Silent but visible

With our interview of Bishop Noel Treanor of Down and Connor, in Northern Ireland, we are continuing SIR Europe’s special feature dedicated to the reflections of European bishops on the process of European integration and on the Church’s thought on the European common home (see SIR Europe 62-63-64-65-66-67-69/2011).What opinions and hopes do Catholics in your country have with regard to the EU?“In general, it should be said that the opinion of Catholics is divided. In the Republic of Ireland, which covers two thirds of the island, we have seen the division more clearly on the occasion of the referenda for the ratification of the various treaties of the EU. Recently we have seen a sharp distinction of public opinion between those who totally support the EU project, despite sporadic hesitations, and others who for various reasons are more hesitant and vote against these referenda, expressing substantial doubts if not downright opposition to some European projects. This division also exists within the Catholic community, which forms the majority in Southern Ireland. In the North opinion is divided between non-Catholics and Catholics, the majority of whom are pro-EU, even if many do not support the European project as it is currently constituted and promoted. The EU project is a subject of heated and lively political debate in Ireland”.Is public opinion based on sound information? Do you think that in substance there is reliable information on EU institutions and on the European Churches?“Yes, in terms of the continuous flow of information. What is not adequately promoted and developed by the institutions, and not even by our mass media, on the other hand, is the narration on the significance and importance of the European project, beyond the achievement of peace or the promotion of solidarity between the peoples of the various states of the EU, more specifically today the role of the EU in the global village. The EU with its department for information must review and reformulate this second chapter in the promotion of the significance, pertinence and consistency of the European project: now that peace and solidarity have been achieved in the European Community, we now need to develop a new chapter that should concentrate on the significance of the Union in terms of its ability to enable member states to tackle the challenges of Europe today, the role of Europe in the community of nations, and the interrelations between the various continental situations: we are moving, and must move, towards a system of global governance to be able to address such questions as energy, water, banks and demographic problems. In spite of the mass of technology at our disposal, this new quality of information is unfortunately lacking. And this is a challenge both for the EU and for those who work in the media”.How can the Church in your country contribute to the European Union?“The question is somewhat vague. I think, however, that the Churches in Ireland, the Catholic, Anglican and Reformation Churches, have tried to present people, in past decades, and especially since 1973, when Ireland entered the EU, with the significance of the European project and the importance of the European context for Ireland, also with a view to the rediscovery, re-appropriation and revaluation of our Christian cultural heritage and identity within the European context in which Ireland played so important a role in the early Middle Ages. This contribution has also been confirmed in more recent decades, in particular in periods of ratification of the treaties. I also think that the Churches can make a further contribution; I think for example that our national Churches ought to appropriate the work being promoted by COMECE (Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community) in terms of questions strictly connected with the EU and by the CCEE in terms of questions of more properly European pastoral reference. With more specific reference to COMECE, an area of particular interest today is that examined in the document on the social market economy that was examined by the bishops in their plenary assembly at the end of October. This model must in particular be fostered in the countries of Southern Europe. The task of publicizing this specific proposal, once the document in question is published in January, is incumbent on the Bishops’ Conferences, and their social pastoral structures, but it must also be promoted in wider-ranging meetings and dialogues with the media, with persons involved in politics at various levels and with the world of the economy, information and business. What’s important, however, in making our own contribution, is avoiding the dichotomy between spiritual life and everyday life, because we Christians have learned through the Incarnation that God became man and that there’s no salvation outside the dynamics and dramas of daily life. We must avoid the risk of falling victim once again to the deviances, i.e. the heresies, of the early centuries of Christianity. This is a major challenge for our time”.How do you sum up the work of the European Churches in the EU?“I think that ever since the foundation of the European Community, in the early post-war years, through the work of exponents of the Church, men and women who had political, civil and academic roles, individuals like Robert Schuman, and many others less well known and far from famous, the living Christian tradition of social ethic and incarnated spirituality has been the stimulus and breeding ground from which the European vision has emerged in a qualitatively new way, forging the creation of those institutions that provided the constitutional foundation first of the European Community and then of the Union. Since the 1960s, with the foundation by the Jesuits of the Jesuit European Office (OCIPE) and their Catholic European pastoral information service, and then the birth of COMECE and other organizations at the European level, the Church has silently made, and continues to make, a significant and ongoing contribution to the formation of Europe and its policies, through her mission of engaging with the social, political and economic realities of daily life. This contribution can be gauged in various ways and on various levels. For example in the accompaniment of policies: in the case of research on bioethics and its implications, COMECE has set up a group of experts that has for years monitored this field at the European level, entering into dialogue with persons and bodies, whether or not they share the same ethical points of reference or points of view. This work has been able to influence, even if not completely, the thought and decisions of persons charged with formulating policy in this field. Another perhaps even more visible sphere in the Church’s engagement with policy-making can be registered in the long history of accompanying the drafting of treaties and fundamental texts of the EU, right down to that of the famous art. 17 in the EU Treaty. If ever people should claim that in one way or another the Church has failed, wholly or partially, in her specific role here, they would show they know nothing of the political processes of the EU, which are difficult to follow. COMECE has worked with courage and with integrity, often through difficult and very heated discussions, in which it was essential not only to present, but also to defend the Catholic identity, in a language that does not intimidate, but that opens to the mystery of humanity and of God”.