” of 1891, affirms principles of justice, solidarity, and subsidiarity “that are adjusted to the different economic situations developed in time”. Stefan Lunte recalled the commitment of the Bishops of COMECE’s Social Affairs Commission, which in the meeting of October 8-9 in Paris addressed the question of “the future of social protection and related EU policies”, also “to the light of the financial markets’ crisis”. For the Bishops, Lunte pointed out, each political project ought to be grounded on the quest for “the common good”. Iraqi refugees. Even though their situation has been given primary attention all year round, “the living conditions of Iraqi refugees in bordering Countries have not improved; this is true especially in the case of Christians”, pointed out Alessandro Calcagno. Some 2 million Iraqis live in Countries bordering on Iraq. “Of those living in Syria and Jordan, 43 thousand have no chances of returning to Iraq”. There are 2 million-7000 Iraqi evacuees. The EU has been debating a number of issues to this regard. According to Calcagno, “we are not asking for privileges. However, the reinstatement of Christian refugees in the European Union could help the recovery from its difficult state of affairs, although it is a tool that ought to be considered with care in order to ensure the ongoing presence of the Christian community in Iraq”. Lastly, he voiced the hope that the EU “continue raising the question of Christian and non-Christian religious minorities in talks with the Iraqi government”. Christians and Muslims in Europe. “Being a European citizen and a man of faith”. This is the theme of the Muslim-Christian Conference held at the end of October in Malines (Belgium), on the initiative of the Joint Committee for Relations with Muslims in Europe (CRME), of the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE) and of the Conference of European Churches (CEC). The conclusions were drawn by Vincent Legrand who recalled the plea of Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, Archbishop of Bordeaux and CCEE vice-president in favour of “a true partnership between Muslims and Catholics in Europe to promote humanist values in the world that we hold to be crucial”. Also the declaration adopted at the end of the works, according to Legrand, “conveys the joint intentions in the framework of active citizenship” so that “Europe may become the workshop of mutual knowledge”. Embryo stem cells. Katharina Schauer focused on the fact that embryo stem cell research must not become the object of patenting. She explains what would happen if the outcome of the research were put on the market while waiting for the decision of the EPO (European Patent Office) concerning the case of patenting requested by “Warf/Thomson”, based on a method enabling stem cell breeding from primates, including human beings. While past November 25, EPO rejected in the last instance the petition, thus refusing to grant the requested patent. Info: www.comece.org