In front of the eyes

“The mission of the Ccee is not just limited to the European Union, for its members include all 34 Bishops’ Conferences of the continent, including that of the Russian Federation. The Ccee must never lose sight of the cultural and spiritual unity of the whole continent, which is a very strong bond between peoples, both within and without the Union, said Cardinal PETER ERDÖ in an interview with SirEurope . Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest and Primate of Hungary, Cardinal Erdö was elected President of the Ccee (Council of the European Bishops’ Conferences) for the five-year period 2006-2011 during the plenary assembly held in St. Petersburg from 4 to 8 October 2006. He succeeds Bishop Amédée Grab in the post. As for the Vice-Presidents, Cardinal Josip Bozanic, Archbishop of Zagreb, was reconfirmed, and Archbishop Jean-Pierre Ricard of Bordeaux succeeds Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor. During his interview Cardinal Erdö spoke of his fears for the spread of anti-Christian secularism, the need for new evangelization in the West, his doubts and hopes for the future of Europe and relations with Turkey. Is the European Union aware of its cultural and spiritual heritage? “It’s not easy to reply to that question. However, it seems to me that this awareness is not always there. I was able to cooperate with the experts who observed, on behalf of COMECE, the drafting of the European Constitution, which has not yet come into force, I was shocked by the vehemence with which certain groups campaigned against any reference to Christianity or to God, while the preamble of the Constitution merely mentioned Greco-Roman values and the Enlightenment. This arbitrary selection of Europe’s roots strikes the societies of the new member countries far more than is possible for those who have never experienced Communism to imagine. The Marxist ideology has left a cultural vacuum behind it that the secularism of the West cannot fill, whereas religions are the bearers of values. It seems to us that the aggressive secularism of the West, of which the Pope too has warned, represents a threat to the continent’s stability, also because in the absence of cultural and moral values our societies could be exposed to the risk of decline. We are worried, in particular, by some signals suggesting that religious groups are not worth defending, whereas ethnic and linguistic minorities receive protection”. So what prospects do you see for the countries of Eastern Europe? “The manifestations of secularism assume a quite particular character in the former Communist countries, where the anti-religious attitude may be far more hard-line than that in the West. The danger of the rebirth of post-Soviet anti-clericalism is just one of the factors of malaise in our societies. There are so many other problems that perhaps cause us even more concern, and yet we still have high hopes in the European Union, because the EU seems to us the guarantee of peaceful co-existence between the peoples of the region. The overcoming of nationalism is one of our hopes, and we are doing all in our power to reconcile peoples on the basis of Catholic faith. To this end we have exchanged letters of reconciliation with Patriarch Alexei of Russia and with the Slovak episcopate, in which the bishops of the two countries declare: ‘We forgive and ask for forgiveness!'”. You are one of the protagonists of the mission in the major European capitals: next year the chosen city will be Budapest… “Yes, the initiative sprang from John Paul II’s idea about the need for new evangelization, especially in the old continent. The Archbishops of Paris, Vienna, Lisbon, and Brussels, and later I too, as Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, began to evangelise these great cities. Each year the mission concentrates on a capital; this year it was Brussels, next year it will be Budapest, the last stage in the cycle. All the cities involved in the project are represented and collaborate in the work of the host city. This offers a wonderful opportunity for mutual help, for getting to know each other and for exchanging experiences. Delegations from all over the world have arrived to find out about the method and results of the project, with the idea of beginning similar collaboration elsewhere. I think the Orthodox Churches too could also be interested in it. Proclaiming Christ to the contemporary world is our real great common concern”. Do you have any comment about the Pope’s visit to Turkey? “We were delighted that the visit could take place. Benedict XVI’s meeting with Patriarch Bartholomew I is an important step in ecumenism. But apart from that, the journey was also an opening to Islam and in a specific way to Turkey. The rapprochement of the Church with the Turkish people is a particular source of joy to us Hungarians, because we have close cultural, linguistic and sentimental links with that population. Hungarian territory was part of the Turkish Empire for 150 years. In the period of Austrian rule, it was almost always Turkey that offered a refuge to the Hungarians after the defeat of our wars of independence”.