A light for Europe” “

The first encyclical of Pope Francis, titled “Lumem Fidei” (the light of faith) that closes the trilogy of encyclicals on charity and hope initiated by Benedict XVI, excellently highlights the magisterial continuity of the Successor of Peter in the passage from the pontificate of Ratzinger to Bergoglio. The new encyclical presents a strongly positive connotation marking the presentation of faith in God, described as a light that fulfills all dimensions of the human person representing the point of reference of personal life and for society as whole, and not a bend covering human perspective – which some inferred, using it as an excuse to separate the much needed bond linking the act of knowledge and the act of faith, thereby separating the realm of citizenship from the religious sphere.From this perspective the encyclical highlights the fact that “faith is not only presented as a journey, but also as a process of building, the preparing of a place in which human beings can dwell together with one another” (n. 50), thus proving wrong all those who uphold a negative and anachronistic understanding of faith and religion across various cultural and political fields of the present times, which also in Europe prevent its active and transfiguring presence in personal behaviours as well as in public life and thinking, confining it to the private sphere, without a citizenship document to build the eternal city. The latter understanding not only distorts the very nature of Christian religious practice. It also silences Christians’ positive contribution to European history and culture, raising doubts vis a vis their civic loyalty to the building and the cohesion of democratic societies marked by peace and freedom.Conversely, as Pope Francis points out in the fourth chapter of the encyclical devoted to the dimension of Christian faith and to its commitment in and for society, “The light of faith is capable of enhancing the richness of human relations, their ability to endure, to be trustworthy, to enrich our life together. (…) Faith makes us appreciate the architecture of human relationships because it grasps their ultimate foundation and definitive destiny in God, in his love, and thus sheds light on the art of building; as such it becomes a service to the common good”. (n°51).The magisterial discourse of the Encyclical thus underlines the void in the stances upheld by those who vouch for an individualist and closed form of religiousness, who seek to spread across Europe a kind of laicism instead of its sound laicity, rooted in the Gospel (cf. Mathew 22; 21), which consecrates the fundamental separation and cooperation of the public sphere and the religious sphere to the benefit of those who are called to bear in mind the wise words of political thinker Alexis de Tocqueville, who said: “When these men attack religious opinions, they obey the dictates of their passions and not of their interests. Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot. Religion is much more necessary in the republic which they set forth in glowing colors than in the monarchy which they attack; it is more needed in democratic republics than in any others”. (Democracy in America, I, 9).In fact, in Christian faith the choice of God and the choice of man, that of the Kingdom of Heavens and of the earthly city are inseparable: “Faith is truly a good for everyone; it is a common good. Its light does not simply brighten the interior of the Church, nor does it serve solely to build an eternal city in the hereafter; it helps us build our societies in such a way that they can journey towards a future of hope” (n. 51, ndt). It is what we need. There still is a lot to build in Europe.