IN BRIEF
Coinciding with the start of the six months’ Portuguese Presidency of the EU, various Catholic personalities have called for a strong commitment of the European Union in the search for solutions to the most urgent humanitarian challenges of our time. Mons. Carlos Azevedo, secretary of the Portuguese Bishops’ Conference, believes that the Portuguese Presidency could “create bridges with Africa, profiting from the special historical bond that links Portugal with this continent”. He says that “the Church is one of the institutions that most support everything concerning European unification”, yet he deplored the fact that “a part of EU legislation is characterized by a secular spirit that is progressively gaining ground, especially to the detriment of the family and the culture of life”. Francisco Sarsfield Cabral, news director of Radio Renascença, also hopes that relations with Africa may become a priority: “The EU should concern itself with African countries with the same degree of urgency that is attributed to the needs of European countries”, he said. In this sense, “the laudable commitment that Portugal will make in December with the holding of a summit between the EU and the African Union must not lead us to close our eyes to the tragic violation of human rights in that continent”. Father Agostinho Jardim Moreira, President of the European Anti-Poverty Network/Portugal (REAPN), hopes that “Lisbon 2007 may mark the beginning of a new direction in terms of social cohesion, an occasion in which the fight against poverty and exclusion may be given a really decisive and concrete impetus through which the EU may return to its founding project: a Europe of citizens, of everyone, for everyone and with everyone”. Lastly, according to Father Rui Pedro, head of the Portuguese Catholic Charity for Migrations (OCPM), “the phenomenon of migration represents a critical dossier that reveals the failings of a Europe that gives signs of amnesia, and that has difficulty in promoting internal cooperation, assuming its own role of historic co-responsibility, protecting religious and cultural diversity and sharing its economic model, affluence and resources”.
