The Fall of the Berlin Wall-20th Anniversary Moving into a new Europe

Personal testimonies of the revolutionary events of 1989 were given by Barbara Coudenhove-Kalergi an Austrian journalist and Jozsef Szikora from Hungarian Radio during a joint Newman Association/ Pax Romana (Europe) conference held at High Leigh Conference Centre last weekend to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Barbara described the events in different Eastern European countries leading up to the fall of the Wall and Jozsef talked about the difficulties in his early professional life caused by not being a member of the Hungarian Communist Party. Brian Hanrahan of the BBC gave an exciting account of his efforts to film events in East Germany in 1989 and brought us up to date with his visit earlier in the week to the 20th anniversary celebrations in Berlin.

Professor Tom Gallagher of Bradford University gave a controversial talk in which he outlined the failure of the EU to capitalise on the opportunities provided by the collapse of the Communist regimes. Using Romania as an example he described the way in which EU funds had been diverted from their purpose leading to the increase in differential between the rich and poor. Professor Gallagher suggested that, as a result of these experiences, Western democratic ideas were tarnished in the eyes of many in Eastern Europe and that Putin’s model of a sovereign democracy could be seen as more attractive.

Ambassador Emil Brix (Austria) had a far more positive view. He said that the real heroes of the era were those involved in the civil rights movements, although many of these were no longer in power. Except in the Balkans there was a strong moral impulse amongst the revolutionaries and even now he thought that “faith is back in town”, thanks to Eastern European members of the EU. Ambassador Brix was concerned that in many countries the Catholic Church was not particularly involved in civil society and he pointed out that “Culture” was a new development for the EU and very little finance was available for this area.

The failure of the EU to capitalise on the opportunities in Eastern Europe was supported by Dzsingisz Gabor, a former Netherlands MP, and he also stressed the need to develop the civil society. Marta Bodo (Romania) and Michal Hvorecky (Slovakia) compared the freedom they have to travel to those of colleagues in the past. Marta described a 16th Century Act which is still causing divisions within Romania and Michal Hvorecky read from an autobiographical article in which he describes a camping holiday as a child when everyone else on the camp site suddenly fled over the border into Austria.

In the final session The Very Rev Dr John Arnold, amongst other things a former President of the Conference of European Churches, discussed some of the spiritual and religious developments of the last twenty years. Dr Arnold spoke of some of the problems of nationalism, often associated with religion, in the post 1989 era and the missed opportunity for real political movement within Europe. Pre 1989 many people in Eastern Europe had joined the Christian churches which were working for freedom and human rights. Post 1989 “when the bus reached its destination, the passengers got off the bus”! Also he claimed that over this period relations between the Roman Catholic and other churches in Central and Eastern Europe had deteriorated. Dr Arnold pointed out that since 1989 there has been not only one political superpower but also one ecclesiastical superpower, which brings its own responsibilities as well as opportunities. In his conclusion he stated that “it remains one of the greatest challenges to make the good news of Jesus Christ credible, attractive and challenging to millions of Europeans who feel that their hopes and ideals have been betrayed as much by the churches as by the political parties”.

There was much discussion, formal and informal, during the conference but two comments stand out “It has made me proud to be a European” and “I have become more positive about the future of the Church in Europe over the last three days than over the last ten years”.

Kevin Lambert, Newman Association and member of European Liaison Committee of Pax Romana -ICMICA