A prominent cardinal has urged Irish Catholics to remain ''actively present'' in the European Union (EU).Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, a close adviser to Pope Benedict XVI, told The Irish Catholic that Christians must remain engaged with the EU.
''I think it is important that Ireland, with its profound Christian roots, is actively present in the European Union to promote and to protect the Christian values. It is possible, but it needs a lot of work,'' he said.
Referring to the absence of a reference to Europe's Christian Roots in the Lisbon Treaty, Cardinal Schonborn said: ''You can have two attitudes to this: The first, to say the European project is lacking sincere recognition of the Christian roots; therefore, we do not want to participate. The other attitude is; the Christian roots are there, they exist they are still alive; therefore, we want to cultivate them. We want to be present and fight for them,'' he said.
Cardinal Schonborn, who was a key figure in drawing up the Catechism of the Catholic Church, said that Christians ''are not active enough'' in lobbying the EU.
''Christians are the majority, but we are the silent majority. We are not active enough. There are small lobby groups who are minorities in Europe, but they are very active. It's our fault if we withdraw from our obligation to fight for the Christian status, for Christian values.
''For several years there was an alliance between Austria, Poland, Germany and Italy to stop the funding of embryonic stem-cell research through the European Union. Then government changed in Italy and Germany, so, finally, Austria and Poland remained alone and didn't do it any longer. This battle was lost. Okay, it's not pleasant, but for some years we won the battle. And again, we will continue, we will continue. I am quite confident that things are possible if we are active enough,'' he told The Irish Catholic.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce
(Source: IC)