Church leaders urge EU presidency to recommit to unity and solidarity

Church leaders from the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union and the Conference of European Churches have urged the presidency to reclaim the EU’s founding values and remain faithful to its Christian roots.

At a meeting in Dublin with the Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin, which was held in the context of Ireland assuming the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the ecumenical delegation encouraged the EU presidency to recommit to its key values of unity and solidarity.

The necessity of these values, they said, was underscored by the ongoing military conflicts in Europe and its neighbourhood. They said unity and solidarity ought to be guiding principles for effective joint actions within the EU and beyond its borders.

The church leaders also appealed to the EU presidency to strengthen the EU’s capacity for consensus-building while offering adequate policy responses to current challenges.

While recognising the importance of strengthening European defence in the context of growing international turmoil and the erosion of multilateralism, the delegation of European Church leaders encouraged the EU Presidency to support the development of a European peace strategy, providing a deeper and broader framework focused on peace-building, conflict prevention and reconciliation.

The delegation was led by Bishop Mariano Crociata of Latina, president of Comece, and Archbishop Michael Jackson, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, representing CEC. The delegation also included local Irish Church leaders including Archbishops Eamon Martin, Dermot Farrell and Kieran O’Reilly.

Topics discussed and outlined in their position paper included social cohesion, shared European values, peacebuilding, competitiveness and sustainability, migration and asylum policies, the Multiannual Financial Framework, humanitarian and development cooperation and a credible, citizen-centred EU enlargement process.

In their briefing paper, the Church leaders emphasised the need to address poverty, as well as to nurture civic space by countering exclusion and growing polarisation within European societies. They underlined that economic growth must always serve people, respect creation and pursue the common good.

Comece and CEC stressed that these principles should also apply to technological innovation, including artificial intelligence.

“We encourage the EU and member states to explicitly recognise faith-based actors as part of the humanitarian and development ecosystem. In many contexts, churches and faith-based organisations are trusted, locally rooted, present before, during and after crises, and able to reach communities that others may struggle to reach,” they said.

They called for recognition of the role of churches and faith-based actors in contributing to the EU and in needs-based humanitarian responses.

One major concern they highlighted to Mr Martin related to the instrumentalisation of religion.

“Civil society, as well as Churches and religious communities, play a significantly positive role in European societies and in countering dangerous phenomena that divide our societies, such as the spread of reductive ideologies, disinformation, societal polarisation, populism, xenophobia, or even radicalisation and violent extremism.

“As faith communities, we can offer the ability to hold complex realities rather than acquiescing to simple slogans. We are committed to the importance of truth in the face of manipulative stories reinforcing adversarial tribal identities, and so we are concerned both about the misuse and instrumentalisation of religion, and about negative narratives portraying religion as a source of problems. By the same token, we are disturbed by undue restrictions to freedom of conscience and religion,” the delegation’s paper stated.

Christians across the EU represented through the two organisations of COMECE and CEC total 380 million.

Speaking to The Tablet after the meeting, Archbishop Jackson said, “We are interested in the perspective and the bedrock of Christian-derived values in the life of Europe.”

He said they delegation also highlighted the double impact of the need to get the budget for the next seven years within the European Union organised and also to address the impact of artificial intelligence, not as something of negativity, but as something that’s already there, and how that will impact the whole question of the understanding of the human person.

“Our concern was that whatever changes that have to take place in the budget would not of themselves diminish the contribution that is made to humanitarian aid,” said Archbishop Jackson.  

“Words like defence and security, while they’re essential for the functioning of any living society, also need to be set in the larger room of the aspiration of the European Union and we spoke about union and unity as something that’s important in Europe. They need to be set in the larger room of peace, because in a way, Europe as we know it through the European instruments is a peace project,” he said.

On the question of migration, Archbishop Jackson said it “takes you into the need for enhanced humanitarian aid thinking because if conditions were actually more congenial to a sustaining of stable and flourishing life in countries of origin, there would not be the same need and quest for people to consider the horrific option of migration.”

The delegation called on the Irish EU Presidency to provide more space for protective safe legal passages into Europe through resettlement, humanitarian visas, family reunification or visa exception following reasonable security checks and considering the real labour market possibilities.

Equally important, they stated, are policies that support the integration of migrants into host societies, promoting their effective participation in social, economic and civic life, fostering social cohesion and mutual enrichment.

Bishop Mariano Crociata of Comece told reporters that the discussion with the EU President, Mr Martin, emphasised the pastoral mission of the bishops in Europe, highlighting the Church’s role in social issues and the formation of the European Union.

Key points he said Comece highlighted included the integration of faith into life, the Church’s social doctrine, and the importance of unity within Europe, security, defence, and the impact of migrants on social cohesion.

The necessity of European unity was underscored, he said, not just for harmony but to address global challenges effectively.

“If we speak at the social political realities, especially the problem of the migrants, there are a lot of divisions within different nations,” Bishop Crociata said, speaking through a translator.

“To look for unity is not to look for harmony just for the sake of harmony.” He said it was necessary to look at the EU’s relationship with not only other powers but also with the other continents and with those countries that are not in a very good economic situation at the moment – the so-called global South. “To work as one”.

On Ukraine, the Irish EU presidency was urged to continue the EU’s concerted action to achieve a just and lasting peace for Ukraine, grounded in respect for international law.

“Any credible and sincere dialogue effort should be underpinned by continued strong transatlantic and global solidarity and it must involve the victim of the aggression, Ukraine.”

They underline that joint efforts are needed to assist with Ukraine’s material reconstruction and long-term reconciliation efforts, “endeavours in which Churches play an active role and require adequate support from policymakers”.

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