"It would be nice to end the assembly with a gesture, a common initiative, such as an ecumenical pilgrimage to the Holy Land, planting trees in a wood, a day of silence": this is the idea and the wish made by mgr. Aldo Giordano, secretary general of Ccce (Council of European Bishops Conferences), interviewed during the III European Ecumenical Assembly, which is under way in Sibiu. "The Assembly is a space to meet and reflect says to SIR mgr. Giordano . It is a European ecumenical place. The delegates should become the multipliers of the message of the Assembly, through initiatives in their regions. I can’t imagine another assembly like this will be held any time soon, but hundreds of meetings around these people who, compared with the Assemblies of Basel and Graz, have now become ‘thoughtful’, more and more aware of the serious challenge we are facing". According to mgr. Giordano, the Assembly of Sibiu shows "a mature ecumenism", standing out for "a climate of great seriousness". Being in Romania, in his opinion, "makes us feel even better the problem of the relations between the East and the West in Europe, the fear of modernity and of the West". Regrettably, he admits, "sometimes in ecumenical dialogue we found difficulties, because it is not always the pure love of the Gospel that guides us. Sometimes we are paralysed by our traditions, by the negative legacies, by the fear of losing power".
