Elections: a politics of values” “

The autumn plenary assembly of the Austrian Episcopal Conference was held at Salzburg from 4 to 7 November. The questions discussed included EU enlargement and the forthcoming elections of the national Assembly, Austria’s central legislative organ, scheduled for 24 November. The final document was presented by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn , president of the Austrian Episcopal Conference during a press conference on 8 November. The bishops focus on five points: “the political situation”; the “Sozialwort” ecumenical project in the social field, in which the 14 Christian Churches present in Austria are participating (cf. SirEurope no.39 of 31 October 2002); “aid to the southern hemisphere; “measures for abstention from Sunday work; Caritas activity in favour of the victims of the summer floods”. A “politics of values”. While reaffirming the Austrian Church’s non-involvement in “party politics”, after the “sad experiences of the period of the first Republic”, the bishops nonetheless claim the right to participate “in Austrian political life to foster a ‘politics of values’ that may safeguard unrelinquishable values”, such as “the inalienable value and dignity of human life, from conception to natural death”, “the principle of the family” and “solidarity towards those in spiritual and material difficulty”. In Schönborn’s view, a “politics of values” means that Catholics “are called to ensure that the political parties to which they belong are imbued with Christian principles”. The Austrian bishops acknowledge that “a lot has been done” for the affirmation of these ideals: “financial support for families and children, prohibition of research on stem cells that destroy human embryos, opposition to euthanasia, the hospice movement and recognition of absence of leave for the families of the terminally ill”. “What’s needed is a more decided ‘yes to life'”, declared the president of the Austrian bishops. Recalling “that participation in the general elections represents an important instrument in the formation of our democracy”, the bishops ask the faithful “to pray for the development of the country, just as the first Christians did”. The “construction of Europe”. “Together with the Holy Father”, the Austrian bishops declare they are “in principle favourable to the enlargement of the European Union, provided that the need to clarify “the difficult questions linked to it” be not ignored. The Austrian Church prefers to speak not so much of an enlargement as of the “europeanization of the Union” and of “European reunification”, to which it has dedicated a document with the title “The Church in the construction of Europe”. During the presentation of the document, a good deal of emphasis was placed on Mitteleuropa Day for Catholics, an initiative that will be inaugurated on the weekend preceding Pentecost 2003 and conclude on the day of Pentecost in the following year: in eight countries of central Europe a wide variety of events will be held, organized by their respective bishops’ conferences with the slogan “Christ – Europe’s hope”; for the first time a joint pastoral letter will be published, focusing on the significance of the Christian faith for the reconciliation of peoples and the overcoming of nationalism. The culmination of Catholic Mitteleuropa Day will be the “pilgrimage of peoples” to the Marian sanctuary of Mariazell, scheduled for 22-23 May 2004. Church and solidarity. Presenting the results achieved by Catholic organizations for aid to the southern hemisphere, the bishops recalled in particular the role played by Caritas as “sign of hope” on the occasion of the recent floods that struck central Europe. According to Cardinal Schönborn, another sign of hope is also the initiative “72 hours without compromise”, which involved over 5,000 young people in the realization of social projects at the end of October. Sunday, “small Easter festivity”. “A pace of life more consonant with the Creation is an important contribution to the humanization of society; leisure time in common means a higher quality of life”, declare the bishops, commenting on abstention from Sunday work. The episcopate stresses that “for Christians”, Sunday as a rest day is born not only from the “concern for human value” but also from the “special religious character of Sunday which, as the “day of Christ’s resurrection”, is a “small Easter celebration”. Mercede Succa