Orthodox Metropolitan Emmanuel: Church educates for responsible citizenship

The European People’s Party group at the European parliament is conducting its 14^th Annual Inter-religious Dialogue with religious leaders this week in Esztergom, Hungary. Participants – including Hungarian government representatives and high-level state officials from several countries – are debating broad questions including Church identity, Church and state relationships, the presence of religion in the media, the financial crisis and social teaching issues. Ann Preckel of Vatican Radio’s German section is at the meeting, and spoke with the Orthodox Archbishop of France, Metropolitan Emmanuel, who is the Representative of the Ecumenical Patriarch to the EU and a keynote speaker at the three-day event, that opened on Wednesday of this week. Asked specifically about the Church's and the Churches' response to the financial crisis, Emmanuel said, "The Church has no ready solutions," however, "The Church is going to educate people [about] how to behave, [about] how to be responsible citizens of today and tomorrow." Listen