” “Gospel and culture in dialogue

On the occasion of the first European Day of university students, promoted by the Office for university apostolate of the Vicariate of Rome in collaboration with the European Committee of university chaplains, John Paul II met students on 2 March, on the conclusion of a Marian prayer vigil in the Paul VI Hall in the Vatican, before the image of Our lady of Loreto, which will be donated to the youth of Toronto on 24 March, Palm Sunday and 17th World Youth Day. To the students present, and to all those linked up with the event in Athens, Budapest, Moscow, Strasbourg, Valencia and Vienna, the Pope recalled what a strong “motive of consolation and hope is represented by the link of common faith that unites young people of various nations of Europe, who belong to different cultural traditions. That has always been the case in the history of the evangelization of the ‘old’ continent: the Gospel and the cultures have gone forward hand in hand”. The Pope then asked the young people “to promote the dialogue between faith and culture in their universities, in such a way that the gospel leaven may stimulate and support the spiritual and moral quality of university research and study”. The European Day opened with a press conference aimed at presenting the Conference “Towards a European Constitution?”, scheduled to be held at the Catholic University in Rome from 20 to 23 June. A Europe of Christian roots. “The eventual European Constitution is a phenomenon destined to have an impact on the West: in response to this process, the Church needs especially to recall the great values of Christianity, to ensure they find space and appropriate forms of recognition”, said Bishop Attilio Nicora, vice president of the Commission of the episcopates of the European Community (COMECE), in presenting the meeting to be held in June. “Sidelining or concealing the Christian roots of Europee would be a mistake: for they form the substratum of European values”, stressed Cesare Mirabelli, of the University of Rome at Tor Vergata, adding: “We are living in a period of transition: the transition from the Europe of the treaties to that of the Constitution: what we expect from this process is not just a piece of institutional engineeering, but a qualitative leap that may reinforce the principle of subsidiarity”. European citizens? We need to pass “from the Europe of businessmen to the Europe of citizens”, emphasized Miguel Matas Gassiot, Rector of the Ramon Llull University in Barcelona and president of the Federation of Catholic Universities of Europe (FUCE), linked up with the press conference by video-conference. He pointed out that “the euro is merely one objective and that we need to go beyond it”. Lorenzo Ornaghi, pro-rector of the Catholic University in Milan and FUCE delegate, wondered what point had been reached by the “process of European integration”, without disguising its “ambivalences and opportunities”. He also pointed out that “the Christian roots of the continent do not just form part of a vague European identity, but are the mainstay of a possible European Constitution”. Solidarity and human rights. “Interethnic wars are on the very threshold of this common house” that benefits from a “financial community”, pointed out Maria Rita Saulle, professor at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. She expressed the hope that the Union would also deal at the legislative level with the problems of the family, juveniles, and equal opportunities. The formulation of a European Constitution “that may reflect the ideas and sensibilities of the individual European peoples” is a “complex process”, noted Giorgio Recchia, of the University of Rome III. In this phase the problem is also posed “of the formation of the people of Europe and at the same time “the solidarity of the peoples of the Union, which must not shut itself off from the rest of the world”. The EU, in fact, is situated “in a global context” and must be characterized “by the access and hospitality it provides to human persons: it must not be limited to the economy – he emphasized – but must take account of social roles”. Laura Badaracchi