A visible network” “

“Together for Europe”. With this slogan, 10,000 Catholics, Orthodox, Evangelicals and Anglicans are due to meet together in Stuttgart on Saturday 8th May. “For the first time in history”, over 150 Christian movements, communities and groups have together promoted a joint event at the European level, billed as “a path of communion and collaboration”. Together, they want to “make visible” the fact that “a network of brotherhood already extends throughout the continent, transcending the narrow nationalism and historic barriers” of the past. A EUROPE UNITED IN DIVERSITY. “More than a programme – explains SEVERIN SCHIMID of the organizing committee – the aim of the Stuttgart meeting is to indicate to Europe a reality that already exists. The ten thousand who will participate in it are a kind of epitome of a Europe united in diversity, from which new impulses can emerge in the political, social and cultural life of our continent”. The international meeting will take place in the Hanns Martin Schleyer Sports Centre in Stuttgart, but will be re-transmitted via satellite in 151 European cities. From Lisbon to Moscow: TV link ups are also planned with UNESCO headquarters in Paris, with the European Parliament in Strasbourg, with the Campidoglio, seat of municipal government in Rome, and with City Hall in Vilnius. It is estimated that the overall participation will be of the order of 150,000 people. The meeting has received the support of numerous civil and religious authorities, including that of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, and German Federal President Rau. Many bishops will be present in Stuttgart: 25 Catholic bishops (including Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity), plus 14 Lutheran, 8 Orthodox and 2 Anglican bishops, and some 30 European parliamentarians. The event – which will end with a final document – will be preceded by a two-day congress with the theme: “Together to discover and share mutual riches”. Some 2000 delegates will attend the congress, of whom 1600 from Germany and 400 from other countries in Western and Eastern Europe. A MOSAIC OF PRESENCES. Stuttgart – explains ANDREA RICCARDI of the St. Egidio Community – “isn’t a cartel of associations and movements”, but a “mosaic” of presences, a “polyphony” of identities where “the representative of the Greek Orthodox Church will sit side by side with the Protestant and the members of Catholic Renewal in the Spirit side by side with the Evangelic Schoenstatt movement”. “Those who wish to be there – added Riccardi – will be there. Those who wish to be involved have been involved. To say what? To say that we feel that the frontiers of Europe have ended, and that Europe means peace. The peace of Europe is an offering we wish to make to the world”. Stuttgart – explain the promoters of the event – has a long history which goes back to 1998 when the Pope invited the leaders and members of the movements for a meeting in Rome at Pentecost. Ever since then an “informal dialogue” has been developed. It has generated important meetings and partnerships, including the “Kirchentag” in Berlin last year, held for the first time with the joint participation of Catholics and Evangelicals. Another historic date was the signing of the joint Declaration between the Catholic Church and the World Lutheran Federation on the Doctrine of Justification in 1999. The historic agreement between the two Churches was reached in a meeting held between leaders of Catholic and Evangelic movements and communities at the ecumenical centre of Ottmaring. This meeting in turn “gave rise to an experience of communion which is now been extended to Orthodox, Anglicans and other Christians”. AN UNCONDITIONAL LOVE FOR MAN. “I think – says THOMAS RÖMER, Lutheran pastor and representative of the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) – that the members of the various Christian confessions in Europe already have something that unites them in a very profound way. It’s the indissoluble link that exists between a dedication to man and respect for God. I think there’s a great hope in Europe to see a revival of the dignity of man. The Christian roots of Europe are nothing other than a passionate and unconditional love of God for man, and this love asks of Christians that they have compassion for the frailties and sufferings of man. That’s why I am convinced that the renewal of Europe has a great deal to do with the dedication of Christians to the poor and the vulnerable”. What has the experience of working together with the representatives of other Churches in organizing the Stuttgart event given you? “It has taught me – replies the pastor – that the other person has something I don’t have and that I am enriched by this diversity. I like to speak of an ecumenism that is born from the need we have for each other”.