ECUMENISM
“Democracy needs virtues”: that is the title of a common document on the future of democracy of the German Bishops’ Conference and Council of the German Evangelical (EKD), published in Berlin in recent days. The document was presented by the President of the German Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Karl Lehmann, by the President of the Council of the EKD, Bishop Wolfgang Huber and by the chairmen of the ad hoc committee created to draft the joint document: Bishop Reinhard Marx (diocese of Trier) and the federal minister and former ecclesiastical president of the EKD. Lehmann cited recent surveys, according to which 51% of Germans are dissatisfied with the way democracy is working. “The democratic community is now faced by tasks that cannot be tackled with the politics of routine”, he declared, emphasizing that “democracy needs the active participation of citizens in the formation of the political will”. Lehmann evaluates in a positive way “the fact that current ethics have rediscovered the importance of virtue and that alongside principles, laws and duties, moral precepts have now returned to the forefront”. The cardinal stressed that the public position taken by the Churches on certain issues does not spring from an intention to “engage in politics”; the Churches consider it their task, rather, “to try to re-direct political values to the dignity of each person, respect for human rights and commitment to the common good”. It is therefore important, he said, to indicate “the political virtues needed today and to promote their development”, the objective of the document. “Christian faith is the origin of virtue”, declared Huber: “in this perspective, the Christian faith and the democratic community must work together” to promote “the courage of political commitment. “Christians” – he concluded – are full of a hope that makes them courageous”.
