A question of survival” “

Over 60 delegates from 22 countries took part in the consultation on the responsibility for the creation organized by the Council of the Episcopal Conferences of Europe (CCEE), in collaboration with the Office for work and social problems of the Italian Episcopal Conference and the Lanza Foundation. The consultation, on the theme “Work and responsibility for the creation”, was held in Venice (Italy) from 23 to 26 May 2002 and had as its agenda the relation between the conception of work and the problems linked to responsibility for the creation. The meeting formed part of the cycle of consultations organized over the last four years by the CCEE: in 1999 at Celje (Slovenia) on the theological and ethical foundations of the ecological commitment of the Churches; in 2000 at Bad Honnef (Germany) on the spirituality of the creation and environmental policies; in 2001 at Badin (Slovakia) on Christian life styles and sustainable development. A summary of the final document of the Venice consultation is given below. Responsible Churches. “The Churches have the responsibility to contribute to the alteration of the current economic model”, which is “unsustainable” today, for various reasons. These reasons include “the unjust distribution of resources and their high consumption linked to a wasteful affluence in the industrialized countries”. For the European bishops there are no doubts: “Sustainable development has a need for a conception of work that can no longer be considered as the only criterion for development”: it must also be the “presupposition for cultural, spiritual and social activities for rest and leisure time”. The current management of work, in fact, entails “a high social cost also due to the stress factors connected with the lack of security on the workplace and the psychological impact of unemployment”. The recovery of the primacy of spiritual and non-productive activities is – says the final document – “a necessary condition for a culture of sustainability that also implies a new coordination between time for work and time for rest”. The Church “may make a fundamental contribution to it, especially by promoting a culture of Sunday”. “Sunday – continues the document – ensures scope for freedom since it interrupts the pace of work and grants time for God, the family, recreation and volunteer service”. Sunday, moreover, is “important for the safeguard of families. It ensures time for rest and a space free from professional duties, essential for the development of man and full of positive consequences for human creativity”. Preparing for Johannesburg. According to the European Episcopal Conferences, the search for a global form of sustainable development “has become a question of survival for humanity”. At the next Summit of the United Nations in Johannesburg (South Africa, 26 August-4 September), “Europe can and must contribute in a decisive manner to ensure that Agenda 21 (approved at Rio de Janeiro in 1992) may finally become an obligatory process for the real implementation of sustainable development”. The priorities listed in the final document include “global solidarity in the campaign against poverty through the safeguard of drinking water and fertile agricultural land, wide access to education, training and basic healthcare, and a progressive increase – up to the level of 0.7% of GDP – of the aid allocated by the industrialized countries of Europe to development projects, on the basis of a compulsory timetable up till 2010”. To achieve this goal, changes of “styles of life and of work” are necessary. “If the values and the models of affluence of the rich countries are not changed – say the European Churches – all the technological innovations cannot lead to a reduction of the ‘consumption’ of nature”. Another urgent task is that of the “global defence of the climate through the ratification of the Kyoto protocol”. The document’s proposals also include that of “celebrating a Day of the Creation on September 1st each year. The next consultation of the Conference of the Episcopal Conferences of Europe on responsibility for the creation will be held in Wroclaw in Poland from 15 to 18 May 2003. The theme proposed: “Formation for responsibility for the creation and for a sustainable development”.