Church and State as partners in building the common good in our European societies. This is what is emerging at the second Catholic-Orthodox Forum on “Church-State Relations. Theological and historical perspectives” that is taking place in Rhodes (until tomorrow). 17 delegates from the Roman Catholic Church’s Council of European Episcopal Conferences along with 17 representatives from the Orthodox Churches in Europe are taking part in the meeting. Today, participants are working on the drafting of the final statement. Card. Péter Erdõ, archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest and president of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE), explained the gist of the talks in an interview with SIR. “The European society – he said – is discovering the need for objective values even to avoid anarchy, the cause of its crisis, which is what Eastern countries unfortunately experienced. Our society is seeking shared values that correspond to those anthropological values that in the light of our faith, the Churches know and above all experience. This is because the human reason is capable of knowing the objective truth about man and the world. This is our shared conviction”.
“On the other hand – continued the cardinal – we also see that societies are becoming aware of the need for such objective truths and values and try to get in contact with those communities which offer a vision of the world according to the faith. One realises that the State in itself, completely separated from any faith group or religious belief, is not capable of creating values in an autonomous and arbitrary way. Accordingly, it must seek these values in the society, in the hearts of the people who live in the society. In this sense, the Churches have a very special role to play even in the functioning of States”. As for the “ecumenical” meaning of the Forum, the cardinal pointed out: “we do not wish to discuss theological principles” as a special International Joint Commission for Dialogue has been created for this purpose. Nevertheless, “based on our theological convictions that are widely shared, we try to analyse the situations that occur in Europe, to develop concrete proposals, and whenever possible, to find the ways to work together, through common actions and proposals that we present to societies”.


© SIR - october 21th 2010