In an age like our own, characterized by “a great variety of religious proposals”, the task of Christians “is not to denigrate, reject or demonize en masse whatever is different from themselves, but to “proclaim Christ the one Saviour of the world” with “humility, courage, respect and responsiveness”, though without ignoring the need to “warn people of the dangers of the sects”. So said Msgr. Amédée Grab, president of the CCEE, during the Mass celebrated in Rome, in the parish of S. Silvia, on the conclusion of the 10th Symposium of European bishops on 28 April. “Jesus welcomed everyone with love he continued, commenting on a passage from John’s Gospel he came into conflict only with the hypocrites, not with those who condemned him and placed him on the Cross. God did not send Christ to condemn the world, but to save it”. After the atrocities of the second world war, said the president of the CCEE, the question “God, where are you?” has lost none of its relevance: it is posed “in the wars, in the world of money as an end in itself, in the entertainment that degrades the values of conscience, in a world that violates fundamental human rights, the dignity of abused children, the countless women offended, the workers who risk losing their daily bread”. Hence “the actuality, the urgency and the seriousness of the ecumenical commitment”, emphasized Grab, welcoming the members of the Council of the European Churches who had participated in the work of the Symposium, together with the 80 Catholic bishops and the 34 young delegates coming from all over Europe. For the future, Grab expressed the hope that the “spirit of reciprocal encounter” that animated the Symposium would continue also in the daily life of the Churches. Recalling the forthcoming 40th anniversary of the opening of Vatican Council II, Grab noted that “the tomb of John XXIII is still the goal of innumerable pilgrimages”, and that the Church of our time “is faithful to the legacy of the Council”. At the centre of the magisterium of John Paul II, concluded the president of the CCEE, is “the Gospel presented in its integral dimension”, with justice and peace indicated “as the universal task of the Church”, whose “golden rule” remains, now as ever, “respect for every human being”.
