At the centre of Europe

“Entrance into Europe is a reciprocal process of giving and receiving”. The Papal Visit to Croatia past June 4-5 was a journey into the past, and mostly, it was a journey towards the future of Third Millennium Europe. Speaking from Zagreb, the Pope addressed his words to Croatians and to all the populations of ex-Yugoslavia and of EU27. To further underline the meaning of his visit, in the Sunday Angelus prayer the Pope spoke in the languages of all the populations of ex-Yugoslavia.At the end of the month of June 1991, Zagreb and Lubijana declared their independence. It was the “visible” beginning of Yugoslavia’s collapse, the State featuring a mosaic of peoples, languages and cultures, unable to survive the death of its originator, Marshal Tito. The following years it witnessed some of the darkest and most tragic pages of this century’s European history, whose consequences still linger on. Croatia wasn’t spared the violence of fratricidal wars, which at the end of the 1990s involved the entire region. Today it strives to undertake paths of reconciliation, which entails EU adhesion.However, that adhesion should not be viewed as a concession on the part of other States. Rather, it should represent the natural fulfilment of a journey that will enable Europe to recover an area of which it is a natural part. In highlighting this bond, the Pope declared in clear terms, in his address to Croatians: “From its earliest days, your Nation has formed part of Europe, and has contributed, in its unique way, to the spiritual and moral values that for centuries have shaped the daily lives and the personal and national identity of Europe’s sons and daughters”.Benedict XVI went even further when he underlined, in the mutuality of giving and receiving, the unique contribution of Croatia, located at the heart of Europe, to Third Millennium Europe, which “can stimulate reflection on the part of all the other peoples of the Continent, helping them, individually and collectively, to preserve and to inject new life into that priceless common heritage of human and Christian values. So may this beloved Nation, in the strength of its rich tradition, help to steer the European Union towards a fuller appreciation of those spiritual and cultural treasures”. This is an engaging commitment, especially “in the face of the challenges posed by today’s culture – marked as it is by social differentiation and instability, and by an individualism that gives rise to a vision of life without obligations and a constant search for ‘private space'”.Europe can’t fail to forget that her identity is the “priceless common heritage of human and Christian values”. The Holy Father highlighted the values of the family (“that has always been the first way of transmitting the faith and still today retains great possibilities for evangelization in many areas”) and the youth (urged not to “yield to the temptation of putting all your trust in possessions, in material things, while abandoning the search for the truth which is always ‘greater'”).These are even stronger messages, as they are launched from the heart of a State that with all good reasons identifies itself as Mitteleuropean. The joint effort should be primarily aimed at the construction of the Europe of the peoples: in the awareness that the Europe of the markets constitutes its logical consequence.