Print   

---

Related documents

Belgium – “European Business Forum” on vocational training

Belgium – Declaration of the President of COMECE on the Climate Conference in Copenhagen

---

---

(ANS – Bruxelles) – On Monday 19 July in Bruxelles there was the VI meeting between  the Leaders of the Churches and  Religious communities of Europe and the Presidents of the Commission, Parliament and European Council. Bishop  Adrianus van Luyn SDB of Rotterdam and President of the Commission of Bishops’ Conferences of the  European Community (COMECE) spoke at the meeting inviting religious and lay people to a shared commitment in the fight against  poverty and social exclusion, fully convinced that working together, such evils can be defeated.

The Meeting was hosted by José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, Herman Van Rompuy, President of the Council of Europe and Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament. Taking part in this VI meeting from the religious world in addition to Bishop van Luyn, representing COMECE, were Cardinal Péter Erdõ, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest and President of the Council of Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE), Dr Flaminia Giovannelli, undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and various religious Leaders Christian, Jewish and Muslim as well as from the Sikh and Hindu communities present in the countries of the European Union.

In his address at the European Commission Bishop van Luyn warned against using technical or administrative measures that convert the poor into "objects of welfare." What he needed, he explained, "is a way of helping poor people that will allow them to be `players` in the joint struggle with society against poverty and exclusion."

Among the means to reach this objective  the Salesian proposed “the fundamental and indispensible principle of solidarity” by which the “otherness of the other” can be accepted without imposing one’s own view.
 
Continuing his address he considered the economic crisis, and looking at the efforts being made by the EU to come out of it he  said that "we can neither allow the poorest and the weakest in our society to become the victims of this crisis yet again, nor can we burden future generations with the task of cleaning up after our mistakes while failing to do anything ourselves."

In conclusion the Bishop of Rotterdam also spoke about the  responsibility of the EU regarding the peoples of the rest of the world  and in particular of Africa, asking for a more determined commitment on the part of all the Institutions, political, religious, civil and social, for the complete achievement of the Millennium development Objectives.

Published 29/07/2010