European citizens: ” “A new measure

“In the end, the success of political work in favour of the common good in Europe will depend on all citizens, in particular on committed Christians”. These were the words of cardinal Reinhard Marx, president of the Commission of the bishops’ conferences of the European Community (COMECE) in a statement delivered immediately after the publication of results of European Parliament elections. Once again, the appeal of Christian Churches for a Europe of peoples, cultures and the spirit was heard, marked by that very Christian realism that gives a contribution of powerful inner hope to accurate analyses and concrete political and institutional decisions. Europe has a challenging road to undertake. Indeed, election results have not sanctioned the end of a great idea but rather its metamorphosis, as announced on several occasions by a Europeanist like Jacques Delors. It’s an uphill road that requires the willpower to reach higher goals. For this, the thought of the fathers may serve as a warning and an encouragement, not for a feeling of nostalgia for a bygone past but for a longing of the future. Alcide De Gasperi, president of the Italian Council of Ministers in the 1930’s-’40s, declared in a passionate speech: “We must find new ways of being Europeans. In this endeavour, experience, culture, history, and the serious quest for the religious grounds on which Europe has already achieved unity can be of help. Without this inner work that everyone is called to undertake we will never become European citizens”. French statesman Robert Schuman, Konrad Adenauer, De Gasperi himself along with other fathers of Europe, Christians and non-Christians alike, recalled with severity that “it will not be the economic laws or monetary policy that will enrich this new guise but our willingness to fully understand the life of other countries. It will be tolerance and brotherhood, which translated into works of justice and peace at social and international level, will grant us a license as the citizens of Europe”. The strengthening and enlargement of the European common home needed certainties. Indeed, it was understandable that amidst insecurities there was a need to be reassured. But with the passing of time, Gasperi declared in 1952, “there will be no better guarantee than the commonality of the political conception, than the identity of democratic institutions, the similarity or complementariness of economic requirements. No guarantee is more consistent than a central political authority based on the representation of its affiliated and confederated peoples”. We are still distant from this goal, reaching it is possible, albeit it is not an easy task. It is a duty for the good of Europe and beyond. We must proceed in the direction indicated by the compass of human rights and dignity. Once again, the warning of De Gasperi, contained in his speech at the European Movement Congress at The Hague in 1953, gains topical relevance: “There are principles of natural law codified also in the basic documents of the Community: they are the rights of the person and of the family, essential freedoms, the protection of ethnic minorities. I am a man who has aged in political praxis and I understand the need for compromise. But the endeavour is never fruitful if it betrays basic principles”. How much wisdom and coherence in this thought! No wonder then that in a letter to De Gasperi, reflecting on their joint political commitment, Adenauer wrote: “”We have addressed our problems starting from the same spiritual foundation.” And a little further: “We both started our political career in a party that is at the same time democratic and Christian, and we made sure that it was clear in our actions”. That noun is no longer present in political vocabulary today but there are the two adjectives that accompanied it. These two adjectives are the point of departure for a new way of being European citizens.