Photo: CNS European Union dialogue to promote peace
Hundreds of Church and EU political representatives will meet in the Vatican to discuss challenges facing the EU.
Organised by the Holy See and COMECE – the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the EU – ‘(Re)thinking Europe’ will take place between October 27-29 and will mark the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the EU.
The dialogue will have workshops and debates in order to facilitate open discussion between stakeholders of different geographic, cultural, religious and linguistic backgrounds. The participants will be called to look for new ways to involve all actors in society in their respective religious or political responsibilities.
Participants
Pope Francis will address the participants on Saturday, October 28 in order to reiterate his engagement to a common reflection on the future of the EU and recall the commitment of the Church to the peace project.
In a press release Comece said: “After two deadly world conflicts, Europe has the responsibility to understand its role towards the world and its own citizens, finding a way to actively involve men and women of our time. The purpose of (Re)thinking Europe is to support this process of self-conscience.”
Prison threats don’t stop Bible reading
The importance of the Bible in the life of Christians can be seen in the number of faithful around the world who risk prison and persecution just to possess and read the Bible, Pope Francis said.
“Many of our brothers and sisters are in prison on account of the word, and many more have shed their blood as a testimony to their faith in Jesus Christ,” Pope Francis said during a meeting with members of the Church relations committee of the United Bible Societies.
Addressing members of the group, which translates, prints and distributes Bibles around the world, Pope Francis said that just as “we devote time to those we love,” Christians must devote time to reading the word of God, “who desires to talk to us and offer us words of life eternal”.
“It is vital that the Church today go out to proclaim the Gospel to all, in all places, on all occasions, without delay, reluctance or fear,” the Pope said. “We do so in obedience to the Lord’s missionary mandate, certain of his presence among us until the end of the world.”
Ignoring difference between the sexes is wrong
While societies must find a way to overcome the subjugation of women, pretending there are no differences between men and women or even using technology to change a person’s sex is not the answer, Pope Francis said.
Using science “to radically eliminate any difference between the sexes, and, as a result, the covenant between man and woman, is not right,” the Pope said, opening the Pontifical Academy for Life’s general assembly.
“The biological and psychological manipulation of sexual difference, which biomedical technology now presents as a simple matter of personal choice – which it is not – risks eliminating the source of energy that nourishes the covenant between man and woman and makes it creative and fruitful,” the Pope said.
Reflections
Pope Francis offered several reflections for the academy’s consideration of humanity’s relationship with technology, particularly in a culture he described as egocentric and “obsessively centred on the sovereignty of man – as a species and as individuals – in relation to all of reality.”
“This approach is not harmless: It forms a person who is always looking at himself in the mirror, who can’t look others, or the world, in the eye,” the Pope said.