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Many voices have been raised in Europe to express horror and condemnation for the massacre in the school in Beslan, in North Ossetia (Russian Federation), which has so far claimed 335 victims, of whom 156 children. The bodies of over 100 victims have still to be identified. 565 injured still remain in hospital; over half of them are young pupils at the school. The European institutions Parliament, EU Council, Commission, Council of Europe have all expressed the dismay and condemnation of Europe itself for what has happened, with declarations, ceremonies of condolence and flags flown at half-mast. We have gathered some representative statements of the Catholic Churches of Europe. THE COMMITMENT OF RELIGIONS. “It’s a tragedy whose end and real extent we still don’t know. I feel great sorrow that arouses, apart from prayer, the concern to understand what can be done not only to combat terrorism, with all the means at the disposal of the judiciary, political authorities and army, but also to rediscover the fundamental values of responsibility and respect for each human life”: so commented Monsignor AMEDÉE GRAB, bishop of Chur (Switzerland) and president of the CCEE, Council of the Episcopal Conferences of Europe. “Terrorism he told SIR is blind violence. It kills people who are in no way responsible for the ills that its perpetrators wish to combat. And when innocents like children are struck, the horror is even greater”. Religions, said Grab, must be dedicated to the search for “peaceful and just solutions” to conflicts: “Religious leaders and representatives must clearly take a stance to rebut those accusations that claim that religion itself is the cause and motive of such atrocities. It is important that everyone, and Christians and Muslims in the first place, should denounce violence and recall that religions are on the contrary transmitters of peace. Only abuse and fanaticism make them instruments of violence”. “I think that all the serious representatives of the three monotheist religions said Cardinal WALTER KASPER, president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity in a comment to SIR are agreed in condemning the exploitation of religions for political reasons or to justify violence and the killing of innocent people. On this point no differences exist, only a shared responsibility for peace, against violence and terrorism”. FROM THE EPISCOPAL CONFERENCES. “In response to the murderous and destructive violence in the town of Beslan”, writes Cardinal ANTONIO MARIA ROUCO VARELA, archbishop of Madrid and president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, we pray that “the terrible scourge of terrorism may cease. The Spanish people too have long suffered from its grim consequences”. “The Catholics of Spain the cardinal says in his telegram of condolence feel at this time particularly united with our Christian brothers and with the whole people of the Russian Federation”. In Italy Cardinal CAMILLO RUINI, president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, spoke of terrorism as a “social question” of planetary dimension, in a world in which it seems that “the age of the clear predomination of the peoples of Europe and North America is approaching its end”, with the risk of “a decline, or at least a diminution, of the historic role of Christianity”. Cardinal Ruini urged that everything be done “to defeat international terrorism, and that its tragic manifestations be opposed with courage and determination”. But he also urged that “the causes that generate it, whether they be cultural and moral, economic or political, be tackled”. The spokesman of the bishops of England and Wales has sent, on behalf of the English Church, “thoughts and prayers to the Russian people”, while in Ireland the Bishops’ Conference recalls that “the killing of innocent lives is never acceptable” and that “such acts of violence are utterly reprehensible and shocking”. Monsignor JAN GRAUBNER, archbishop of Olomouc, president of the Episcopal Conference of the Czech Republic, also condemns any form of terrorism ,”even more so violence committed against children” .
