Witnesses and constructors” “

“Christians in the construction of Europe”: that was the title of a meeting held in Vienna on 20-21 May. It was attended by 400 representatives of the organized Catholic laity in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The meeting formed part of the first Katholikentag (Catholic congress) of Central Europe that culminated in the pilgrimage to Mariazell on 22 May. Four reports formed the basis for discussion. FIVE CHALLENGES. Bishop Josef Homeyer of Hildesheim, president of COMECE, tackled the question of “responsibility for the future of Europe”. Christians, he said, must be capable of “a fides quaerens intellectum in a political key”. Their task is to insert “religion in public discourse, to prevent, on the one hand, the Enlightenment approach transforming man into an object and, on the other, religion becoming “a cloak for fundamentalism”. Homeyer sees five main challenges for the future of Europe: “the demographic implosion of the old continent, the fair distribution of declining economic growth, the balance between economic needs and social cohesion, the government of immigration and the understanding for Islam. In this context Christians must get involved in public affairs “in the name of the dignity of man, in the confident hope that man would transcend himself and open himself to the greatness of Christ’s promises, in the memory of the history of suffering epitomized in the Calvary of Christ, and also in the memory of a successful life whose reason, criterion and objective is Jesus Christ”. A TRIPLE WITNESS. According to the former director of the International Monetary Fund Michel Camdessus, Christians – with the aim of “contributing a supplement of soul to Europe” – “are called to a triple witness: a witness on man, on Europe and on his identity, and on the world and its hopes”. The witness on man, in response to the challenges posed by bioethics, the threats to the environment, and poverty, should be based on the value of human dignity, “which must be preserved in the creation and in the most vulnerable human beings” and which must be defended in practice “every day”. The witness on Europe, said Camdessus, requires that Christians devote themselves to the values of openness and solidarity. The witness on the world requires commitment to the values of peace and development”. In support to the developing countries it is essential, he said, to “keep the promises made to reduce the injustices in the world and abide by the many commitments assumed by the rich nations in the international arena”. INVENTORY OF RESOURCES. The secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, Msgr. Josef Clemens, briefly reviewed the doctrine about the laity contained in the main conciliar documents, and systematically enunciated in Christifideles Laici. Then, taking his cue from the Pope’s letter Ecclesia in Europa, Clemens urged that “an inventory be drawn up” of the resources and assets at the disposal of the Catholic laity in Central Europe and appealed to the laity to participate in the preaching of the Gospel with a spirit of “general spiritual mobilization”. With the Christian “weapons” of prayer, word of God, liturgy, sacraments and Sunday mass, the Christian laity must, said Msgr. Clemens, dedicate themselves to the enlargement and deepening of the current European horizon, by defending the dignity of man especially on the fronts of marriage, the family, the elderly and the vulnerable, and by working with creativity in the field of culture. speaking to the heart of man. According to Hans J. Meyer, chairman of the Central Committee of German Catholics, Christians, in a liberal and pluralist Europe – which is “both a chance and a risk” – must “convince people by appealing to their reason and experience”. Combining freedom and truth, Christians in Europe ought to be united on some central issues: “the image of man”, basing themselves on the idea that everyone is a child of God and fleeing from the illusion of the perfect man, perhaps eugenically produced; “the family as the centre of social life”, in which “it will be crucial to find ways of combining maternity/paternity and profession”; and “social justice and solidarity”. Lastly, said Mayer, Christians need “to find a language capable of speaking to the modern world, in other words to people’s hearts and minds”.