The two virtues ” “

Freedom, tolerance and respect for human rights: these are the central values in the construction of modern Europe, where “religion is not disappearing but assuming new forms”. The point was made by Father TIMOTHY RADCLIFFE , former master general of the Order of Preachers (the Dominicans), in inaugurating the work of the General Assembly of the UCESM (Union of European Conferences of Superiors Major) at Ljubljana (Slovenia) in recent days. The Assembly was attended by 67 delegates of 39 conferences from 24 countries. Father Radliffe devoted his opening address to a reflection on the role of religious in the “formation of a system of values for multicultural Europe”. During the Assembly, Father August Hulsmann, of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and president of the Conference of German Superiors, was elected at the new UCESM president. THE VIRTUES OF THE PILGRIM. According to Father Radcliffe, the contribution that those consecrated to the religious life may offer in this regard, with particular regard to the young, consists in “the virtues of the pilgrim”, in other words, of those who “set out to seek something”. “If we religious want to remain in contact with the young today, we must become pilgrims, ready to travel with them”. “They consider doctrines oppressive and intrusive”, says the Dominican. “So our task is not to ‘teach’ God, but to enable them to experience God by opening their minds to the mystery”. Pilgrimage is also a reminder that “life is a journey from birth to death, and beyond”, and that “our history forms part of an immensely greater process that leads from the creation to the Kingdom”. Hence the need for the members of the religious congregations to re-appropriate the “two virtues characteristic of the pilgrim: simplicity of life and courage”. In Radcliffe’s view, “only through poverty” can religious life “recover its vitality”. Courage too is needed, “as in the times of the martyrs”. It is testified by many religious communities, often “the only ones to remain in areas of conflict after the diplomatic missions and the NGOs have pulled out”. In Europe, too, courage “is expressed by instilling the young with resoluteness of mind and heart, which is also the capacity to keep the commitments they have assumed”. THE COMMON GOOD. On this basis, according to Father Radcliffe, the key values for Europeans today are three: freedom, tolerance and respect for human rights. The task of religious is, in the first place, “an education in freedom” since by their example, “that of the person who freely and joyfully gives his own life to the Order for preaching, prayer, and the care of the poor and the suffering”, people “must be struck by this mysterious freedom, charged with joy”, that contradicts “the widespread conviction that any attachment represents a grave threat to freedom itself”. This leads in turn to intolerance for any kind of bond, including marriage. “We need, on the contrary – declared Father Radcliffe – to bear witness to the fact that bonds strengthen us. We need to recognize that is precisely the lack of commitment that weakens our mind and saps our will”. As for tolerance: “Modern Europeans like to consider themselves a tolerant people, open to pluralism. There are, however, signs of growing intolerance” linked “to the insecurity caused by immigration, by long-term unemployment and by the fear of what is different, perceived as a threat to the social order”. So this presumed tolerance in actual fact conceals “a claim for uniformity, a rejection of any value being attributed to what is different”. That’s why members of religious communities are called to “propose a lifestyle shared through dialogue and exchange”. Human rights, Radcliffe continued, are often interpreted as “one’s own rights in opposition to those of others”, according to an individualistic conception that goes so far as to raise the question of the “conflict between the rights of the mother and those of the child she has conceived”. What is lacking “is the sense of the common good, of the belonging to the same body, of the need for everyone to enjoy the same rights”. By taking vows, “we religious cease being Europeans and our identity is merged with that of our brothers and sisters scattered all over the world”; we are called to a “shared life that calls us to a profound transformation of our humanity, such as to make it inconceivable for the individual good to exist outside the common good”. To this too, Radcliffe concluded, “members of religious orders can bear witness”.