Combating poverty together

The Plenary Assembly of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE) that was held in Brussels April 14 to 16 was primarily dedicated to the fight against poverty. An informal meeting with the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy took place April 15.The dialogue with the European Council President. The meeting with Herman Van Rompuy, president-elect of the European Council, of remarkable human and professional stature, was the highlight of the works of COMECE’s Plenary Assembly. President Van Rompuy underlined the momentous relevance of the humanistic tradition and of the Christian roots of contemporary Europe and stressed the need to relate them to contemporary circumstances whilst preserving the fundamental values of the past and present times. “This President is capable of recovering Europe’s soul”, was the comment recorded by SIR Europe at the end of the meeting. Combating poverty. The main theme of the closed-door meeting was the fight against poverty and social exclusion. “The Bishops have suggested to the EU decision-makers that they broaden the current tools used to measure poverty in order to include not only material criteria, but also the relational dimension”, states the final message. It is an issue of primary importance to the Church, a major actor in the fight against poverty in Europe. The bishops blame politicians for “having failed to address the problem at its roots to prevent future crises”, such as the ongoing crisis, which “has further aggravated the conditions of poverty of too many European citizens”. In fact, the bishops underline, “it is a moral crisis marked by excesses and by a confusion of values”, notably the unbalance between individual and collective interests. The bishops conveyed their commitment so that this issue, along with other issues, may become the object of the “open, transparent and regular'” dialogue between the EU and the Churches that has recently entered into force with the Treaty. “The speech of Johannes Laitenberger , Head of Cabinet of the EU Commission President, helped us acknowledge the fact that growth depends on economic and social planning and that the fight against poverty ought to be understood not only as a symbolic gesture but also in terms of concrete social commitment”, Italian COMECE member Msgr. Gianni Ambrosio, bishop of Piacenza-Bobbio, told SIR Europe. In defence of religious freedom. In the institutional dialogue with EU political decision-makers the bishops of EU Member States “wish to address the question of religious freedom in the world”. In fact, the document drawn up by the COMECE bishops in recent days will be submitted to MEPs and to the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton. The Report titled “Religious freedom, Pillar of the Human Rights Policy in the external relations of the European Union”, the bishops explain in the final statement, “reminds us of the origins of the right to religious freedom, mentions the violations of this right throughout the world and proposes a series of recommendations for the attention of European decision-makers in order to promote this fundamental right”. Nuclear disarmament. The bishops developed the “Proposals for European policy” in view of the upcoming Conference on the revision of the Treaty on Nuclear Non-Proliferation, (May 2010). In the document the bishops suggest to “promote nuclear disarmament on the principles of transparency, verification and irreversibility, but also to include more of civil society in this fundamental debate for the future of Mankind”. “In realty – Msgr. Ambrosio explained – nuclear disarmament is a very delicate theme, since it is necessary to make a distinction between nuclear programs for peaceful purposes, which characterises European countries such as France, and war. A theoretical distinction is easily done. However, there are very subtle differences when it comes to practice. For this reason the issue ought to be addressed at national level”. Climate and migration: questions that must not be overlooked. In his remarks to SIR Europe Bishop Ambrosio, referred to two crucial “emergencies in contemporary Europe, which institutions ought to value accordingly. One is climate change: after the failure of the Copenhagen summit – mentioned by COMECE president and bishop of Rotterdam Msgr. Adrianus van Luyn in his opening address – the theme of “climate justice” and the change in lifestyles ought to be recovered. The second question that Europe must jointly face is migration. “A basic instruction ought to grant equal attention to reception and to the respect of fundamental rights”, Msgr. Ambrosio said. “If the EU provided the grounds for this proposal it would greatly benefit national policies”. During the plenary meeting the bishops listened to the experiences of those involved in projects for the fight against poverty and social exclusion such as Fr. Georg Sporschill sj, founder and director of the Concordia project, which provides assistance to children in Romania and Moldavia. A liturgy was officiated in suffrage for the victims of the Polish plane crash, and in commemoration of bishop Josef Homayer, former COMECE president, recently passed away.