European Churches: meeting of general secretaries, “in a plural Europe, challenges must be faced together”

“Nowadays, Europe is more complex than ever”. And its cultural, economic, political, social and religious plurality “includes the need to face challenges together”. This has been written by the general secretaries of the European Bishops Conferences at the end of their meeting, promoted by Ccee in Bucharest, Romania, from June 30^th to July 3^rd, to discuss “the role of the Church, especially that of the Bishops Conferences, in a pluralist Europe”.

In the final release, published today, the general secretaries write: “Migration, a certain generational cultural rift, the crisis of the educational system, which, a bit everywhere, failed to take care of transmitting the values that underpin social relationships, and the crisis of the institutions are some of the issues that prove that Europe is no longer a consistent reality. To seriously face the challenges raised by such phenomena, a decisive role must be given back to reason. If it is overridden by emotion, as it often happens in this age of post-truth politics, the violence of languages and gestures become common currency”. In Europe, there is also an “economic” plurality, where rifts and gaps between “rich and poor”, between the “European countries themselves, between cities and rural areas, and between the generations, increase all the time”. The European general secretaries express “great concern” in this respect for the increasing number of unemployed young people, as well as for the rising number of old people who live in destitution. In response to such crisis, the prelates call for “solidarity and charity, along with justice”, which “are not empty words but emergencies that the Church never stops to recall”. The Churches are also worried about the political world, as it is incapable of “clearly expressing anthropological and societal views and models”.

“For years – the release states –, in many European countries, the social gap between citizens and political leaders has resulted in fewer and fewer voters going to the polls”. As far as “social and religious pluralism” is concerned, instead, the general secretaries believe that a “culture of cohabitation, which will not turn diversity into adversity, identity into exclusion, must be promoted”. And they also notice that, within the Catholic Church, pluralism is a big challenge. But – they add – “it would be wrong to consider lack of agreement as a sign of division. A true Christian dialogue actually means freely and responsibly listening to clashing opinions too”.