Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »
ARCHBISHOP OF Dublin, Most Rev Diarmuid Martin advocated “a Europe of participation” in a thoughtful speech yesterday to the Institute of International and European Affairs in Dublin on “Christian Values and Irish Membership of the EU”. He called on Catholics to “take part, actively and critically” in the EU’s affairs with a definite strategy rather than take pot shots at it from the sidelines. This was part of a wider case he made about the confident expression of Christian values in a pluralist European Union now more open to a structured dialogue with people of religious faith. It is a valuable statement of principles, which has implications for the forthcoming political debate in the second Lisbon Treaty referendum.
Archbishop Martin emphasised that in examining the place of religion in contemporary Europe “we need to look at the facts and to interpret the facts”. Social research discovers Europeans are not as secular as is often supposed, since religious values survive and strengthen, while there is still a widespread commitment to marriage and faithfulness. Nor has prosperity necessarily brought about a materialism that rejects Christian values, since the churches’ failure to evangelise effectively in a changed cultural climate may be more responsible, while escaping from poverty is anyway an achievement Christians should celebrate.
