The School of the Fathers

In the speech delivered June 20th before the members of the Council of the Alcide de Gasperi Foundation, Pope Benedict XVI paid homage to the Italian statesman considered one of the founding fathers of the European Union, and rightly so. In particular, the Holy Father underlined that both as a man and as a politician he was grounded in Christian values. “Spirituality and politics were two dimensions that converged in his person and characterized his spiritual and social determination”, the Pope said. This is the fountainhead of the strength and far-sightedness that led Alcide de Gasperi to become a personality that in a difficult period for Italy and for Europe undertook his responsibilities and took righteous decisions in view of future developments, overcoming the past destructions and giving concreteness to a future marked by prosperity and peace. De Gasperi drew his uprightness and his righteous qualities that he performed as a political leader from his formation “in the school of the Gospel”, said the Holy Father, where the family, and “the love for Christ, which was his daily bread and the point of reference of his decisions” played a crucial role.In praising a political personality of the recent historical period, Benedict XVI pays tribute to him as a role model that ought to be taken as an example first and foremost by politicians in view of their particular responsibility, and by all of us too. It was a blessing that Alcide de Gasperi had identified in Robert Schuman and in Konrad Adenauer the interlocutors who shared his very same vision of developing the plan leading to the establishment of the European Union. They too had been formed in the “School of the Gospel” and were profoundly grounded in Christian faith. Like de Gasperi they were exemplary bearers of Christian values and of a concrete political commitment marked by successful results that lasted in time.In the material and moral reconstruction, and in the consolidation of democracy within their respective Countries, the three statesmen were not alone in placing the pillars of the European Union, which they undertook together with mutual trust, despite oppositions and resistance. They could rely on a large number of people that helped them at all levels, and who contributed to the achievement of their goals. Most of these people were members of Christian-Democrat parties, that had been created across Western Europe in the post-war period and who drew their formation from the “School of the Gospel”. They had been taught social relations in parishes and within Church institutions and associations, which had passed on to them not only their religious education but also their intellectual bases. As a consequence, they had a clear vision of the objectives they needed to pursue whilst performing their commitment for the achievement of righteous and appropriate solutions. Thus, European unification was guided by the principles of the social doctrine of the Church, which still today deserves to be viewed as the ethical framework of European unification policy. Its foundation consists in the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity, in the option of a federal structure for Europe, in the defence of peace and freedom and in the quest for social welfare and justice. This was the political program of the Christian Democrats, of which Alcide de Gasperi, Robert Schuman and Konrad Adenauer were distinguished representatives. Nowadays, Christian-Democracy, as a political organization, strives to take roots and exert the influence that Europe is in dire need of and which it owes a lot to. This is also due to the fact that over the past decades Church parishes, institutions and associations gradually lost their ability to identify and form new recruits that would represent a skilled and efficient Catholic presence in European Countries and institutions. The words of the Holy Father recall the obligation to form young faithful, endowing them with these much needed social skills, following the example of Alcide de Gasperi and taking on their own political responsibilities in their own Countries and for Europe.