The Churches and Europe

Making heard the voice of the Churches and their positions on the most delicate issues of social life and conveying them to the European institutions: that’s what repeatedly emerged at the third meeting of the network of press officers of the European Churches (PONEC) held in Brussels from 12 to 14 November. Some thirty communications experts of the Orthodox, Protestant and Anglican Churches of the European continent took part in the meeting; they belong to the press officers network of the European Churches (PONEC) established under the aegis of the Conference of European Churches (CEC/KEK). At the meeting discussion focused on article 17 of the Lisbon Treaty, which comes into force on 1st December next: the article provides for an open, transparent and regular dialogue with churches and religious associations or communities that are recognized as such by national laws in each member state. For political Europe all communities are admitted to this dialogue, including freemasonry and any kind of philosophic community, even agnostic, without great distinctions being drawn between them, so long as they respect human rights. A necessary relation. “To this end – explained Fearghas O Béara, political aide of the President of the European Parliament – we await suggestions and recommendations from the Churches, in the first place from the Commission of Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community and from the Church and Society Commission of the Conference of European Churches that are our primary interlocutors”. In recent years the European Parliament has developed various forms of dialogue with faith communities, such as the annual meeting of the religious leaders of the three monotheistic religions with the Presidents of the three European institutions, begun in 2005, or public auditions on issues of particular interest for religions, or work groups on particular themes (family, dignity of the human person, and so on). “In this dialogue we need partners that have competence, professionalism, authenticity and a clear position in translating their religious credo into political thought”, declared Jorge César das Neves, counsellor of the European Commission on dialogue with religions, Churches and faith communities. And he added: “We diplomats and political officials tend to become technocrats; dialogue with the Churches helps us to rediscover the political value, in the noblest sense, of the things we deal with”. Among the themes on which the present Commission would like to consult the expertise of the faith communities he listed the following: the social crisis, with its repercussions on unemployment, labour market, new forms of poverty; climate change; immigration; non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; and the international situation especially as regards the region of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. But a difficult relation. “Often the Churches – pointed out Margarete Auken, MEP of the Greens and pastor of the Danish Church – adopt a position only on questions that directly involve them or interest them in a particular way, whereas they don’t make their voice heard on not strictly ecclesial issues, for example the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”. Moreover, the experience recounted by two representatives of NGOs (Amnesty international and EURAC) highlighted some weaknesses of the political mechanisms of the European Union. Apart from the fact that Europe today no longer has any great collective visions or political projects in the noblest sense, “it’s easier to involve Europe’s attention on problems and questions that erupt far from the direct interests of the European Union than on problems closer to home”, said Joanna Gomez, of Amnesty International. She also denounced the fact that far too often the only way to move MEPs on particular issues is to “create a furore in the mass media, as allies in lobbying the EU”. The experience of EURAC, a group of associations that deal with the region of the Great Lakes in Africa, including Ruanda, Burundi and Congo, demonstrates, according to Donatella Rostagno, that “the Churches and the associations of confessional character that work in the field, in their relations with the European institutions, have the great potential of having people who are directly involved in the problems and close to people on the ground” and thus have a great deal to offer to the political world that, by contrast, legislates and discusses political problems far from the life and reality of people”. A useful medium in the pursuit of this dialogue is the press, and in particular the confessional press. Two journalists, one French and one Dutch, Sebastien Maillard and Marc Janssens, respectively correspondents in Brussels for the French Catholic daily La Croix and for Nederlands Dagblad, criticized the way in which the Churches present themselves to public opinion; they are not updated or well informed about issues on the agenda, with the result that they are often unprepared when they tackle burning issues of our time, and often intervene long after they have become back numbers with long, verbose and complicated documents.