European bishops have appealed to voters to put moral concerns top of the agenda in the forthcoming EU elections. The Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community (COMECE), made the call in a statement following their Spring plenary meeting in Brussels at the weekend.
The bishops urged voters only to back candidates who promise:
- to respect human life from conception to natural death as integral to all European Union legislation, programmes and policies;
- to support the family founded on marriage understood between one man and one woman as the basic unit of society;
- to advance the social rights of workers providing them with working conditions which respect their health, safety and dignity;
- to endorse economic governance based on ethical values in order to achieve sustainable human development within the European Union and at a global level;
- to promote justice in relationships of the European Union with developing countries through financial assistance and innovative partnerships;
- to demonstrate solidarity by shaping policies that help the weakest and poorest in our societies (in particular people with disabilities, asylum seekers, migrants);
- to protect creation by fighting climate change and encouraging a moderate lifestyle; and
- to promote peace in the world through coordinated and coherent external EU policy.
The bishops note that ''the Catholic Church has supported the process of European integration since the beginning and continues to do so''.
''The participation of Christians is essential in order to rediscover the 'soul of Europe', which is vital to fulfil the fundamental needs of the human person and the service of the common good.
''After 64 years of peaceful development and 20 years since the fall of the Iron Curtain, which ended the division of the continent, the process of European integration deserves to be appreciated, in spite of some shortcomings,'' the bishops said.
COMECE changes
Bishop Noel Treanor of Down and Connor has replaced Archbishop Diarmuid Martin as the Irish Chuirchs representative to COMECE.
Dr Treanor is a former General Secretary to the Brussels-based organisation, a post he held for many years before his appointment to Down and Connor last year.
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(Source: IC)