What has gone lost?

At every occasion Christianity reaffirms its attachment and love for Europe, which it considers a privileged form of political, cultural and institutional expression of its historical presence, despite occasional departures. Europe provides Christianity – as well as the various religious and philosophical families – with the democratic means to live in peace and in the rule of the law. A sort of kinship binds Europe and Christianity which historical as well as topical events, volens nolens, incessantly remind us of. On July 8 1962 Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and general Charles de Gaulle solemnly entered the Cathedral of Reims, signalling peace between the two peoples, after decades of conflict and barbarous wars. Past July 8 the representatives of these same two nations met again in the same religious site that cherished this founding event along with eminently symbolical elements that had characterised it at the time, indicating a threefold solidarity: Europe, nationhood and Christianity. Those very nations recreated Europe in virtue of a Copernican revolution of ideas and behaviours, which extended beyond the coal and steel problem, namely, adversaries were to become allies, rivals partners, enemies friends. The concepts of reconciliation and forgiveness, understood even in their evangelical connotations, were acknowledged equal political and social effectiveness. Once more, Christianity was part and parcel of Europe’s historical perspective, that was not to dictate governmental lines of action, but to reaffirm its soul. Today, the soul of culture, of the life of the spirit and human communities clashes against a disappointment – even of loss -: a feeling nurtured by many populations and many Catholics in particular vis a vis a project whose destiny which destiny was largely shared, remains uncertain today. Christian citizens have been enriched by what has enabled and continues to enable European organization, namely its internal and external pacifying power, its educational, scholastic and academic tools, as well as scientific research and technological advance. Despite these extremely positive features, they feel that they been stripped of cultural and political decision-making power, while at a deeper level they engage in a reflection on economic divide, on what is left of the Europe they once knew, of its founding inspirations… in a word: the Europe of universality, in its Greek and Christian-Jewish connotations. The fact that a set of more or less transparent juridical strategies at European level aim at circumventing the rules that form the body of fundamental Christian tenets that have been engrained in history, in the family, in social ethics, in natural law in particular, will certainly fail to strengthen the European sentiment. The joyful event of the awarding of the Nobel Prize to the European Union could be seen as an encouragement in action and intention by some, while it is perceived as a torment by all those concerned about the future of 16.4 % of European population, over 80 million people, who live beneath the threshold of poverty, and are the victims of the loss of convincing solutions capable of addressing their situation. It is therefore important to ask ourselves if something has been lost or is being lost at the level of content, guidance and foundation. While the vocation of Christianity, or even only Catholicism as a religious confession, doesn’t have the vocation of providing political solutions, it does have the duty to remind those who are entitled to carry out this task of the founding inspiration that has enabled societies to thrive.(*) president Académie catholique de France