Simicsko calls for 'spiritual cooperation' between V4 countries

Istvan Simicsko, Hungary's defence minister, has called for "spiritual cooperation" between the Visegrad Group of countries to be strengthened. In the current period of tough challenges, the V4 countries should provide a model for western Europe in the "spiritual sense", too, he said at a conference of V4 army chaplaincies in Budapest on Monday. "As Europe and western civilisation badly need a spiritual and intellectual renewal, we should perform a kind of mission" with the help of long-standing churches, the minister said. Simicsko said that nation states and the religious communities of European civilisation were exposed to danger, with "many working day to day to eliminate Europe's Jewish-Christian foundations". A civilisation giving up its spirituality and culture, however, will become totally defenceless from other civilisations, he said. The conference was addressed by representatives of Hungary's long-standing churches and the army chaplaincies of the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia.