The debate and controversies that have been raging in recent days about the role and presence of Catholics in Europe have brought back to centre-stage the question of the “marginalization” of religious faith within the Twenty-Five. As the day draws near for the signing of the European Constitutional Treaty (Rome, 29 October), have Christians the right to proclaim the values in which they believe or do these “disturb” the liberal Europe? We present a comment by Monsignor ANDREJ Saje , general secretary and spokesman of the Slovenian bishops. Is the doctrine of the Church a source of disturbance and vexation for liberal Europe? Does liberal Europe wish to silence her voice and tell her that she does not have the right to speak, even when it is a about fundamental questions of values that place in question the future of Europe? In response to the open violation of human dignity and Christian values, can we Christians, to whom Christ has entrusted the task of spreading the Gospel throughout the world, remain indifferent? Can we remain silent and retreat from the public arena? In Slovene public opinion, too, the teaching and defence of Christian doctrine often prompt accusations that the Catholic Church is intolerant of this or that group, whose opinions differ from traditional Christian and social values and do not conform to the doctrine of the Church herself. In this way there are those who would like to isolate Christians and limit the fundamental right to confess one’s faith openly in public. Against the background of the rejection of Christian doctrine is a concept of human liberty as something absolute, in the sense that it is man alone who delimits it. Man, constrained by the natural or moral law, perceives, however, in his heart that there are limits to this liberty. Human liberty ends where the liberty my neighbour begins. So, according to the teaching of the Church, man is not free in the absolute sense. Man is free, but at the same time responsible for his actions. His liberty consists in the free will given to him to decide whether or not to realize his own spiritual and moral ideal, for which he was given life. We did not come into the world merely to satisfy our everyday biological and physiological needs. Our mission is especially linked to the supernatural world Many questions are subject to negotiation and compromise, but some, such as values, remain inviolable: they are non-negotiable. Man is not God and therefore he must respect the order of creation. The family is a great value, and precisely due to its essence and mission it is impossible to equate its value with other forms of human cohabitation. The same goes for euthanasia and the various questions of bioethics. One of the important tasks of Christians in the new Europe is to dedicate themselves to the defence of human dignity from conception to natural death. In this field opinions strongly differ depending on the different conception of values. Human dignity consists not only in liberty, but also in the free acceptance of the truths that transcend us and that the Creator has placed in our heart. The Presidents of the eight Episcopal Conferences of Central Europe, who signed the final message of the Katholikentag Catholic Congress at Mariazell in Austria in May this year, appealed to the faithful, among other things, for their active and responsible participation in society and emphasized that a new and better Europe cannot be constructed without Christians. The role of Christians especially consists in being firmly rooted in the Gospel, in living in practice in conformity with the faith and in actively participating in social life.
