Adenauer Foundation Chair Poetering to EuroFora on Pope Benedict visit to Germany: Christians'Unity?

Experienced former EU Parliament President, and long-time EPP/ChristianDemocrat Group Chairman, Head of the Governing CDU/CSU MEPs in 2009 EU Election, and current President of the prestigious "Adenauer Foundation", German MEP Hans Gert Poettering, speaking to "EuroFora", expressed the view that the forthcoming Pope Benedict's visit to Germany (22-25 September 2011), could be particularly important, inter alia, also for the relations and links between Christians, catholics, protestans and orthodox, i.e. by providing some key Ecumenical inputs, (obviously crucial both for EU's Future and for some World-wide issues affecting all Humankind).

    Poettering topically said that to "EuroFora" during a reception in French Presidential "Elysee" Palace after President Nicolas Sarkozy's landmark speech on EU and World Foreign Policy strategy at the opening of the Annual Conference of French Ambassadors from all over the World, (See other relevant "EuroFora"s NewsReports from that event, including with various Statements that gave us f.ex. Elysee's Secretary General Xavier Musca, Sarkozy's Diplomatic Sherpa Ambassador David Levitte, UNO's under Secretary General for Peace-Keeping operations Alain Le Roy, etc), where he was invited, together with other Political or Diplomatic Personalities, accompagnied by mainstream French MEP Françoise Grossetete.

    Pope Benedict XVI's program, indeed, (in addition to Official meetings with President Wulff, Chancellor Merkel, Bundestag's Chair Laemmert, etc, on 2011, which weren't part of an earlier, also interesting visit just to his Family Homeland in Bavaria on 2006), appears to give a special importance, this time, to meetings with Protestant Christians (mainly at Erfurt), but also Orthodox Christians (mainly at Freiburg), in addition to contacts with representatives of Islamic and Jewish religions, (both in Berlin).

    The move appeared, indirectly but surely, linked with the Fact that the main Moto chosen for Pope Benedict's 2011 official visit to Germany : - "Where God is, there is Future", symbolically pointed at a Similar direction as president Poettering's own Moto for the Adenauer Foundation that he chairs, as it was recently promoted also during the 2010 Annual Conference of the Governing ChristianDemocrat/ChristianSocial CDU/CSU Party in Karlsruhe, (See "EuroFora"s NewsReports from the spot), which focused, precisely, on highlighting a "thinking about the Future" ("Zukunft denken" im Deutsche sprache), as he observed, Smiling, when "EuroFora" reminded him that timely coincidence...

    It is, indeed, obvious that both the crucial issue of Europe's Future, (where calls for a pan-European Debate have been launched by French President Nicolas Sarkozy since 2007, and reiterated at one of his visits in EU Parliament in Strasbourg on 2008, while his former Director of Electoral Campaign, afterwards Elysee Palace's Secretary General, and current Justice and Home affairs Minister, Claude Gueant, has  recently pointed at the related notion of "EU's Identity" as a Key issue for the 2012 Presidential Elections in France, and probably also for the subsequent 2014 EU Parliament Elections : See relevant Gueant's statements to "EuroFora", published on July 2011), as well as several other crucial matters of topical World-wide importance, (such as, f.ex. BioEthical issues raised by Genetic Technology, particularly vis a vis Human Embryons, etc), depend largely on fostering adequate Closer Links or even resolute steps towards ReUnification of Christians, particularly between those whose views on such matters are already close, such as Catholics, Orthodox and "Evangelicals", (stricto sensu, i.e. with the American/Canadian meaning of the word, which is much more narrow than the European/German meaning, almost synonymous to the larger, Protestant community).

    Developing resolutely a trend already boosted by his predecessor, late Pope John-Paul II, (whose longtime collaborator had been the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was elected later as Pope Benedict XVI), highlighted f.ex. by his visit to Greece back on 2001, (on the occasion of which, an Ecumenical Declaration had been adopted beforehand in Strasbourg, in parallel with a visit at the CoE), Pope Benedict visited, indeed, both Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomeos, at Constantinople/Istanbul, (nowadays Turkey) on 2006, as well as the Strategic island of Cyprus on 2010, (crucial both for various Middle East Christian Communities, and for its well known links with its Russian and Ukranian Orthodox Christian counterparts), while many among his famous and profound Theological works and/or certain key religious symbolic acts, are often full of references to the Ancient Greek Philosophy and/or its former Byzantine Empire offspring, f.ex. on Stoic Philosopher Zenon, on "Logos" or "Reason", on Chrysostomos, etc).

    In this regard, it's natural that Pope Benedict, after a particularly Wide audience that his visit to Erfurt is apparently due to have, marked also by a meeting with Protestant Christians, (to the point that even the online registrations to Erfurt events were the 1st to be declared "full" and closed since early August !), has scheduled to give an audience to the famous, long-time Historic Chancellor Helmut Kohl, the "Father" of both Germany's and Europe's ReUnifications, and personally close to current Chancellor Angie Merkel, in Freiburg, siege of German Catholics' Head, ArchiBishop Dr. Zollitsch, (Comp. "EuroFora"s 2010 NewsReport from Karlsruhe and Bishop Dr. Zollitsch's statements to the Governing party CDU Annual Conference's participants), whose University has been linked also with certain key personalities as, f.ex. Charles Malik : Former UNO General Assembly President, drafter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’s preamble, and f. Chairman of the World Council on Christian Education, a Greek Orthodox Christian who lived among Catholic Christians of the Maronite community in Lebanon, and was intellectually affiliated to the famous British-American Philosopher and Theologian Whitehead, as well as certain US Evangelical leaders : Malik's legacy, indeed, notoriously points towards strengthening the links and considering reunification between Catholic, Orthodox and Evangelical (stricto sensu : Comp. supra) Christians.     

    Last but not least, "EuroFora" was indeed positively surprised, while recently returning back to Strasbourg from Geneva High level meetings chaired by UNO's Secretary General Ban Ki Moon (see early July 2011 "EuroFora"s NewsReports from the spot), to meet an apparently brillant and sympathetic Young Researcher from Strasbourg's University on Protestant Theology, who was preparing a Post-Doc work for the University of Geneva, focused mainly on a comparison of certain German and American Protestant Christian trends, particularly those influenced by the above mentioned Philosopher Whitehead, as he told us, who was reportedly favorable to a rapprochement, if not reunification between at least some Protestant and the Catholic Christians, and is still popular mainly among certain American Evangelicals (Comp. supra), as those who notoriously played an important role particularly on the 2004 US Presidential Elections, the 2010 Mid-Term US Congress Elections, and might, eventually, be active enough also in the forthcoming 2012 US Presidential Elections, at least if we judge already by the first GOP Primaries' developments, mainly on Moral issues (such as Family Values, Anti-Corruption, Transparency and Accountability in Politics, BioEthics, etc)...   

***

(NDLR : "'DraftNews", as already sent earlier to "EuroFora"s Subscribers/Donors. A Complete and more Accurate, Final version is due asap).

***