The young are protagonists” “

Some fifty representatives of the episcopal conferences and the Christian Churches in Europe, from 26 different countries, met at Ottmaring to review the process of the reception of the Charta Oecumenica in the Churches, a year after its signing in Strasbourg. The exchange of experiences provided an occasion to assess the more important ecumenical initiatives promoted in Europe during this first year. Below we give a brief résumé of the reports presented by various episcopal conferences. The commitment of the young. In the Czech Republic, “close cooperation” exists between the Conference of Catholic bishops and the ecumenical Council of the Churches. On the occasion of the floods that struck the country this summer, the Churches met together, and cooperated in the joint collection of funds in favour of the victims. This was a sign of solidarity that was received in a very positive manner by the media. As far as the Ecumenical Charter is concerned, its text was translated and published in an official edition by the Bishops’ Conference five months after its signature in Strasbourg. The Charter aroused particular interest among the young: the youth Commission of the ecumenical Council has pledged to diffuse “its ideals” among young Christians and has organized various meetings to this end. Real results. The ecumenical life in England and Wales was marked this year by a solemn “pact” of unity in the ecumenical field signed – on the occasion of the celebrations marking the Queen’s Jubilee – by the leaders of the Christian Churches in the country. The text, which bears the signatures of the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, and the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, is based in its first part on the Charta Oecumenica (cf. SirEurope no.13/2002). With a view to the reception of the text in the local churches, the Bishops’ Conference also involved its “department of education”. Among the difficulties, the English Church indicates the country’s “general apathy” about European issues. In Holland the text of the Charter was translated and distributed in an edition of 4,800 copies; it was also published on the website of the Council of the Churches. The Charter was signed by the leader of the Dutch Catholic Church and by the representatives of the Council of Churches on the occasion of a meeting in which representatives of the youth movements also participated. In Sweden too some 500 copies of the text were distributed. Where Catholics form a minority. In Bulgaria out of a population of over 8 million, Catholics represent only 1%. The majority are Orthodox, and the country also includes a large Moslem population (some 13%). So, “when initiatives like that of the Charta Oecumenica are promoted by a small community like ours, it’s very difficult to arouse much interest”, points out the Bulgarian Bishops’ Conference. A very important event for the country was the visit of John Paul II who “left the door open to the ecumenical idea and to the possibility of greater collaboration between the various churches”. A concrete sign of “good will” on the part of the Pope was the gift to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church of the church of Saints Vincent and Athanasius, near St. Peter’s in Rome. In Hungary the Catholic Church and the Protestants will sign the Charter solemnly with a joint declaration in Budapest on 10 October, during an ecumenical meeting. In this country, the mass media have devoted great attention to the text, not least because Hungary is “awaiting entry into the European Union and for the Christians of Hungary it’s important to have common ecumenical guidelines for all the countries of the new Europe”. In Romania, the process of reception, on the other hand, has encountered some difficulties especially because ecumenism is not well developed and because the “Orthodox Church, which is the majority church, has not shown much interest” in the Charta Oecumenica, explains the Romanian Bishops’ Conference. Here too the young – of various confessions – have become the protagonists; they organized an ecumenical meeting at which the Charter was discussed. Maria Chiara Biagioni