An approaching dialogue” “

To respond to the current challenges of migration and more in general of globalization, “we are called to rediscover the catholicity of the Church and the universal dimension of the Gospel”. But we also need to widen our horizons and look to the future: “in ten or twenty years’ time the main challenge for Christians will not be that of relations with Islam or the Middle East, but that of dialogue with Asia, its culture and its numbers”, declared Monsignor ALDO GIORDANO, general secretary of the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE), in a briefing to SIR at the end of the 6th meeting of the Presidents of the Bishops’ Conferences of South-East Europe. Reviewing the results of the CCEE-sponsored meeting, held in Corfu, and focused on migration, a phenomenon that is transforming Europe (where there are now 33 million immigrants), Giordano said he was surprised by “his direct contacts with the great presence of Christians in Greece, a country with an overwhelming Orthodox majority, and with that of its Iraqi community, demonstrating that the face of Greece, like the Middle East as a whole, is changing”. But the CCEE general secretary also said he was “confident about the first timid pastoral exchanges that are beginning to take place in the country”. CHALLENGE FOR THE CHURCH. “The migratory phenomenon – continued Msgr. Giordano – has serious social consequences for all the countries of South-East Europe, such as the breaking up of families, the traffic in women and children, the arms trade, and the spread of criminal organizations. To all this is added a further source of impoverishment: the brain drain, the abandonment of their homeland by so many well-qualified young people”. Security, fight against terrorism, the question of visas, illegal immigration, refugees and asylum seekers: these “are the main concerns of the immigration policy of the European institutions”, described by Msgr. André Dupuy, apostolic nuncio to the EU, Noël Treanor, general secretary of COMECE, and Nikolaos Dendias, member of the Greek Parliament and of the Council of Europe. Immigration, therefore, represents “a great challenge for the Church”. The meeting in Corfu, as Msgr. Giordano pointed out, underlined the need to “give priority to the pastoral mission to migrants both at the local and international level; promote education and integration; foster contacts between countries of origin and host countries; find personnel for the pastoral care of immigrants and reinforce co-operation between parishes”. In the view of the Presidents of the Bishops’ Conferences of South-East Europe (Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Greece, Romania, and the Bishops’ Conference of Saints Cyril and Methodius of Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia), “the ecumenical task and the work of collaboration between the various Churches and communities are essential”. SIGNS OF HOPE. Speaking of Greece which hosted the meeting, Giordano referred to a “surprising phenomenon: the increase of Catholics in the country; they have grown from 50,000 in 1975 to some 350,000 today, including Philippinos, Poles, Albanians and Iraqis; a very lively community within which Catholics of Greek origin form only a minority”. It’s a presence that, in some way, urges the Orthodox majority to an opening“. Giordano spoke, in this regard, of “positive signals: the religious communities are emerging from mutual ignorance and the first timid pastoral exchanges are taking place. In practice we are witnessing the beginning of shared support for these immigrants, for their rights and their integration”. Besides, he continued, “the Gospel creates a single family between nations and peoples: a family that does not eliminate the individual faces but, on the contrary, fosters their diversity. To respond to the contemporary challenges of globalization and the mingling of peoples, we therefore need to rediscover and put into practice this universal dimension. A serious deepening of our faith – he concluded – will above all enable us, in the coming decades, to ensure that the meeting and dialogue with the great populations of Asia be translated not into the risk of clashes but into opportunities”. SOCIAL DOCTRINE. During the meeting in Corfu, the secretary of the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace, Monsignor GIAMPAOLO CREPALDI, presented the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (published on 25 October 2004). He explained that it rests “on four fundamental principles: the dignity and liberty of the human person, the common good, subsidiarity and solidarity”. The document, already being translated in some countries of South-East Europe, is a tool intended for priests, catechists and laity involved in politics and in social work. MOURTZANOS THEMISTOKLIS, Orthodox theologian, pointed out that “the Church’s vision of society is based on the eucharistic life, the real novelty to banish injustice, poverty, social inequality, drugs, prostitution and racism: it springs from the rediscovery both of the union with God and the union among us”.