Cardinal Peter Erdo: Religion not fashionable in EU

(MTI) – Promoting religion is not fashionable in the European Union’s official rhetoric, especially not when it comes to its Christian version, Cardinal Peter Erdo, the President of the Council of the European Bishops’ Conferences, said on Sunday.

Erdo told public Kossuth Radio that the annual meetings of EU officials with selected religious leaders are not followed by “serious working together.”

The Holy See had been making extended efforts to at least have the Christian heritage or the Jewish-Christian heritage or the Greco-Roman and Jewish Christian heritage together mentioned in the European constitution but this was “stubbornly” rejected, Erdo said.

In this respect, there are several problems with respect for cultural identity, he said. Nation states can in part remedy this situation because religious affairs basically belong to their competence, he added.

Erdo stressed the need to provide material help to Iraq , beyond prayers and statements. The Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference has sent fast aid but it is difficult to get that to the persecuted who are hiding among the hills. He added that the European Union “stubbornly refrains from” stating that the persecuted are Christians, yet this is the very reason they are subjected to persecution.

Erdo said European bishops cannot exert pressure on politics but they have contacted the UN Security Council and asked it to take action to prevent mass murder.