The true image

The 47th plenary assembly of the French bishops opened at Lourdes on 4 November with a keynote address by the President of the French Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal André Vingt-Trois. A total of 112 diocesan bishops, 17 emeritus bishops, three bishops of overseas territories, plus the apostolic nuncio, will participate in the assembly, which is due to end on Sunday 9 November. At their plenary, the bishops will reflect on three main questions, each of which was the focal point of a special preparatory work group: “Religious indifference and the visibility of the Church”, bioethics and “supporting the life of our Churches”. Also on the order of the day is a reflection on the “foundations of inter-religious dialogue”. In his keynote address – given this morning – Cardinal Vingt-Trois recalled the apostolic journey of Pope Benedict XVI to France, which – said the archbishop – represented “a great moment in the life of our Church”. And he added: “The meetings in Paris and Lourdes demonstrated to attentive and impartial observers that the image too often given of a Church in decline and without a future bears no relation to the reality. We saw a Church in which a central place is occupied by the young, adolescents, students, young professionals and young families with their children”. The cardinal also commended “the positive reverberations” of the apostolic journey, which were registered “well beyond ecclesiastical circles”. Financial crisis. The Church has “neither the competence nor the mandate” to propose financial solutions in the technical sense but the crisis of the economy asks the Church to give voice to the ethical implications of the economic system. So Cardinal Vingt-Trois also touched on the financial crisis in his opening address to the plenary assembly. “The financial turbulence that has characterized this period – he said – is charged with consequences and threats, not only for the revenue of major financial institutions and for small savers, but also for all those whose life and work depend on the vitality and productivity of businesses, whatever be their size. The strong and rapid intervention of European governments has perhaps averted the worst. It has demonstrated in any case the willingness to tackle a time of crisis together. Faced by the precarious working conditions and the drop in income of many people, we are all invited to develop a reflection on the organization of economic and social life. Naturally the Church has neither the competence nor the mandate to offer solutions to these problems. But she does have the mission and competence to help our citizen to live a life of humanity in the economic context and to gauge its moral implications”.Sunday as a rest day and the bioethical question. In his address the cardinal also made a strong appeal to the value of Sunday as a day or rest. “Must earning more – asked the archbishop – really become the main purpose of our existence? That Christians are not in favour of any extension of work to Sunday, will surprise no one. For them, the Lord’s Day is not a workday like the rest of the week”. It is “the Day of Resurrection” but also a day to dedicate to “family life”. Extending the hours of work also to Sunday “would therefore be a further step in the disintegration of our collective life, and that would involve not only Christians”. As far as the bioethical question is concerned, in view of a reform of the law that regulates it, the cardinal insisted that “scientific research and medical applications must be for the good of man”. The cardinal then warned of the “uncurbed race for patents” and the attempt to “exploit and commercialize the human being without any limit or measure”. At the roots of the Russian Orthodox traditionContinuing bilateral contacts and strengthening cooperation between the two Churches: with the enunciation of these two priorities, Cardinal André Vingt.Trois, Archbishop of Paris and President of the French Bishops’ Conference, ended his journey to Moscow from 26 to 30 October at the head of a delegation that also included the bishops of Montpellier and Pontoise. The French delegation was received by Patriarch Alexei II on 29 October and also visited – as part of a packed programme of meetings and visits – the monastery of Solovski, which is situated on the island on which many members of the Russian Orthodox Church were imprisoned and murdered: bishops, priests, monks and laity. “It is – said the cardinal – a symbol of the persecutions perpetrated against the Church in the 20th century, but also a witness to the indomitable strength of the spirit that overcomes every ordeal”. Speaking of the prospects for bilateral dialogue between the two Churches, the archbishop declared: “We will try to develop our relations and make them ever more fruitful”.