Paul Keenan
The Church urges the continent to be true to its values, writes Paul Keenan
“What has happened to you, the Europe of humanism, the champion of human rights, democracy and freedom? What has happened to you, Europe, the mother of peoples and nations, the mother of great men and women who upheld, and even sacrificed their lives for, the dignity of their brothers and sisters?”
With these words in early May, Pope Francis chided Europe’s disordered response to the single most engaging issue of the moment, the migrant crisis swelling once more on the shores of the continent.
In making his comments, the Pope had a captive audience in European leaders as he took to the podium in Rome to accept the annual Charlemagne Prize, an award recognising great contributions to the ideals of post-war Europe.
In one way this was classic Pope Francis: utilising a public platform to highlight important issues from a Church perspective. And who has been more vocal than the Pontiff on the migrant issue?
Yet, in another way – and one becoming all the more imperative for the European Church – the Pope was seizing an opportunity for the Church to be heard on the migrant issue in a Europe growing less willing to listen to Rome.
One simple example illustrates the forces at play in pushing Europe into familiar and dangerous territory.
Unsustainable
In February of this year, Germany’s bishops, led by Cardinal Reinhard Marx, raised something of a red flag on the influx of refugees over the nation’s borders following Chancellor Angela Merkel’s apparent open invitation.
With the numbers becoming dangerously unsustainable amid staunch reluctance of other states to play their part, the bishops appealed for a reduction in numbers to help Germany cope.
The secular press leaped immediately on the call.
‘German Catholic Church Calls for Fewer Refugees’, the headlines ran. ‘Pro-Migrant German Cardinal Finally Says, “Enough’”’. Notably, however, the bulk of subsequent coverage failed put the story into full context by fleshing out the reportage to include Cardinal Marx’s insistence that “states all over Europe are called upon to make a proportional contribution to protecting refugees and [offering] asylum”.
Cardinal Marx was not calling for ‘Fortress Europe’ to repel ‘invading millions’. Far from it, just that Europe step up as one to the challenges posed.
But that is not the point here. The fact that the Church spoke and the secular press listened should immediately raise suspicions.
And rightly so.
Flash forward to last week and the latest statement by Cardinal Marx on refugees. This time joining with representatives of the Eastern Orthodox and German Lutheran communities, the prelate urged a welcome for refugees marked by “openness, with the spirit of love of neighbour” and for respect for the legal right of asylum seekers to an impartial hearing of their cases.
The response from the secular press? Silence.
The treatment of the two Marx moments offers a worrying picture of the attitudes and agendas currently at work across Europe in relation to the mass movement of people towards our shores. It was Cardinal Marx himself who in his earlier intervention lamented that xenophobic attitudes were spreading beyond the traditional base and into Germany’s “upper classes”. He went on to sound a serious warning against “right-wing extremism and racism in Germany”.
But who is listening to Cardinal Marx? Already Germany has witnessed a surge in support for the anti-Islamic Pegida grouping and, since Chancellor Merkel’s reaction to refugees, the right-wing Alternative for Germany party (AFD) has made steady gains. (Last Sunday the two groups announced a meeting towards ‘shared policies’.)
But it grows worse.
Just before The Irish Catholic went to press this week, Austria was in the grip of presidential election fever, faced with the possibility of Europe’s first far-right leader in the form of Norbert Hofer of the Freedom Party. He entered the dying days of the race with a lead over his main rival built on giving voice to fears over migration.
Significantly, both centrist party candidates for the presidency were knocked out in the very first round of polling, the first time this has happened since World War II. A Hofer victory would have offered a hint of what is to come with Austrian parliamentary elections in 2018, but in the end he was narrowly beaten by the left-wing Alexander Van der Bellen.
And after the dust settles on Austria, Europe faces Britain’s so-called Brexit referendum on June 23, with the debate there routinely dominated by the question of migration. Last Sunday one leading newspaper shrilled that unless Britain quits the European Union, 12 million Turks will move to the country once Turkey joins the EU.
Now add the earlier objections to migrants voiced by Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic into the mix and all at once the “Europe of humanism, the champion of human rights, democracy and freedom” becomes a dwindling image.
It is interesting to return to the Pontiff for the last word. On May 19, as he welcomed newly-appointed ambassadors to the Holy See, Pope Francis used the occasion to once again prompt the humanity of peoples in looking upon the struggling hordes for whom the deadly Mediterranean is a better option than what lies behind.
“While our initiatives on behalf of peace should help people to remain in their homelands,” he said, “this present hour urges us to assist migrants and those caring for them.”
At the same time, however, the Pope sought to fully acknowledge the sense of fear arising – and being encouraged – in Europe by the migrant crisis.
“These are fears which we understand and cannot dismiss lightly,” he said, “yet they must be addressed in an intelligent and creative way, so that the rights and needs of all are respected and upheld.”
Most importantly, the Pontiff went on to stress that it is incumbent on those who have a voice to speak out loudly for those who are not heard in all of the diatribes on migrants, the migrants themselves. “We must be resolute in making their plight known to the world community,” he said, “so that as they lack the strength or ability to cry out, their voice may be heard in our own.”
The consequences of silence, or in failing to listen, will not fall on refugees alone, the Pope warned.
“If misunderstanding and fear prevail something of ourselves dies.”