Proceeding to sea together

It gives me great pleasure to praise and encourage SIR Europe, which since the onset has enabled me to be regularly and accurately informed about what is happening in Europe, the Old Continent, representing my human and spiritual roots. What do I think of the Apostolic exhortation "Ecclesia in Europa", published ten years ago, on June 29 2003 by John Paul II, in a Synod whereby he was fraternally united to the bishops "and contemplated Jesus Christ, alive in his Church, the source of hope for Europe"?The exhortation testifies to the historical recognition and gratitude to a Pope that I accompanied in 1979 on the occasion of his first visit to Poland, and who, after less than two years since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1991, celebrated in Rome a special Synod for Europe. In October 1999 His Holiness called a second momentous Assembly to reunite the fragments of a Europe which still today, in 2013, strives to reach that unity, which in fact it failed to achieve at the time. In fact, after EU adhesion by a number of European countries, the EU projects needs to be rekindled according to the spirit that guided its foundation. Underlying the reflection on the key moments of the construction of Europe, a set of fundamental questions ought to be addressed: what is the vocation of Europe today? Which Europe do we descend from? Which Europe are we being proposed? Which Europe do we want? Providing an answer to these questions is not only the task of some leading figures. It involves all European citizens and European institutions. The divisions that separate elite groups from the rest of European citizens must be bridged. How can we rekindle the enthusiasm for the European cause and the idea of a widespread feeling of fraternity within our peoples? We must meet that challenge. "Old Europe", as many people call it, you don’t know your age nor your size! And nor am I capable of listing all of your roots or of identifying all of your borders. You have been consumed by demographic decline, eroded by new resurging nationalisms. I implore you, don’t let your hands, which bear the signs of your achievement, accomplished on the wake of your "founding fathers", be slack. Europe can be discomforting, owing to the technocratic off-course drifts of its institutions, too distant from the everyday lives of its citizens. Until today Europe has developed for its own purpose around a message of peace. Now Europe needs to grow for the entire planet. We must not be afraid of proceeding to sea together! Europe isn’t simple, but it’s necessary for us all.