Europe and the Inter-Religious Dialogue

As religion of the entire Europe, Christianity could have been the cohesion factor for the whole continent, the bond of a community of both clergymen and laymen. Maybe for a while Christianity hasmanaged to respond to this challenge, but this same religion, far from drawing people together, has become a disagreement factor.For a long period of time, still, thinking of the Church as the State, Catholicism has been a theocracy in the manner of the ancient Eastern theocracies, by the ideal which placed the clergymenabove the laymen. 19th century Europe thus became the image of a religiously split continent, economically and politicallydivided.