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Flicking through the pages of the world’s diary for 2005, we find events that raised a big question. We began the year with the newspaper coverage dedicated to the tsunami in South-East Asia. Nature would create other tragedies in the following months, such as that of the hurricane that devastated New Orleans. Terrorism continues to scar the body of humanity: on 7 July Europe was shocked by the terror attacks in London. Other facts, less spectacular, but decisive for the future of humanity, were also confirmed in the past year: the emergence of China and India on world markets and the international political scene; the migration of peoples that is generating a new clash between cultures, ethnic groups and religions; scientific and technological development, especially of the biotechnologies, that is becoming ever more capable of determining the fate of the human person himself: no day passes without us being faced by the ethical problems raised by these developments. The diary of Europe presented us with the political and cultural shock of the French “no” to the European Constitutional Treaty (29 May) and that of the Dutch “no” a few days later (1st June). It forces us to re-examine the very “idea” of European construction. Europe seems like a complicated building site; fear of being caught up in it seems to be emerging. But the events of 2005 that seem to remain most lodged in the heart of humanity as a whole are the death of John Paul II and the election of Pope Benedict XVI. The media showed how the eyes of the whole world were turned on that father who, unreservedly, down to his final ‘passion’, bore witness to the message with which he had begun his pontificate: “do not be afraid to open the doors to Christ”. His successor has courageously assumed that witness and immediately the youth of the world followed him to Cologne and followed his words. The list of the “signs” of 2005 could of course be continued at length: we commemorated the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War and the liberation of Auschwitz. On 8 December we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the conclusion of Vatican Council II. Another death made a deep impression on us: that of Frère Roger, during a prayer vigil in the church of the Reconciliation at Taizé, due to an unbelievable act of violence… These events can be considered real “signs of the time”, indicating to us that now is the time also for Europeans to set out on the road again to rediscover a new source of light. Perhaps we were deceived into thinking that everything had been illuminated by the reason inherited from the century of the Enlightenment and the Age of Science. It is especially the boundless power of evil that throws us into crisis. We must set out on the road again to find a meaning for living and for history; to find someone to whom to entrust our own life, someone able to respond to our desire to exist, our yearning for happiness, love and eternity; to find a source of goodness able to foster peaceful and just co-existence between peoples and cultures. In the last analysis it is God we seek. Even though in the “European market” there are people who seem to snub the problem, or at least show themselves indifferent to it, more and more people are turning to God. My hope forsia 2006 is a Church able to understand this search for meaning by the men and women of our time and able to show with authenticity that the life opened up to us by Jesus Christ responds to the profound yearnings of the human person. John XXIII, in the address with which he opened the Second Vatican Council (11 October 1962), had said : “From the renewed, serene and tranquil adhesion to all the teaching of the Church, the Christian, catholic and apostolic spirit of the whole world awaits a leap forward towards a doctrinal penetration and a formation of consciences; this certain and immutable doctrine, which must be faithfully respected, must be examined and presented in such a way that it responds to the needs of our time“.
