The Church for Europe

The Holy Father’s visit to Spain, to Santiago de Compostela and Barcelona, was the fifth visit outside Italy in a European Country this year. While in all previous visits, in one way or another His Holiness spoke about Europe and of the Church’s mission in the continent, upon his arrival in Santiago de Compostela, a city which in the course of history has become the clear symbol of a continent with Christian roots and of unity grounded in faith, the Pope explicitly referred to Europe at length. When he points out that that Europe too should be a pilgrim, the Pope provides an important answer to the question regarding the “specific contribution” which the Church is called to give to Europe.As Benedict XVI said in Santiago’s cathedral: “To go on pilgrimage is not simply to visit a place in order to admire its treasures of nature, art or history. To go on pilgrimage really means to step out of ourselves in order to encounter God where He has revealed himself”. The pilgrimage thus implies having a clear destination. It demands moving out of ourselves and undertaking a journey, whose purpose is the encounter with God and with inner selves. Moreover, the exterior pilgrimage should always be an opportunity for an interior pilgrimage. It is precisely what each one of us should do repeatedly, and which all of Europe needs. That same Europe which has Goethe had said, was born as a pilgrim, is in dire need of recovering this mode of living marked by an awakening in the heart of the major questions raised by those who seek the meaning of life, in the belief that they were not created only for the ephemeral, but for the eternal and the infinity. However, if we want this to happen, the idea that man and God are antagonists must not continue to spread. This concept, which the Pope describes as a true tragedy born in nineteenth century Europe, has now lost all meaning. Only the discovery of the fundamental covenant between God and man can make us speak with enthusiasm and with reason, as the Holy Father did, of the “glory of man”. “Allow me here to point out the glory of man, and to indicate the threats to his dignity resulting from the privation of his essential values and richness, and the marginalization and death visited upon the weakest and the poorest. One cannot worship God without taking care of his sons and daughters; and man cannot be served without asking who his Father is and answering the question about him”.Benedict XVI from Santiago recalls that the Church has a “specific contribution” to give to Europe. The Pope says that the Church gives this contribution in the logic of service, starting from Lord Jesus who, as He said of Himself, came to serve: “It is a service that is not measured by worldly standards of what is immediate, material or apparent, but one that makes present the love of God to all in every way and bears witness to him even in the simplest of actions”.What is thus the Church’s “specific contribution” to Europe, which should be present in all of its actions? It is a widespread question, that is to be found also in the Treaty on European Union performance. The Pope has wanted to give a clear answer in Santiago. “What is the specific and fundamental contribution of the Church to that Europe which for half a century has been moving towards new forms and projects? Her contribution is centred on a simple and decisive reality: God exists and he has given us life”.The Holy Father has thus also said that Church action is not confined to the spiritual and to the social-charitable realms. Indeed, her action involves all areas of human life, of institutions and nations; namely, it encompasses the whole of reality. It is therefore clear that defending and promoting religious freedom and Church freedom constitutes a challenge, which, as His Holiness recalled in his visit, is based on the logic of encounter and not on conflict. Moreover, “This is what the Church wishes to contribute to Europe: to be watchful for God and for man, based on the understanding of both which is offered to us in Jesus Christ”.In brief, it can be said, as Benedict XVI recalled upon his arrival at the airport, that the Holy Father has wanted to reiterate the words spoken by John Paul II in Santiago on November 9 1982, namely that Europe needs to open to God and remember its Christian roots. As the sunrays reflected the majestic Portico of Glory, which still today is the destination of thousands of pilgrims, in a square where the majority of attendants were young people who were there to say to the Pope that he can count on them and that they await him in Madrid (“sí, sí, nos veremos a Madrid”), the Pope launched the challenge: “We need to hear God once again under the skies of Europe”.