A new spirit” “” “

After the fall of the Berlin wall, the enlargement of the European Union became the buzzword of the last decade. Now we are fast approaching this event that has no equal in history: for the first time Europe is voluntarily uniting itself on democratic foundations. Slav and former Communist countries will be entering the EU for the first time (with the exception of the already defunct DDR). This enlargement will permit Europe to breathe with both its lungs in peace, freedom and democracy. The enlargement of the European Union, which will especially take place with the deliberations of governments and parliaments, in some cases also with referendums, is not an end in itself. What is at stake is something far greater: the unification of Europe. So this project cannot be realized only by governments and parliaments, but needs a strong sense of awareness by old and new members of the Union. What’s needed is a new European spirit, and the consciousness of being a European community that transcends the barriers of collective egoism and the interests of the common market. Europe must assume a character able to make us live amicably together. So it is indispensable to develop the consciousness of belonging to a European community rooted in inalienable values and principles, in respect for national identities and for cultural and linguistic diversities. And this project will succeed in proportion as it is embraced by the populations of both the one side and the other of what once was the Iron Curtain. So, enlargement will become a reality in a matter of months, whereas the process of the unification of Europe is destined to last for decades. United Europe is a political and economic objective, but it is also, and above all, a cultural project. And culture is embodied and transmitted in the first place not by the state, but by the human person. Consequently, the success of united Europe depends especially on the status of its individual citizen. The person with all his/her dignity ought to have an effective centrality, and this is also the precondition for the “health” of the various common institutions. Those whose human dignity was trodden underfoot by Communism, and who suffered the collectivism imposed by the party, are even more conscious of this need. The glad tidings of EU enlargement may be a source of joy especially to those Christians who personally suffered the “European values” of totalitarianism and who hoped against hope together with their first pastor, the Pope. John Paul II’s contribution to the collapse of the old order places him among the founding fathers of modern Europe. I cannot imagine the new united Europe without a strong and active participation of Christians. They may make a decisive contribution to the development of the “European spirit” by their own conviction in the dignity of man and of peoples, and in the values of solidarity and collaboration. Merry Christmas to the whole of Europe!