Showing the face

With the accession of Bulgaria and Romania on 1st January this year, the population of the European Union enlarged to 27 member states has risen from 456 to 493 million citizens. The citizens of the countries involved have celebrated their entry into the Union, which is regarded as a source of hope, of promise and security for the future. As for the older members of this European family of nations, the enthusiasm and fervour expressed when they made this historic step in their history reminds us that the EU and the European project represent a strong symbol of hope and confidence for the populations that suffered under a dictatorship and experienced the political, economic and social frustrations of an inefficient State. In the two new member countries a lot still remains to be done to implement in full what is called the acquis communautaire . The efforts they have made so far, in this field, are underpinned by their determination to realise and apply the norms of the Union. As European unification gradually proceeds, the diversity of our continent and of the populations that inhabit it becomes ever more tangible for citizens. The accession of Romania and Bulgaria reinforces the presence of the Orthodox tradition inside the Union. The Christians of the East, and those of the West, with their respective confessional identities, are now compatriots. As citizens of the European Union, they enjoy the same rights and are subjected to the identical duties. Christian citizens will be able to travel more freely from East to West, and vice versa, to conduct business, to work, or to go on holiday. They will thus gain direct experience of the cultural and religious traditions of Europe.As citizens of the new Europe, Christians of the 27-member EU as a whole are called once again to deepen understanding of their own common faith, explore their respective confessional traditions, as well as their liturgical and spiritual legacies. The legacy of the shared Christian faith, and not only this, has shaped the face of the European identity both in its diversity and in its unity. Understanding these traditions, their importance and their development, represents an essential prerequisite for the consciousness of each European as citizen. If the recent enlargement of the Union makes it yet more imperative to continue along the road of ecumenical understanding, it also reinforces the common responsibility of all the Christian confessions to form the ethical and spiritual fibre of the new Europe. To assume this responsibility, it is first of all indispensable to understand and appreciate one’s own tradition and to give it its due value. It’s equally important that all European citizens should acknowledge the value of the traditions of the Catholic, Anglican, Reformed and Orthodox Churches, in a Europe without internal frontiers. European citizens ought to be conscious of the intellectual richness of Christian thought, as regards questions of religious faith and of social order. Each must also explore the ways in which his/her own tradition has tackled and integrated the Enlightenment and its legacy. Events such as the European Ecumenical Assembly in Sibiu (Romania), due to be held in September 2007, represent a source of energy for better understanding such questions.Without this, Europe has no future.