COMECE: conference on “Islam, Christianity and Europe”The role of religious actors in strengthening civil society and democratization in the European neighborhood” is the theme of the seminar promoted in Brussels by COMECE (the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community), by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, and by the Evangelical Church in Germany (at the COMECE head offices – Square de Meeûs 19, 15:00). It is the second of a cycle of conferences on “Islam, Christianity and Europe”. The EU “has more and more acknowledged the importance of ‘civil society’ actors as bottom-up elements of political change” organizers explain. Thus, in the Neighborhood Policy, “the EU underlines the importance of people-to-people contacts as driving forces for reconciliation and democratization”. “While not being part of civil society, churches and religious communities are closely interacting with it” and acknowledge “a social and political responsibility towards the public sphere”. Their impact “depends on their perception of society, on their cooperation with civil society actors as well as on the respective character of their relations to the state”. Hence the promoters of the initiative recall the “crucial role” of “religious social actors” in being a “motor of change” during the “transformation processes in Central and Eastern Europe”. What lessons can be learned from this experience? Can both Christian and Muslim actors in the “European Neighborhood” (Near East and North Africa, Far Eastern Europe, South Caucasus) play a similar role today? In which specific areas would the added value of (and for) religious actors lie, how can the EU find adequate religious partners, and how can their involvement best be facilitated? These are some of the questions that will be addressed during the seminar. Speakers include Thorsten Göbel (Bread for the world); Amr El-Shobaky (Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, Cairo); Klaus Ziemer (Kard. Wyszynski University of Warsaw). Piotr Mazurkiewicz, COMECE secretary general, will moderate the meeting.Ukraine: Catholic Churches to the President-electIn the message addressed to Ukraine’s President-elect Viktor Yanukovych on the occasion of the swearing ceremony held past February 25, the head of the Greek-Catholic Church (UGCC) patriarch Lubomyr assured his very own “support” in his “prayers”, and conveyed the wish that “his important assignments may be performed with the help of God”. “We will do our utmost to contribute with our commitment to the Country’s progress for the common good of the whole population”, the Patriarch stated. “We look forward to the continuation of the fruitful cooperation between the State and the Roman-Catholic Church of Ukraine for the nation’s spirituality, for peace, harmony, and for the consolidation of society”, declared archbishop Mieczyslav Mokrzycki, President of the Roman-Catholic Bishops’ Conference. “In particular – he remarked – we place our hopes in the accomplishment of the social programs you have announced to overcome the Country’s ongoing economic and moral crisis”.Hungary: gypsy orchestra for Vatican conferenceHungary’s gypsy orchestra (Rajkó zenekar) was back in Rome upon the invitation of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrant and Itinerant People for a concert in the Santa Maria in Trastevere Basilica on March 2, on the occasion of the European Conference of the National Coordinators of the Pastoral Care of Gypsies. The orchestra was previously in Rome in November 2009, when it performed before Benedict XVI who received them in audience. The apostolic nuncio in Budapest, Msgr. Juliusz Januz conveyed his wish that the two concerts “will pave the way for further occasions” for the musical ensemble, “which offers young gypsies a precious opportunity for study, work and moral development”. The orchestra is directed by István Gerendási, b. 1952, founder of “Talentum”, the music school attended by 400 students. “For 58 years it has brought the most talented pupils from villages to transmit them a cultural, artistic, musical and even moral formation”. Msgr.János Székely, auxiliary bishop of the Hungarian Bishops’ Conference pointed out, “The Church does not envisage large projects but small steps, from one man to the other, as Jesus did”. “3% of Hungarian gypsies are university graduates – a very high percentage at European level”, bishop Székely also recalled the translation of the Bible in lovari (the most widely spoken of 17 Roma dialects) in 2008 and made known that a soccer game between the Hungarian gipsy team and the team of the Swiss guards is being planned. Despite the difficulties in collecting accurate data, according to estimates between 600 thousand and 800 thousand gypsies live in Hungary, divided into four language groups.
