Starting anew from Solidarnosc

From 8-11 October, 500 to 600 European Catholics will convene in Gdansk, the city of Solidarnosc, to attend the Catholic Social Days for Europe, promoted by the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE). The Days differ from “Europe’s Catholic Social Weeks”, although they equally represent an important occasion for reflection. Msgr. Piotr Jarecki, auxiliary bishop of Warsaw, vice-president of COMECE and President of the Days’ organizing Committee; father Piotr Mazurkiewicz, Secretary General, and Stefan Lunte, Segretary of the COMECE Commission for Social Affairs will present the program and purpose of the event during a press conference to be held April 20 at the COMECE offices in Brussels (Square de Meeûs 19 – 14h30). The speakers will also present the logo of the Days that will “be attended by prominent figures of public life in Europe, including European institutions, and distinguished Church dignitaries”. The event is organized in conjunction with Caritas Europe, Justice and Peace Europe and the Initiative of Christians for Europe (IXE), along with the Centre for European Solidarity in Gdansk, the Centre for the Thought of John Paul II in Warsaw, and Renovabis, the solidarity initiative of German Catholics. “European solidarity”. “The idea of the ‘Catholic Social Days for Europe’ draws inspiration from the Social Weeks which have been held at national level across different Countries for a long time”, Msgr. Piotr Jarecki told SIR. The theme of the “Days”, that are being organized by a Committee of 26 members from 19 European Countries, led by Msgr. Jarecki, is “Solidarity – the challenge for Europe”. The purpose of the event is “to seek the paths of ‘European’ solidarity vis à vis the current world crisis to the light of the social doctrine of the Church applied to political, economic and social problems that contemporary Europe is called to address”. Hence, solidarity is understood “as the goal that ought to be met with the contribution of the youth, whom we wish to actively involve in the debate on European values”. This appointment, adds Msgr. Jarecki, “will equally propose guidelines for the future evolution of the EU”. Gdansk has been chosen to host the event because, he concluded, “it is the city of Solidarnosc, the cradle of the new era”. In the past weeks the Committee issued a Manifesto for the Days, available in nine languages on the website www.comece.eu.  Recovering freedom and peace. “Every generation ought to recover freedom and peace and ours makes no exception”, state the authors of the Manifesto. “Today, eighty years after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the world once again finds itself in the midst of a severe economic and financial crisis, which carries with it the potential for dangerous social and political consequences, including the temptation to revert to nationalism and protectionism”. The way out of this crisis “and the key to peace lie in the combination of personal and political values encapsulated in the term ‘solidarity'”. Solidarity, “grounded in the respect for human dignity and freedom, lies at the heart of the social teaching of the Church”. For this reason, state the authors of the Manifesto, “our meeting in Gdansk will offer an opportunity to explore the challenge of solidarity for Europe”. The text defines Solidarity as indivisible, “without any exclusion or exception”. “It includes all human beings, from those who are not yet born to those who are at the end of their life. It includes our contemporaries and the generations to come. It includes residents and migrants. It includes all countries, be they big or small”.Transcending Europe’s boundaries. According to the authors of the Manifesto, solidarity “demands that in our societies the weakest are protected”, and that “the family as the fundamental building block of society built on the union of a man and a woman is defended and supported”. Furthermore, given that human beings “are increasingly dependent upon one another and their destinies so interwoven, and given the fact that our way of life is threatening the natural foundations of existence as never before for the generations to come, our understanding of solidarity in Europe must not be limited to solidarity within Europe and with the present”, the Committee points out. This is why, “as we gather in Gdansk, we intend not only to look for concrete ways to affirm Europe’s solidarity in the midst of the global crisis but also to encourage the European Union’s contribution to a civilisation of love, which excludes no person or corner of the globe and embraces the future generations”. The date and place chosen, the Manifesto concludes, “have a particular symbolic significance. Not only do they remind us of the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 and the end of Communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989, but also the first visit by Pope John Paul II to his homeland in 1979, which gave rise to Solidarnosc, the social movement of millions of Poles which started in Gdansk”.