christiansforeurope.com

The Initiative of Christians for Europe (IXE) is a network of lay organizations and committed Christians from different European countries. The general objective of IXE is to incorporate a more vivid awareness of a united Europe in the national debates. The initiative aims at fostering the encounter of Christians in Europe and to promote the Social Doctrine of the Church in order to achieve a better mutual knowledge and understanding of historical and cultural differences.

During the 1990s, organisations representing the social teachings of Catholicism in Europe came to the conclusion that it was no longer possible to reflect upon or debate social questions or societal problems without placing them in their European context.

Based on these findings, in 1999 the Semaines Sociales de France (SSF) and the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) came together, and in May 2000 they published a manifesto entitled ‘Manifesto for a European Consciousness‘ . This was the point of departure for a partnership between the two organisations, a partnership designed to offer an opportunity for Christians from the various countries of Europe to meet together. The two organisations then convened, together with like-minded organisations and persons from other European countries, on several occasions in European cities including Brussels in January 2001; Berlin in February 2002; Cracow in March 2003; Lille in 2004; Saarbrucken in 2006.

A European Working Group was created in June 2002; in March 2006, it was named the ‘Initiative of Christians for Europe’ or, in abbreviated form, IXE. An important step by the IXE group was to draw up a manifesto to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome in March 2007; entitled ‘Rediscovering the Meaning of the European Construction’. In 2009 IXE published a call on the occasion of the elections for the European Parliament, and it did so again in 2014 and 2019 ahead of these elections. IXE also organised conferences on the ‘European Asylum Policy’ (Brussels, 2010) and ‘Conflicting memories in Europe’ (Warsaw 2012). During its meetings, it discussed and published statements on various issues, including on the 50th anniversary of the Élysée Treaty (Berlin, 2013), on the European Elections (Ostende, 2014; Milano, 2019), on climate change (Bonn, 2015), on solidarity with refugees and on Brexit (Klagenfurt 2016), on European fraternal solidarity (Paris, 2017), on the conference „Rethinking Europe“ (Riga, 2017), on solidarity in Europe and worldwide (digital meeting, 2020), on the reform of the European asylum system (digital meeting, 2020), on global climate politics (digital meeting, 2021), on rule of law (Gent, 2021), on the conflict in Northern Ireland (Newry, 2022) and on the war against Ukraine (digital meetings, 2022 & 2023). From time to time, IXE has been engaged in other activities (such as coordinating a Third Party intervention in the European Court on Human Rights on a case concerning the display of crosses in school rooms, or holding workshops at a Taizé European youth meeting).

IXE is committed to pursuing four major objectives:

• to give European Christians who wish to convey the social message of the Church an opportunity to meet and to more deeply come to terms with their historic and cultural differences;
• to launch a dialogue with society as a whole, and to articulate position statements with regard to topics of relevance for the future of European society;
• to encourage reflection about the process of European unification, particularly in dialogue with national and European institutions; and
• to organise events with a European objective on themes of current social relevance.

Our next meeting will take place on 25-27 October 2024 in Prague.