Involved and engaged

The Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community, (COMECE) promoted a debate in Brussels November 21, titled "The Current Challenges for the EU and the contribution of Christians". The prolusion, "The Nobel Prize for Peace: a wake-up for all citizens?" was delivered by COMECE president Cardinal Reinhard Marx.Hope and scepticism. Cardinal Marx carried out a through analysis of the problems faced by the European Union in the light of the ongoing social, economic and political situation, in the framework of the Nobel Peace Price award to the EU. "It is good for us to be united -we were and are fortunate – said the heads of Government of the 27 EU Member States in the Berlin Declaration of March 2007. Today, four years after the onset of a global economic crisis which for the present is concentrated in Europe, the scepticism has probably intensified". Economic, political and moral changes. As relates to the ongoing political crisis, he said: "one of the main causes of the debt crisis in the Eurozone is to be found in a design flaw in the Treaty of Maastricht. It overestimated the power of national governments to pursue an economic and fiscal policy compatible with a centralised monetary policy". "This resulted in artificial growth bubbles, which then simply burst". A possible solution is "a rebalancing of powers between the national and the European levels – which corresponds to the principle of subsidiarity, as it transfers upwards to the European level what cannot be resolved at the national level". As for the economic and social crisis, "Stagnant growth rates and rising unemployment afflict almost all EU countries, and hit the socially most vulnerable countries first", for this reason "It would be important to realise a social market economy in which there is a good balance between recognition of performance on the one hand and solidarity on the other". Regarding the moral crisis, the COMECE president asked, "Can it be that the political and economic crisis is at its core a moral crisis for Europeans?" "We lack the confidence of young people in the success of our shared future, not only in relation to EU political cooperation or the economy, but also much more fundamentally", as shown in the demographic ageing of Europe, in the difficulties experienced in complying with long-lasting commitments such as marriage, in egoism. The European project and Christians’ contribution. The works of the Council, begun at a historical time marked by severe tensions at international level, "were led from the outset by a positive and hopeful view of the world", whereby Council Fathers "strove for new language in order that people might better understand". Just as religious freedom was proclaimed by the Council, today "Europe is a community of destiny, but before accepting a common destiny there always comes the free choice of the states and their citizens to enter into an alliance with other European states and citizens". Although the Council didn’t solve all the problems, it provided a new thrust to the Church’s engagement. The "same is to be hoped for the EU, facing the challenges that lie ahead". The Cardinal thus suggested that all "democratically elected representatives at the national and European levels, rediscover and reinvent the European project in an extensive consultation process". The contribution of COMECE to recovery. "I want to work in the coming years with my brothers in Christ to deepen our European identity even further and, in a change of perspective, to consistently develop a European view", His Eminence said. "As bishops of the one Church in Europe", we "we see ourselves, and feel we are being addressed" in a Europe "unthinkable without the contribution of Christianity. This contribution cannot only consist in criticising developments in our societies", but that "involves announcing the universal message of the Gospel, which is a message of hope, in the concrete situation in Europe". The Cardinal proposed three lines of action: "consider how the charitable work can be more strongly Europeanised", through a stronger internal solidarity in Europe; creating a Christian inspired working group "who, through consideration of the Christian source of Europe, could make an original and worthwhile contribution", following the wake of the Evangelical Christian Church; involving "dioceses, religious orders and communities in an ongoing prayer for Europe". "In the coming years – he concluded – Europe will have to prove and define itself as a community of democratic states and free citizens, so that, united in peace, it can strive for happiness and prosperity for itself and for the whole world. In the end, the challenges facing Europe and the Church can be summed up in one sentence: To be – each in its own way – a sign of hope for a better world".