A common thought

Representatives of Catholic Church, Russian Orthodox Church and Judaism met in Vienna on 5-7 December to discuss problems and challenges regarding the family in Europe. International conference with the main theme “Family in crisis” was the first event of its kind on European level, aiming to address a broad range of issues affecting the essential unit of human life and to foster mutual dialog, understanding and further cooperation in this area.Pro-family legislation. The event was co-sponsored by cardinal Christoph Schonborn, archbishop of Vienna. He presided over the session dedicated to pro-family legislation in Europe. According to his words, the key question in this regard is “to maintain the privilege of marriage and family as a basic unit of the society, to favor the legislation to help and protect the family, also in economic terms, and generally to keep its uniqueness in a legal system for the future of society”. Cardinal Schonborn appreciated developing interreligious cooperation in this regard, expressing hope that it would continue successfully, with the first step meaning establishment of a study group “to consider various networks of relationships to pursue initiatives dealing with the matters of family”.Building of bridges. Appeal of Conscience Foundation representative, rabbi Arthur Schneier, stressed the importance of “working together on family matters” and mentioned phenomenon marking especially the first years of the 21th century: change of technological, economical, political kind, and naturally – also a change in the development and reception of a family unit. Calling family “a cornerstone of civilization” he reminded participants of the conference that Europe and America face economic downturn, and under these circumstances of high unemployment rate and marginalizing, more than ever before they need to find “an anchor” represented by the faith and by the community. According to rabbi Schneier, historically religion many times contributed to conflicts and he compared it to fire: “It can warm and provide comfort but it can also destroy”. On the base of experiences from the past he emphasized that “now is the time for building bridges among religions and for peaceful coexistence”, to advance – also in regard to the matters of family – a principle: “Live and let live”.Facing demographic crisis. “To maintain the population of Europe on current level, each woman needs to have 2,1 children” – this statistical data was presented by the delegate of the Russian Orthodox Church – the Moscow Patriarchate, Alexey Komov. He expressed deep concern over the institution of family threatened by secularism and relativism in a post-modern globalizing world, resulting in high divorce rate and growing number of single-parent families. According to Komov, messages spread by the media “often promote unethical lifestyle and promiscuity, same sex marriages, abortions, unacceptable reproduction methods based on new biomedical technologies”, leading to “degradation of human civilization and to depopulation”. He described efforts of the Russian Orthodox Church in regard to protection of life from conception to natural death, understanding it as “a sacred gift that should be respected under any conditions”. According to his words, in Russia not only religious authorities but also the state recognizes seriousness of the crisis, promoting various activities in favor of safeguarding the family.Question of continuity. Also present at the conference in Vienna was rabbi Pinchas Goldsmith, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, uniting almost 1000 Jewish religious leaders from Dublin to Vladivostok. He observed that “countries can be defended by armies and great economies, but cultures and religious traditions can be handed over to next generations only by strong families”. Stressing that the question of family is not a luxury but a necessity with need of continuity, he congratulated the delegates from the Russian Orthodox Church for their effort to rebuild “the cell of the family which had been destroyed by the decades of communism, especially stalinism. Rabbi Pinchas turned his appreciation also towards representatives from the western countries for their struggle against secularism and exhorted everyone to seek ways to “enhance, build and give value to sanctity of human life”. All participants of the conference were unanimous in their conviction that the current crisis can be resolved only by emphasizing marriage as a life-long covenant, a gift to the entire human family, emphasizing that science and technology “must be enjoined to be in dialogue with religious systems of moral and ethical values that support this conviction and respect the dignity of human life”.