Respectl of the Church

With an interview with Mgr. Adolfo González Montes, bishop of Almería, SIR Europe is continuing its special feature dedicated to the reflections of European bishops on the process of European integration and on the Church’s thought on the European common home (cfr SIR Europe 62-63-64-65/2011).What opinion and expectations do Catholics in your country have regarding the European Union?“Spanish Catholics, and people in general, are not sufficiently informed about the EU, maybe because they do not realize the kind of influence the EU can have on economic market trends and on each national legal system. Despite all this, Catholics expect the EU to protect their economic freedom and fundamental rights. But, mostly, they expect the EU to preserve member States’ legal systems from national governments’ increasingly interfering attitudes, which also extend to personal lives, obliging citizens to conform to something which is starting to look more and more like one single possible “pensée unique”. For the same reason, they also expect that the balance of power in the European Parliament will avert the rise of legal positivism, which is against individual and collective rights. From this standpoint, the only alternative the EU has for the future is a return to nationalist selfishness”. Public opinion relies on correct information: do you believe that adequate information regarding EU institutions and European Churches is available in your country? “Nowadays public information about the EU is more focused on the European Commission’s economic agenda, rather than on Parliament’s law-making activity.. Public opinion does not have an in-depth knowledge of the ideological interests and political group strategies in the European Parliament, of the social interests they represent and of powerful lobbies giving media visibility to European Parliament decisions. Average citizens don’t even really understand the difference between the European Parliament and the Council of Europe. A clear knowledge of the Churches’ activity within the EU is also missing: for example, Catholics do not really know what the COMECE does, and the same applies to the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences and the Conference of Non-Catholic European Churches (KEK). More information should be provided on the activities of Churches as counterparts to EU institutions, and on the way in which COMECE monitors the development of European legislaton and the commitments undertaken by the EU to help developing or neediest countries”.What contribution can the Church in your country give to Europe?“Despite the fact that the Catholic population has aged dramatically over the last decades, and many young people have turned away from the Church, the Spanish Church is stll very lively, thanks to movements and communities and the strong social presence of Catholic folk devotion and religiosity. The Spanish Church must also face the task of the new evangelization, just like other European countries; however, it can convey to the EU the social and cultural value of respecting the religious notion of life and the globalizing nature of human existence, against the ideology of secularism, and respecting religious feelings and the Church’s social presence”.What do you think about work carried out by European Churches in the EU so far?“Churches have earned respect for themselves as sociallly minded institutional entities vis-à-vis State institutions. They have succeded in having their own peculiar status recognized within each EU country’s legal system, since each Church has its own specific history and social heritage. Furthermore, Churches have done their utmost to establish a humanitarian and solidarity bridge beteween the EU and developing or neediest countries. They have worked towards the rightful recognition of Europe’s Christian roots, while working for the effective respect of religious freedom, strongly encouraging the respect of all religious confessions within the EU’s legal system and promoting ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, which has become evermore necessary due to immigration. Churches are not political institutions, and their contribution to social peace facilitates the preaching of the Gospel, which is the source of the moral values that have inspired European civilization’s highest achievements. For this reason, we must emphasize the efforts made by Churches, so that Mankind’s major problems, such as cultural and social issues stemming from immigration, are addressed in the light of the Gospel. Churches shed this light on the political activities of those who are entrusted with developing EU legislation”.