A PRAYER AND MEDITATION
MIROSŁAW PIOTROWSKI
In the buildings of the European Parliament in Brussels and Strasburg, one can pray and meditate. All religions in one building. The chairperson of the EP, a socialist Martin Schulz, refused to give one room for a chapel for the Christians. On the one hand, it raises astonishment, because in the Parliament there are many thousands of rooms, including the unused ones, but, on the other hand, the decision and justification are inscribed in his consistent ideological attitude. I will remind that nearly two years ago, during an electoral campaign to the Euro-parliament, Schulz supported removal of the cross, and also other religious symbols from public places. On TV he stated that ‘everyone should be able to express his faith personally, but public places should be ‘neutral’, as everyone has a right to be in them’. A similar tone sounds in an answer to my letter concerning a separate room of prayers for the Christians, which I wrote to the chairperson Schulz last month. ‘I must emphasize’, he wrote to me that ‘Parliament remains neutral and non-discriminated in issues concerning faith, similarly as the European Union’. Next he writes about respecting freedom and tolerance, and suggests another chapel outside the building of the Parliament (vide letter M. Schulz). These statement correlate with pre-electoral statements when Schulz warned against ‘a risk of a very conservative trend’, which he advised to ‘fight’. So, it is clear that the problem has not got the technical-administrative ground. As I mentioned, there are a lot of halls in the Euro-parliament. It is all about launching a new ideology which is to displace Christian values lying at the base of the European identity. This is more than a mistake which reflects also on other key priorities of the European Union policy. As a result, it also leads to absurd technical regulations. All this raises opposition of many nations and leads to the collapse of the European community. In the EU turmoil it is worth making reflection, meditation, and the Christians, including the Catholics should be given an opportunity for a prayer reflection.
AA
„Niedziela” 10/2016