Rome, Italy, Oct 6, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Ecumenism, the 40th anniversary of Vatican II and the future of the European union were three themes that emerged at the four-day plenary assembly of European bishops last week, Sept. 29-Oct. 2, and that were quoted in an outcome document released yesterday.
In the light of the Second Vatican Council, the presidents of Europe's 34 Episcopal conferences (CCEE) reflected on how to interpret the historical-cultural changes of recent decades and the paths to follow in the immediate future, in the areas of evangelization, the role of the Church in today's European society, ecumenical dialogue, and the meeting between religions and culture and European unification.
At the Second Vatican Council, "tradition and renewal embraced," said Msgr. Agostino Marchetto, secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerants. It is wrong to think of the Council as a traumatic change or in terms of breaking continuity, he said.
Citing Pope Paul VI, Cardinal Camillo Ruini maintained that the Council's aim was to "to ensure that the Church of the 20th century may emerge ever better equipped to proclaim the gospel to the people of this century." The way to realize this lies in the correlation between the "affirmation of the centrality of man" (anthropological turning point) and his christological root: Christ is the true man, said the cardinal. Contemporary history indicates that Christianity has a public role “in guaranteeing, in present-day free and democratic society, the fundamental values of living side-by-side,” he said.