Cardinal Marx laments European election results
May 28, 2014
Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, the president of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community, lamented the results of the May 22-25 European Parliament elections in which nationalist and “euroskeptic” parties gained ground.
“A matter of concern is the significant increase of support for parties which reject the project of European integration,” said Cardinal Marx, who also serves as a member of Pope Francis’s Council of Cardinals, coordinator of the Vatican’s new Council for the Economy, and president of German Bishops’ Conference.
“A number of them were even able to secure a majority of votes in some Member States including France, Denmark and the United Kingdom,” he continued. “Some of these parties are not only populist but nationalistic and xenophobic. Such positioning is unacceptable for Christians and is a threat to the peaceful coexistence of the peoples of our continent.”
“Europe is and remains, despite any criticisms on some specific points, a project of peace and reconciliation and as such is accompanied and supported positively by the Catholic Church,” he added.
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Further information:
- Major tasks await the newly elected European Parliament (COMECE)
- Euroskeptic election surge gives EU a headache (Reuters)
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Posted by: extremeCatholic -
Jun. 01, 2014 9:22 PM ET USA
If "European integration" has become a doctrine of the Catholic Church, I didn't get them memo. Granting more power to the statist and secularist European Parliament seems a death wish for the Church in Europe. If the assertion of national identity is contrary to the teaching of the Catholic Church, I didn't get that memo either. Is any objection to open borders "xenophobia" or is that beyond debate as well?
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Posted by: normnuke -
May. 29, 2014 10:27 PM ET USA
Once again the conflict between power and freedom. the people of Europe are waking up to the fact that they are loosing their freedom to unelected bureaucrats in Belgium. I like the observation that savonarola made about the 'principle' of subsidiarity. It's a 'principle' only so long as someone doesn't try to apply it. Then the bureaucrats in Belgium get mad. Furthermore, Germany IS the natural leader of Europe. They make things.
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Posted by: fenton1015153 -
May. 29, 2014 7:23 PM ET USA
I disagree with Cardinal Marx! The vote is encouraging and gives hope to voters in USA.
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Posted by: geoffreysmith1 -
May. 28, 2014 3:44 PM ET USA
Cardinal Marx is a supporter of Kanzlerin Merkel, who is busily engaged in restoring Germany's position as the dominant nation in Europe. She is exploiting the EU to make it the instrument of German hegemony in this continent, and the unwitting Cardinal appears to be oblivious of that fact. As a Catholic Eurosceptic who recently voted for one of the anti-EU independence parties, I hope and pray that the EU soon becomes a footnote in history, having rejected its Christian heritage and culture.
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Posted by: bruno.cicconi7491 -
May. 28, 2014 2:30 PM ET USA
European Union is one of the strongest forces for secularization not only in Europe but the whole world, as they set examples. I'm not saying that any one should be against the "European project", for we don't have enough information to say whether it would be better or worse without it. But that same reserve should also be regarded by those who support it. Cardinals must be for Christ, not for 50's-hubristic-kantian-eschaton-immanentizing projects.
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Posted by: -
May. 28, 2014 1:20 PM ET USA
Aren't the Euroskeptics applying the Catholic principle of subsidiarity?!!
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Posted by: shrink -
May. 28, 2014 11:55 AM ET USA
The EU is officially and radically secular. How can "peace and reconciliation" be a fundamental goal of a secularist/statist enterprise? The Cdl is engaging in wishful thinking all around. He should know that the EU is about K O N T R O L L E U N D M A C H T.
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Posted by: jg23753479 -
May. 28, 2014 7:55 AM ET USA
I like Card. Marx, but he's wrong. His description of the "Euroskepic" parties is nothing but the standard shopworn opinion of the Left, one that is increasingly rejected across Europe. He criticizes openly these parties, even calling them un-Christian and implying that his personal opinion is that of the Church. When and where, though, has he condemned the egregiously anti-life policies of almost every left-wing party on the continent? The Church's "support", IMHO, ought be more judicious.
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Posted by: Jason C. -
May. 28, 2014 6:49 AM ET USA
I'm not entirely on board with the entirety of the Euroskeptic parties' platforms (which are quite diverse beyond broad alignment on the immigration and EU issues), but Marx is clueless--so consider me a Euroskeptic-skeptic-skeptic.
