Salvation does not come from politics, but from God alone: Episcopal Conferences

July 03, 2012: The new evangelisation is a call to inner renewal of the life of faith for all Catholics. Precisely because of this it has a public dimension, too, which impacts on all the spheres of European society, explained a press statement released on Monday at the end of the 40^th meeting of the General Secretaries of the Bishops’ Conferences. Facilitated by the Council of European Episcopal Conferences (CCEE), the meeting was held at Edinburgh, Scotland, from June 29 to July 2^nd focusing on ‘New Evangelization’.

The Church is not suggesting technical solutions to current problems, but is convinced that reason enlightened by faith is able to find the necessary means to restore hope to European society. Salvation does not come from politics, but from God alone, and those who allow themselves to be enlightened by God will bear His light to the world, the statement added. One solution, which emerged in the course of the meeting is that of growing in the “virtue of excellence”, and especially intellectual excellence. Bishops and priests, religious and laity, must grow in their capacity to witness publicly to the faith in today’s world. This is also in tune with the Holy Father’s appeal in proclaiming the Year of Faith, thus beginning the path for a new evanglisation, the report further elaborated.

The future of Europe is also going through a renewed testimony of faith in politics. Human reason enlightened by faith will know how to find the appropriate responses to the current political and economic challenges. In the report of the General Secretaries of the thirty-eight Bishops’ Conferences gathered in Edinburgh, it is possible to see how the trend emerging in many European countries in the areas of politics, culture, legislation and public opinion, tends to relegate God to the private sphere. This removal of God from daily life is a loss for the whole of society. The meeting was an important opportunity for the General Secretaries of the Bishops’ Conferences from the whole of Europe to reflect, along with the Secretary of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, on the role of Christians in public life and on Europe’s need for God.