20/06/2014 President
Speaking to the General Secretaries of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe, meeting today in Strasbourg, PACE President Anne Brasseur called for a society in which harmonious co-existence prevailed and renewed the invitation to Pope Francis to address the Parliamentary Assembly at one of its plenary sessions.
“His Holiness has on several occasions spoke out in defence of human rights, a fundamental value of our Assembly. I hope that I can count on your support for this approach as an address by His Holiness to the Assembly could represent a significant contribution to intercultural dialogue on the basis of the values that unite us,” the PACE President said.
“The religious dimension of intercultural dialogue was, moreover, the starting point for Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights concerning the freedom of thought, conscience and religion. In many speeches and decisions, however, this article unfortunately, appears to have been forgotten or dismissed. If everyone complied with the text of Article 9 of the Convention, there would be nothing further to discuss,” she added, pointing out that prior to her election as President of the PACE, she had been rapporteur on this subject, which was one very close to her heart.
“At the very end of the Cold War, in his Centesimus Annus, Pope John Paul II said that ‘when a culture becomes inward looking, and tries to perpetuate obsolete ways of living by rejecting any exchange or debate with regard to the truth about man, then it becomes sterile and is heading for decadence’. This call for intercultural dialogue and intercultural outreach remains just as important today,” she concluded.