The pace of SIR Europe

The building of Europe isn’t just an institutional and political process. It’s also a media construction. Media and journalism can provide a consistent contribution to the democratic feature of Europe’s legal system ensuring visibility to its decisional processes.This reflection recurs in the debate on the soundness of the European Union and its related news reports. It is strongly present in the ten-year experience of SIR Europe and its specific contribution in terms of information and thought on the European reality. In this adventure shared with CEI (Italian Bishops’ Conference), CCEE (Council of European Bishops’ Conferences) and COMECE (Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community), our news agency follows two guidelines. These are: to bring to the fore the vitality of Christian roots whilst contributing to the emergence of European thought and action responding to the founding fathers’ vision and to the expectations of the next generations. To this regard, the coinciding “dreams” of the two major -albeit distant – protagonists of history, is surprising and comforting at the same time. With the passing of time it reaffirms the determination to concretize the cultural, spiritual, social, economic and political motivations underlying the European building, highlighting the “Community method” as the highway leading to its growth, peace, justice and solidarity. It is a challenge that cannot be overlooked, considering that when the national media address European issues emphasis is often placed on national-related content, stripping the readership from the possibility of interfacing with European realms. The impoverishment in information and thought unfortunately expands the gap between citizens and EU institutions. It also highlights the absence of a truly European vision and strategy within the media. In this framework SIR Europe intends to act as a trans-national informative workshop, with a realistic and unpresumptuous approach. Information is thus understood as a means to encourage national citizens to identify themselves also as European citizens – with equal responsibility and pride. In this perspective the Church has a primary role, as she constitutes the experience of a population without borders, open to diversity, a witness and conveyor of a message of hope for everyone, and not only for Christians. This is the other side of the coin of SIR Europe whose news reports were first published on May 22 2011, in the period between the II Special Assembly for Europe (October 1-23 1999 on “Jesus Christ, Alive in His Church, Source of Hope for Europe”) and the publication of the Apostolic Exhortation “Ecclesia in Europa” (June 28 2003). Listening to and reporting on European Churches means listening and speaking about the life and the personal history of individuals and communities that feel the need to create with others the common good, bringing the specific contribution that derives from the dialogue between faith and reason.Listening to and reporting on of the life of European Churches entails listening to and reporting on the commitment implemented by CCEE and COMECE in their ongoing relations with European institutions, as with other Churches and religions. The specific contribution of Catholic faithful is thus conveyed with incisiveness, marked by a truly European bearing, and is transmitted to institutional environments – notwithstanding the respect for the secular trait of the very same political bodies – with the force and the credibility of a common thought. It is the time of responsibility. It was the belief of Blessed John Paul II who reiterated, again and again, the need for Christian professionals in European Institutions, whilst Benedict XVI extended that thought to include the concept of a “non cynical” Europe, grounded on values that are rooted in the Gospel. They both call upon Catholics to include Europe in their thoughts and in their commitments, not to sustain partisan stances but to contribute to the revival of politics that once recovered its authentic meaning will be placed to the service of the common good, visible and invisible, in Europe and across the world. SIR Europe intends to continue along this path with professionalism, increasingly committed to voice plural stances, with the same firm and trustful pace of the Church that progresses along the paths of Europe.