With (Re)thinking Europe approaching, COMECE exchanged ideas on the future of Europe and its underlying principles with an international seminar group discussing the role of religious and faith-based institutions in EU politics.
(Credit: Web)
Organised by the Catholic Social Academy in Austria (KSÖ), the exchange took place on the 15 September and highlighted the connection between the future of Europe and the activity of people working on the ground for the cohesion of the European societies and the promotion of the common good. The seminar was part of an international training on social responsibility.
While stressing that Churches and civil society organisations are both important contributors to open and positive critical reflections on current societal trends, COMECE expressed one of the main concerns of the Church, which is also one of the main goals of (Re)thinking Europe: to initiate change towards a society built on human dignity.
Participants spoke in favour of a deepening of the dialogue between the religions in Europe, and identified the globalisation of indifference – as coined by Pope Francis in “Evangelii Gaudium” – as the major social challenge of a European Union too much centred on the economic development and fiscal consolidation and too weak in fostering peace and social progress.
COMECE, together with Khalid Hajji, Secretary General of the European Council of Moroccan Uluma and President of the Brussels Forum for Wisdom and World Peace, and Jorge Nuno Mayer, Secretary General of Caritas Europa, emphasised the importance of inter-religious dialogue and the need to underpin the European project with the spirit of solidarity as envisaged by the founding fathers 60 years ago, in 1957, when the Treaties of Rome were signed.