Secular Europe dancing on a powder keg
Sept 11, 2007
The Vatican's top ecumenical officer compared Europe's popular attitudes with "dancing on volcano or on a powder keg," in his talk to the 3rd European Ecumenical Assembly in Sibiu, Romania.
Sibiu, Sep. 10, 2007 (CWNews.com) - "If Europe has any future, we will need a common set of basic principles," Cardinal Walter Kasper (bio - news) observed. The president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity said that the common Christian culture of the continent can be recovered only if and when "we, the Christians of Europe, eventually wake up."
In his own address to the gathering in Sibiu, the president of the European Commission agreed on the importance of Christian faith. José Manuel Barroso added that representatives of the Western and Eastern traditions of the Christian faith should work together to restore a public appreciation for religious principles. Citing a phrase made popular by Pope John Paul II (bio - news), he said that ecumenical work could help the Christian world to "breathe with both lungs."
Andrea Riccardi, the founder and head of the St. Egidio community, argued that European Christian leaders have a special role to play in world affairs of the 21st century. "Twice in the 20th century," Riccardi recalled, "war in Europe meant war in the world." Today, he argued, "peace in Europe can bring peace to the world."
Riccardi went on to say that the Eastern and Western traditions of European Christianity show the way for initiatives to aid the Third World. "Western Christianity has a love story with the South of the world that needs to be rekindled," he said, while "Eastern Christianity-- Christianity in Russia, which runs deep into the very heart of Asia-– has its love story with the East and the Middle East."
England's leading Catholic prelate, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor of Westminster, offered very practical advice to participants in Sibiu assembly, saying that "ecumenism is not essentially about great events, rather about the little happenings, in your homes and your parishes and your villages and towns."
However Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor also alluded to the need to restore Europe's Christian cultural tradition. "What a shame that so many people and indeed political figures seem unable to accept this fact of our history!" the British cardinal said. "They worry and fret about so many things and fail to acknowledge not only our shared Christian birthright, but also the green shoots and sturdy oak trees of Christianity that infuse European culture."
Secular Europe dancing on a powder keg