Memory and culture” “

“In the process leading to a new institutional system now underway, Europe cannot ignore her Christian heritage”. That’s what John Paul II writes in the message he sent to the participants in the Conference “Towards a European Constitution?”, held in Rome in recent days. The conference was organized by the Office for university pastoral care of the vicariate of Rome, in collaboration with the Federation of Catholic Universities of Europe (FCUE), the Commission of the episcopates of the European Community (COMECE), and the Service of the Italian Episcopal Conference for the cultural project (cf. SirEurope no. 48/2002). According to the Pope, we need to keep alive the “memory” of those “Christian roots” that “have marked European history”, though without “succumbing to any nostalgic temptation” or remaining satisfied with “a mechanical duplication of the models of the past”. Instead, we must “open ourselves to the newly emerging challenges with creative fidelity”. Showing that the values of the new Europe “are rooted in the Christian tradition – the Holy Father continued – is advantageous for everyone, to whatever philosophical or spiritual tradition he/she may belong, and that they form the solid foundation for a more human and more peaceful co-existence”. John Paul II believes in fact that only on the basis of these “shared values” will it be possible to “achieve those forms of democratic consensus necessary to delineate, also at the institutional level, the project for a Europe that may truly be a home for everyone, in which no person and no people may feel itself excluded, and in which all may feel called to participate in the promotion of the common good both in the continent and in the whole world”. The conference in Rome was attended by 250 delegates from 23 European countries. The next meeting planned in the series will be the meeting of the oldest universities to be held in Rome from 8 to 10 December; it will be preceded by a meeting of the European Committee of university chaplains (Madrid, 27-29 September). Below we report some reflections that SIR gathered from some professors of various European universities attending the Roman meeting.