Saturday, May 19, 2012

Ethics and spirituality for Europe’s future

The Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community (COMECE) has set its sights very high. 

After the seminar “Christians in the Arab World: One year after the Arab Spring”, which took place in Brussels on 9 May, the commission is planning a conference for the 23rd of this month, entitled “The Contribution of Spirituality and Ethics: Towards a Sustainable Economic Order”.

The subject had already been broached in a document presented in Strasbourg on 12 January, entitled “European Community of Solidarity and Responsibility. A Statement of the COMECE bishops on the EU Treaty objective of a Competitive Social Market Economy”. 

This is a far-reaching stand by the bishops all about building a future of responsibility and solidarity. It is also proof that the European priests are worried about the fate of the Old Continent, in terms of people’s everyday working life and concrete wellbeing more than about people’s faith, whatever this might be.

According to ecumenical custom, the initiative has been promoted by the COMECE’s Secretariat together with the Conference of European Churches (CEC), a fellowship of Orthodox, Protestant and Old Catholic European Churches (this organization already attended the meeting between European and Latin American Churches on the sustainability of a global economy in Havana in January).

The aim of the conference on 23 May is a profound reflection on the European Integration process based on the search for the common good and human dignity, in the conviction that the roots of the financial and economical crisis are not purely to be found in the economical sphere. Ethics and spirituality, or the lack thereof, have their say in this crisis too, according to Europe’s Churches. 

The main speakers are going to be André-Joseph Léonard, Archbishop of Brussels-Malines and Edy Korthals Altes, Ambassador Emeritus of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. 

The event will be chaired by Mgr. Adrianus van Luyn, Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Rotterdam (Netherlands) and former president of COMECE (until March). The current president is Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich-Freising in Bavaria.

The debate will be followed by questions from 2 young people: Ms Kristine Jansone (of EWCE- East West Council for Education) and Ms Marie-Caroline Leroux (of WYA World Youth Alliance, an organization promoting solidarity and respect for human rights).