Churches in Europe must speak together on human rights and freedoms

(Vatican Radio) Christian Churches across Europe must speak with one voice to defend hard won human rights and religious freedoms. That was the concluding message from a joint meeting of the Council of European Bishops Conferences (CCEE) and the Conference of European Churches  (CEC) which took place in Rome from May 6th to 8th. The CCEE brings together Catholic leaders from nearly 40 European countries, while the CEC represents over 100 Anglican, Orthodox and Protestant churches across the continent.

Recalling the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, participants at the meeting discussed the challenges of upholding religious freedom in Europe today and the need to protect the rights of all people, especially the poor and persecuted. In their joint message the Church leaders denounce violence against women in the name of religion. They call for an end to human trafficking and exploitation of migrants in the Mediterranean. They call for solidarity with the Roma peoples of Europe and for the protection of God’s creation, especially ahead of the climate change conference to take place in Paris in December.

To find out more about the meeting, we spoke to Anglican Bishop Christopher Hill, president of the Conference of European Churches and with the retired Catholic Archbishop of Southwark in the UK, Kevin McDonald…

Listen: 

Bishop Hill says while we must affirm the freedom we enjoy in our Western democracies, tensions arise in many European societies when that freedom boils down to individual claims to particular liberties. “One man’s liberty”, he says, “might be oppressive to another” and sometimes individual liberties, exercised without self-restraint,  don’t include the common good. Beyond the philosophical debate, he says, these issues affect the very practical questions of religious symbols and clothing which can get politicized by extremists or used by “overly political correct administrations to curtain religious freedom”.

Bishop HIll notes that in Britain and other European societies many people think “religion is OK providing it’s a private hobby” but he says all the monotheistic religions emphasize the community dimension of faith. When Churches speak together, he says, there is “strength in unity” and institutions are much less likely to dismiss their concerns as the claims of individual religious groups…

Archbishop McDonald notes that the whole Charlie Hebdo affairs was part of the background to the meeting….he says it’s important that Christian leaders from the European Union meet together because the whole question of the future of the European Union and the place of faith in Europe needs to be addressed “as a matter of urgency”.

For Christians, Archbishop McDonald says the meaning of freedom is being able to love God and to reach out to love others. Attempts to privatise religion, he says, means that people are not free to explore and express their identity in the public space. He recalls the words of Pope Benedict during his 2010 visit to Britain where he spoke of the importance of religion in proposing values that should be codified in law as an expression of the common good of all people.