” “The challenges that await the European Churches, according to mgr. Amédéè Grab, president of Ccee, include, above all, "seeing how a rising number of governments is shattering the traditional Christian concept of marriage and family life" to "try to please those groups that want to obtain financial security for the parties concerned" in relationships that cannot be called "marriages". According to mgr. Grab, "’legalising relationships between same-sex persons, whether they are defined ‘marriages’ or not, largely exceeds a search for equality in front of the law". Equally complicated are the ethical issues, "such as the research into stem cells and euthanasia". Another challenge "is the plague of the war in the Middle East and Africa": according to mgr. Grab, "it is a shame that the media, when they spoke of the conflict in Lebanon, regarded all the population as Muslim", and "it is also outrageous that the world seems to have forgotten what is in fact the genocide of Darfur". According to the prelate, another type of challenge, a "much more positive one", is "that of the third European Ecumenical Assembly", especially "the preparations for the final stage in Sibiu, in September next year". ” “
