NEWS STORY: Europe’s bishops see”crisis in faith”on secularized continent

c. 1999 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ Europe’s Roman Catholic bishops, meeting at the Vatican to study the challenges facing the church at the dawn of a new millennium, are concerned with what they see as a”crisis in faith”throughout an increasingly secularized continent. The question of how to sustain faith and transmit it to […]

c. 1999 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ Europe’s Roman Catholic bishops, meeting at the Vatican to study the challenges facing the church at the dawn of a new millennium, are concerned with what they see as a”crisis in faith”throughout an increasingly secularized continent.

The question of how to sustain faith and transmit it to the coming generations of Europeans headed a list of 17 issues the bishops tackled Wednesday (Oct. 13) as they began the process of drawing up a plan of action to present to Pope John Paul II.


The pope called the Second Special Assembly for Europe of the Synod of Bishops to consider the changes in Europe since the first assembly met in 1991, just after the collapse of communism, and to look to the needs of the church and civil society in the third millennium of Christianity.

The bishops broke up into nine working groups to discuss the issues presented to them in Latin on Tuesday by Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, archbishop of Madrid and the general relator, or chairman, of the meeting.

Rouco Varela drew up the list from concerns the bishops had expressed in 188 eight-minute speeches delivered over the first nine working days of the three-week synod, which opened Oct. 1.

First on the list was how to deal with”the crisis in faith caused by a secular world and especially how to transmit faith to the new generations.” Other key issues included how to give support to the family, meet the problems of migrants, improve relations with Islam, widen the role of laity in the church, integrate new lay movements into parish life and carry out the pope’s call for a”new evangelism”to mark the year 2000.

Absent from the list was any reference to the applauded proposal Oct. 7 by Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini of Milan for the establishment of a new”instrument,”other than a synod or a council, to allow bishops to discuss the most pressing problems of the post-Vatican II church and exercise their”episcopal collegiality”to the fullest.

Archbishop Jozef Zycinski of Lublin, Poland, a special secretary of the synod, earlier dismissed Martini’s proposal as”a little bit closer to magic than to theology.”Speaking at a Vatican news conference Oct. 11, he said,”I don’t believe that with a new structure everything is solved.” However, Bishop Roger Hollis of Portsmouth, England, briefing reporters on the deliberations of his English-speaking working group Wednesday, said the bishops were free to take up this or any other idea they thought important.”We hope to address issues important to Catholics, not simply European issues,”he said.”Everybody would have to say that the practice of faith is declining, not to say it is any less vigorous, but it is a smaller church,”Hollis said. He said this was due in large part to consumerism, which the West has grown accustomed to and the East now finds”very attractive, very seductive.” Hollis said he was particularly impressed by the speeches of two Irish prelates, Bishop Donal Murray of Limerick on the need to communicate the faith not only with”new words but a deeper vision of the church”and Archbishop Desmond Connell of Dublin on Ireland’s struggle to shape the future by a”just interpretation of the past.” The English bishop also cited the call of Anglican Bishop John Hind of Gibraltar for an authentic commitment to ecumenism and of Sanja Horvat, a theology student in Sarajevo, for the church to help”to rebuild destroyed souls”among the youth of war-torn Bosnia.”I was moved by some of the testimonies from the East,”Hollis said.”We talk about the exchange of gifts between East and West. The West gives material aid to the East, but perhaps we haven’t looked at what the East can give the West: the charism of martyrdom.” Hollis said he expected that the”propositions”the bishops will send to the pope will include a strong and concrete statement on what they can do within their own countries to temper the”fortress Europe”attitude and ease government restrictions on migrants.

Because many of the migrants seeking work in Europe are Muslims, the bishop said the plan of action probably will give”a nod toward Catholics being more involved with interreligious dialogue.” Addressing the synod Oct. 5, Alain Besancon, a member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences of the Institute of France, reported the number of Muslim immigrants in France _ 4 million to 5 million _ is”comparable to that of practicing Catholics.”He urged Catholics be taught about Islam and how it differs from the Christian faith.


Hollis said the response of Cardinal Francis Arinze, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, would be to encourage dialogue between Catholics and Muslims”although they are not very reciprocating.”Although Europe is full of mosques, he said,”we are not even allowed to build a church in Saudi Arabia.”

DEA END POLK

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