Between East and West” “

From a hill in Belgrade, from the fortress of Kalemegdan, one can see the confluence of the Danube and the Sava: from this distance the colours of their waters slowly, almost imperceptibly merge together. Here, historically, runs the frontier between East and West: Belgrade and Serbia have repeatedly paid the price of the confrontation and clash between these civilizations. To try to build new bridges, Archbishop Stanislas Hocevar invited the presidents of the Episcopal Conferences of South-East Europe (Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Serbia and Turkey), a region in which some three million Catholics live, to a meeting in Belgrade at the end of February. UNITED EUROPE, A CONVICTION. The meeting on “Europe and Christianity” opened with a round table with interventions from the Holy See’s Nuncio to the EU, Msgr. Faustino Sainz Munoz, the general secretary of COMECE, Msgr. Noel Treanor, Metropolitan Amphilokie of Montenegro and Bishop Irenej of Novi Sad. The Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, in the various countries beyond the frontiers of the EU, share the same question: why is secularization so strong in Christian Europe? They also share the same conviction: united Europe is an imperative for unity and collaboration between the Churches, especially in the countries of this region where an Orthodox majority and a Catholic minority live together and where the presence of Islam is strong. “At times the Providence of God and history prompt us to reflect on the future of our Churches!”, said Metropolitan Amphilokie of Montenegro. LIGHT AND SALT. Signs of renewal in ecumenical relations, as the bishops testified, can especially be felt in the countries that have been visited by the Pope in recent years: in Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania occasions for meeting together and moments of exchange have been intensified. A witness of this was also the meeting in Belgrade, in which Orthodox representatives participated in the debates and in moments of prayer. In an atmosphere of great brotherhood, Patriarch Pavle received the bishops in the patriarchal residence in Belgrade on the morning of Saturday 21 February. In his welcoming remarks and in dialogue with the bishops, the ninety-year-old patriarch underlined the need to be light and salt for Europe and the radical nature of the Gospel commandment to pray and love not only for our friends but also for our enemies. Only thus shall the Churches be able to bear credible witness and contribute to peace. CHRISTIANS AND POLITICS. What the joint work of the Churches now requires – it was stressed – is to address the social and economic problems of the region: poverty, unemployment, the breakdown of the family, corruption, the inability of Christians to get involved in politics, the disorientation of the young… these are the problems shared in all these countries. And the “social agencies” of the Catholic Church, such as Justitia et Pax in Bosnia, or Caritas in Albania, or Catholic Relief Service in Serbia, are currently trying to focus especially on education in human and civil rights, and on the denunciation of their violations. The next step will be to work to form lay Christians to get involved in the democratic structures according to the teachings of the social doctrine of the Church. In this sector, in particular, cooperation with the Orthodox Church needs to be developed and strengthened. A RENEWED SPRINGTIME. The long phase of transition, begun in the 1990s, and then blocked by the bombardments and now laboriously being resumed, also affects the Catholic Church. That’s why the Nuncio in Serbia Msgr. Sbarbaro expressed the dream that a renewed springtime of the faith may take place in these lands. “To achieve this objective more fully – he said – I wonder whether it is not appropriate to examine the question of a future special Synod of these Churches”. On the evening of Saturday, 21 February, the bishops joined in the prayer vigil of the young for Christian unity in the cathedral of Belgrade, and celebrated a solemn Eucharist, officiated by Bishop Grab, CCEE president, and accompanied by a Catholic and Orthodox choir, in the presence of Cardinals Puljic of Sarajevo and McCarrick of Washington, Bishop Irinej and other representatives of the Orthodox Church. The seven presidents of the episcopates of the region will meet together for the fifth time in Sarajevo in 2005, when they will debate the question of “secularization” and once again visit the Catholics in Bosnia and Herzegovina, who – as Bishop Komarica denounced – are still discriminated against and are not supported in the problems linked to their return to their homeland.