Rome Newsroom, Mar 22, 2024 / 10:45 am
European bishops this week called on the institutions of the European Union to embrace greater state-church dialogue and on parliamentary candidates to include Christian principles in their political programs ahead of the bloc’s elections in June.
Stressing the importance of participatory democracy and the involvement of citizens in the decision-making process of European affairs, the statement bemoaned what it saw as the political and institutional marginalization of Christian voices.
“We distinctly noticed that a large proportion of citizens, who confidently look at the European future through the prism of Christian values, now feel marginalized, as they do not have the opportunity to express their positions and opinions in an autonomous and distinct way,” the bishops said in their March 20 statement.
“We also notice the exclusion of any appropriate reference to Christian values in relevant EU texts,” the bishops said.