Being Christians in Europe

Twelve great European metropolises are involved in "Metropolis 2012", which is due to take place with different dates and programmes in Dublin, Paris, Zagreb, Budapest, Warsaw, Frankfurt, Lisbon, Turin, Vienna, Barcelona, Liverpool and Brussels in the months ahead. Comprising meetings of catechesis on the Word of God, moments of witness, and concrete signs of solidarity with the poor, "Metropolis 2012" is a great "international mission", a kind of "pilot experiment" launched by the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization in preparation for the Synod that is due to be held in October 2012. In Brussels the programme began on 22 February and will end on 15 April. In Paris the launch will take the form of an event called "Hosanna dans la ville", and be held on the weekend from 31 March to 1st April. In Lisbon, in turn, the metropolitan Mission will be launched by the Patriarch of Lisbon, Cardinal José Policarpo, according to whom the initiative "will demonstrate the Holy Father’s concern for the re-evangelization of Europe, or rather for a new evangelization in Europe, whose roots may lie in Christianity, but which has fallen into a kind of indifference and agnosticism, while Christian communities have become minorities and often not all their members have any deep understanding of what the Christian faith is". Sir Europe has interviewed Mgr. Jean Kockerols, Auxiliary Bishop of Brussels, about the project. Metropolis 2012 will take place in the framework of a difficult situation for the Church, which has lost credibility as a result of recent scandals. How will it present itself to the public? "I would say that apart from the loss of credibility, which due to various scandals can be felt not just in Belgium, but also in other European countries, what in fact is being registered in the public’s attitude to the Church is more one of indifference. So if the Church is to regain her credibility and become a living sign in our cities, she needs to embark on a process that can only be of long duration. Metropolis 2012 forms part of this long process". How has the Belgian Church emerged from this difficult period?"I think that the great majority of practising Christians in Belgium are very conscious of the crisis, but that it’s not for this reason that they have changed their point of view. It is rather in the outside world, in society, and especially among those who don’t know Christianity, that the Church has lost her credibility. We also need to take into account how the press has handled these scandals: it has sometimes exaggerated. The press has embarked on an unprecedented hunt for news stories, for example with regard to Cardinal Danneels". Metropolis 2012: what does it aim to demonstrate?"Metropolis is especially aimed at targeting lukewarm Christians, baptized Christians who no longer know the tenets of the faith or the life of the Church. It is especially this population we wish to address".An evangelization project in a world that is becoming increasingly less Christian: how can faith be presented in a context in which faith is no longer self-evident?"Through catechesis, for example, it is possible to show how faith can be a way of achieving happiness, how it can lead to reawakening a sense of inner joy and give a true horizon to life. It’s a task of proclaiming the faith. So with Metropolis 2012 we are trying to understand how to bring this message to the men and women of our time, how to reach them. It’s not easy; often it’s very complicated. With the few means and the few individuals at our disposal, we have decided to make a choice, to understand, that is, to what public we wish to transmit our message. And we have considered it important to address young couples, who have often dropped out of the Church but who for the baptism of their children try to enter into contact with us and to ask us something. We can’t disappoint their hopes".Metropolis is a European project: it is being held in 12 major metropolises of the continent. What message has it got to say to Europe?"Twelve European cities have been chosen for the experiment, but it would also have been possible to choose cities in North America or other regions of the world: it is secularized society that is appealing to us. These 12 cities are all having to tackle the same problem of secularization. Our aim is to send out a message not so much to Europe as to secularized society and to say that the Church and the Christian faith have something important to say even if they now find themselves in a minority situation".What do you hope to achieve with this initiative? "I hope that the persons we meet may – through the grace of the Holy Spirit – rediscover a renewed faith, and that Christians may find a new impetus, a new drive to share their faith with the world that surrounds them. We wish to proclaim and share our faith without complexes and without the arrogance to which we are no longer used in the West".