THE Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, has made a strong appeal to Irish Christians who opposed the Lisbon Treaty referendum to work for a better Europe.Speaking yesterday at Mass in the parish of Donnycarney, Archbishop Martin warned that Irish Christians must not flee from the challenges of shaping the Europe of the future.
He urged them to make their contribution to a better Europe by respect and dialogue.
"The future of European integration will not in the first place be the result of a treaty or of new political structures," he said.
"Europe must become a Europe of peoples; a Europe of peoples which are different yet capable of living together in unity and solidarity.
"As Irish Christians we cannot and ought not flee from the challenges of shaping the Europe of the future. Christians make their contribution to a better Europe in a spirit of respect and dialogue."
Concerns
He said he hoped that "there will not be attempts (by secularists) to reject the contribution of European Christians to the future of Europe, to limit the possibility of Christians to express their concerns as believers".
Rather than lamenting a lack of recognition of the Christian heritage of Europe in recent political documents and events, Archbishop Martin said European Christians had a new opportunity to bring a challenging way of living the Christian message to a Europe in search of hope and vision.
"As European Christians, together with people of different beliefs, we must work unceasingly towards overcoming the divisions which egoism and narrow nationalism, greed and religious intolerance have caused and which threaten the individual nations of Europe and Europe itself," he continued.
"As a Christian community we must foster growing contact and mutual understanding among the peoples of Europe.
"The Church itself must become more visibly a community which within its own boundaries witnesses that unity among peoples really means."
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(Source: II)