c. 1999 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ Opening a synod of European bishops dedicated to fighting neo-paganism in what was once the most Christian of continents, Pope John Paul II on Friday (Oct. 1) named three women _ including the Jewish-born nun Edith Stein, who died in Auschwitz _ as patron saints of Europe.

The Roman Catholic pontiff made the surprise announcement at a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica attended by some 200 prelates participating in the three-week meeting, the last in a series of continental assemblies of bishops John Paul called to prepare the church for the third millennium of Christianity.”I have the joy today of proclaiming three new co-patronesses of the European continent. They are Saint Edith Stein, Saint Bridget of Sweden and Saint Catherine of Siena,”the pope said.”All are linked in a special way to the history of the continent.” The pope said he offered the three new patron saints as examples of holiness for a continent, which the bishops warned is facing”a great risk of a progressive and radical de-Christianization and paganization.” A patron saint can be chosen by a group such as a profession, an individual church or a geographical area. The patron is venerated as a model to follow in life and as a special intercessor before God.

Europe already has three male patron saints. Pope Paul VI chose Benedict, an Italian who founded the Benedictine order in the sixth century, and the Polish-born John Paul II added the brothers Cyril and Methodius, known as the”apostles of the Slavs”because they carried Christianity to what is now Eastern Europe in the ninth century.”I wished to include the same number of feminine saints in order to highlight the important role that women had and still have in the ecclesiastical and lay history of the continent up to our day,”the pope said.

John Paul has been criticized by feminists for steadfastly ruling out the priesthood for women on grounds that all of Christ’s disciples were men. Instead, he has said, women have a special role deriving from the Virgin Mary.”The church has not failed from her very origins to acknowledge the role and mission of women even if at times she was conditioned by a culture which did not always show due consideration to women,”he said in an apostolic letter on the new patrons saints.

Stein, born in 1891 to an Orthodox Jewish family in Breslau, then in German territory, was a noted philosopher and an atheist before she was drawn to Catholicism. Baptised in 1922, she later became a Carmelite nun, taking the name of Sister Teresea Benedicta of the Cross.

She was among the converts whom the Nazi occupiers of the Netherlands rounded up and shipped to Auschwitz in 1942 to punish the Dutch bishops for speaking out against Hitler.

Stein’s canonization last October drew protests from many Jews, who accused the church of claiming as a martyr someone who died solely because she was born a Jew. But in his homily today, John Paul called her”the symbol of the drama of Europe in this century.” Both the other new patron saints lived in the 14th century.

Bridget, a Swedish aristocrat who married and had eight children _ one of whom also became a saint _ moved to Rome and took up the religious life after her husband died. She is remembered as a mystic and the founder of the Order of the Most Holy Saviour, whose mission is to care for the sick and the poor.

Catherine of Siena, a Dominican nun from the age of 20, was known for her spirituality and for her direct interventions with the rulers of the day to try to resolve the many conflicts plaguing Europe. It was she who convinced Pope Gregory XI to return to Rome from exile in Avignon in France.

The prelates meeting in the Second Special Assembly for Europe of the Synod will discuss the church’s response to changes that have swept the continent in the eight years since their first synod in 1991 when the church was celebrating the collapse of communism.”The enthusiasm aroused by the fall of the ideological barriers and the peaceful revolutions of 1989, unfortunately, seems to have rapidly diminished in its impact with political and economic egotism,”said the 79-year-old pontiff, looking tired and speaking in a weak voice.

The bishops chose as the theme of the synod,”Jesus Christ Alive in His Church: Source of Hope for Europe.”But in their working document, they warned that all is not well in Europe.”Generally speaking, there is a common awareness that communism is not the only enemy,”the document said.”Pluralism has taken the place of Marxism in cultural dominance, a pluralism which is undifferentiated and tending towards skepticism and nihilism.””Negative phenomena, primarily in Western Europe _ such as materialism, consumerism, hedonism and cultural and religious relativism _ have also had an effect on the peoples of East Europe, making the work of local churches more difficult,”they said.

Sects outside the established religions are profiting from disillusionment bred by poverty gripping the east and from”an exaggerated individualism which goes in search of groups offering refuge and gratification”in both East and West, the bishops said.”As a result, there is a great risk of a progressive and radical de-Christianization and paganization of the continent.” (OPTIONAL TRIM _ STORY MAY END HERE)

Taking part in the synod are 196 bishops, archbishops and cardinals – the so-called synod fathers, 17 experts, 37 auditors, one special participant and 10″fraternal delegates”from the Orthodox, Anglican, Baptist and Lutheran churches, who will address the bishops and sit in on their discussions.

The bishops, meeting in small language groups, will draw up a series of propositions to present to the pope at the end of the synod. The propositions will serve as the basis for an apostolic exhortation, summing up the concerns and goals of the church in Europe at the start of the new millennium.

DEA END POLK