E s s a y s

WELCOMING ADDRESS AT THE MEETING OF PRESIDENCY
OF EUROPEAN PEOPLE PARTY IN KARLOVY VARY, MAI 6TH 2010

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Premier Minister, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, dear guests, 

I am honored to meet you in this famous spa city endowed with rich cultural history. I welcome you as representatives of an important political family which is continuing the work of the Founding Fathers of the modern united Europe. The answer of these great Christian politicians to the horrors of war, aroused by the poison of nationalism and the subsequent danger of communist totalitarianism, was a strong YES to Europe, free Europe, democratic Europe united, not through the will of dictators, but on the basis of common cultural and moral values. Their YES to Europe said also the nations which gained freedom and independence twenty years ago. “Back to Europe” was one of the catchphrases of the Czech Velvet Revolution. The recent accession of the Central and Eastern European states to the European Union was a significant step in the journey of realizing the grand dream of many generations. However, Project Europe is still an unfinished task. 

The adoption of the Lisbon Treaty, despite the defiance of the enemies of European integration, was another important move and a necessary condition for the European Union to be an effective body on the international field. The main motive for European nations is a strong, deeply integrated Europe. The opponents of European integration are scaremongers, telling our people that they will dissolve like sugar cubes in the cup called Europe. It is us Christians who are tasked to be 'the salt of the earth', who should be the warrants for national communities, who should be salt rather than sugar. We don’t need to be afraid of being dissolved. This is why a credible presence of Christians in public life in Europe is needed. There is no need for a lot of salt, but its total absence makes the dish unpalatable, tasteless. 

Active Christians are currently a minority in European society. However, Pope Benedict has asked the Christians of Europe to be a creative minority, not a self-excluded ghetto. 

The nostalgia and longing for 'Christendom' of the medieval Christian Europe, as imagined by the romanticists, is an illusion and loss of time and energy. We cannot turn back the clock of history. There is little point in yearning for the return of the medieval age, in particular. 

The manner in which Christians and Christianity were present in European society has changed many times in the past – and it keeps changing even today. The changes in historical and cultural context cannot be ignored. Between the 1st and 2nd Vatican Council, European Catholicism tended to be a somewhat peculiar and an enclosed Catholic subculture that had little interest in communication. This was in reaction to the French Revolution, the European revolutions of 1848, secularization and also the marked increase in liberalism and socialism. This Catholic world wanted to defend itself against all influences of the external world. It is obvious that this mentality became the basis for various Catholic political parties, Catholic organizations from the unions to sport organizations – “Bundeskatholizismus”. Pius XI's motto was „party against party, union against unions, and press against press". 

Catholicism in the USA has experienced a completely different practice. The enlightenment in the Anglo-Saxon world has never stood against religion and churches. Catholicism learned to live in an open and plural democratic society in America, both culturally and religiously. It was this American experience, especially through American Jesuits and the French philosopher Jacques Maritain, that helped the 2nd Vatican Council drastically change the strategy of the Church towards the modern world to take the place of defense dialogue and solidarity. The first sentence of Gaudium et spes Constitution: “The joys and the hopes, the grief’s and the anxieties of the men of this age (…) these are the joys and hopes, the grief’s and anxieties of the followers of Christ.” reminds me of the marital vows: the Church has promised to the contemporary man, its love, respect and fidelity. 

The Catholicism of the old kind saw its societal and cultural form begin to flounder, in particular in The Netherlands, Spain, Germany (between 1968-78), later in Austria, and more recently in Ireland. This also occurred outside of Europe – for example in Quebec. 

I returned from a Poland few days ago. Some Polish Bishops and theologians feel that if Father Rydzik and his Radio Maria continue down their current path then the Church will quickly lose the support of the younger generation and the intellectual elites. 

The Church is looking for a new mode of presence in the pluralistic post-modern society of the West. Pope Benedict stated: the Church must be a creative minority. The famous dialogue of Cardinal Ratzinger and the philosopher Habermas led to a mutual conclusion that Christianity and Secular humanism need each other to ensure a balance. Cardinal Martini noted that the Church of our time is not and will not be a great power, but it has to be a voice. This voice needs to be prophetic, competent, understandable and lacking in arrogance. It also needs to have solid arguments that are without populism, cheap phrases and catchphrases, and that do not contain nostalgia for the past. 

I see the future of Europe precisely in this dialogue and complementarity, where the secular humanism and Christian humanists realize that they need each other mutually and are both irreplaceable.  Many values of Christianity – for example the idea of human rights – have found their expression outside of the Church in a time when Catholicism isolated itself from the outside world. There is also a “Christianity behind the visible borders of the Churches”, implicit, “anonymous Christianity”, which had agreed less and less with the “organized religion” of the Christian churches. 

The time when the Christian political parties were understood as a “prolonged arm” of the Church hierarchy and when a “marriage” existed between Churches and political parties is now gone. The time when the parties expected clear support from the Churches and in return the Churches looked to the parties as an instrument of defense of their institutional interests, is also no longer the case. 

There are less and less people who fully identify themselves with the Churches. If the parties which have risen from the traditions of Christian democracy turned only to them, it would be the beginning of their end.  But there are many who are “partially identified”. It is unlikely that all of them could be turned into “standard Christians” and brought onto Church benches. But the future of Christianity in Europe and the future character of Europe depend on how this significant portion of the European populace will evolve. This is an area where your political activity can come in. 

It would be very dangerous if the Christian politicians of Europe sought to follow the American 'Religious Right' with religious fundamentalism. Another danger would be if they wanted to profit from the fear of Islam and revive the spirit of Crusades. The growth of Islam in the world and its growing presence in Europe is a reality. It would be a great failure on the side of Christians if they were to join the party of xenophobia and intolerance. The future and character of Islam in Europe is based primarily on the behavior and attitude of Christians to Muslims. The main hostility is not between Islam and Christianity, but between Islam and aggressive, intolerant secularism of certain nationalistic groups in the West. The great historical role of contemporary Christians is to strive to avert conflicts between the West and the Islamic world and to mediate dialogue and understanding between the two worlds as these are too often influenced by mutual prejudices. Christianity is the only force of this world, which has something in common with both of them – with monotheism of Islam, as well as the secular world of the West, which was conceived in the bosom of Christendom and still shares many features with it. 

I wish you all well for your meeting in Karlovy Vary and also for your future works. Let the spirit of wisdom be with you.