Constructing together

On the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaties of Rome (25 March 1957), which established the European Economic Community and the European Community of Atomic Energy, we asked Monsignor ALDO GIORDANO , general secretary of the Ccee (Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe), for a reflection on the contribution of the Catholic Churches of Eastern and Western Europe during this period and in future. Fifty years of the European Community: what’s the Church’s contribution? “The Church has taken a close interest in the process of European unification over the last 50 years, because she regards with interest every political, economic, cultural and legal project that enables mankind to move forwards. The idea of the European Union was born as a prospect for peace after the tragedy of war, and the Church in the 1950s was deeply concerned by the crucial need for Europe to live in peace and contribute to peace in the world. Later, European history was conditioned by the Iron Curtain; and the partition of Europe also left its mark on the history of the European Church, but in this sense the Church was prophetic because she has always considered Europe as the whole. It’s enough to think that after Vatican Council II, the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe was founded: a European organization that comprises the countries of Eastern and Western, Northern and Southern Europe, including Russia and Turkey. Though the idea of European unification was especially developed in Western countries, the European Union, after the collapse of the Wall, has essentially become a process directed towards the East. The Church, having always considered Europe as a whole, stresses that the process of European unification cannot be imposed by the West on the East: it’s a process that needs to be constructed together, listening to the views, needs, contributions and fears of the East”. How different are the attitudes of the Catholic Churches of East and West to the process of European unification? “The countries of Eastern Europe, on the one hand, are full of hope in the European Union because they hope that the EU may bring economic prosperity, the foundation and development of democracies, and political stability. On the other, they fear having to come to terms with the free market and the economy of the West, typical of the EU, which is based on competition and private property. But they also fear that the West will propagate a view of reality and of values that do not conform to their own tradition: a certain mentality to life, that is open to abortion and that does not support the family, causes great apprehension in the countries of Eastern Europe. The Catholic Churches of these countries express in a yet deeper way this suspicion about Western culture, now shot through with secularisation and the crisis of values; indeed they feel it’s part of their vocation to resist the secularist trend”. What are the priorities the Churches most urgently pose to Europe? “In our dialogue with the European institutions, a first problematic level concerns ethical issues: peace, the need for Europe to contribute to justice in the world, the huge disparities marked by famine in the world and disease. Another emerging area of concern is that of the environment and responsibility for the creation. The Church also has close at heart the questions linked to the person, to the themes of life and the family: a Europe that fails to support the family condemns itself, because it leads to the dissolution of the cell that lies at the very heart of Europe and that alone is able to offer a future prospect of sociality, education and communion for humanity. Another level that the Churches feel urgent to address is that of the meaning of life. Today in Europe, where the percentage of suicides is very high, the yearning for the transcendent, the eternal, is felt very strongly among the young, and not only among them. The Church is alert to this question about the meaning of life and feels a responsibility for turning Europe into an area of meaning. Lastly, the Churches are anxious that Europe should be an area open to God, because if Europe is not open to the transcendent, it is devoid of any real future. The concern of the Churches, in particular, is that Europe be open to the God of Jesus Christ, i.e. be an area where we can rediscover the essence of Christianity and bear witness to it”. Will the Christian roots, omitted from the European Constitutional Treaty, still be a question for Europe in the near future? “Even if we are aware that the German Presidency is trying to do something in this direction, the prospects of finding Christianity cited in the preamble of the Constitutional Treaty are minimal. This shows that unfortunately there is a deep ignorance in Europe about what Christianity is, and even in the debate on the Christian roots of Europe the word ‘Christianity’ was used to indicate something that is not the essence of Christianity. That’s why we need to spell out anew and bear witness to what Christianity genuinely is”.