A "place of hope"” “

SirEurope is beginning its weekly publications with this number. Five experimental numbers were presented at various international meetings and sent to representatives of European Church organizations, political and cultural institutions. The aim is to further boost and improve a kind of religious information that, in recounting the life and thought of the Church in its various expressions, is ready to grasp, and to transform into news, those experiences in which values and ideals that are at the foundation of the dignity of each man and woman are encountered. The history of Europe consists of a succession of these traces that remain indelible and that give us hope for living, in spite of the tragedies of the past and the present. It is in this context that SirEurope intends to move: it will be an agile, essential and down to earth service, which will have its own originality, but will be harmoniously inserted in the great and long-standing tradition of the Catholic news agencies that exist in various European countries. Without the risk of overlapping with others – as the experimental numbers have amply demonstrated – because the aim is one of synthesis, of highlighting common lines, of turning the spotlight on faces and voices that might escape others, and of publishing on a weekly basis. SirEurope is an extension of the Religious Information Service that was introduced in 1988 by the initiative of 140 local Catholic weeklies in Italy, with the support of the Italian Episcopal Conference. It is available on the Internet, also in English and in the near future also in other European languages. * * * The first number of SirEurope is being published a few weeks after the tragic events of 11 September. In their aftermath many questions are being urgently posed also to the “old continent”, both with regard to its growth and with regard to the role it intends to play in the world, in the promotion of peace, justice and development. Will it be able to translate its alliance with the United States into a contribution to ensure that the time of justice will not be a time of other horrific tragedies? What support to dialogue between cultures and civilizations can it offer if it fails to reflect seriously on the state and the prospects of those that characterize itself, albeit in diversity? Will it be able to rediscover and turn to account the Christian roots of its own experience? Such questions are also being posed on the eve of the entry into force of Europe’s new common currency, the euro. Hans Tietmeyer, President of the German Central Bank, said recently: “The introduction of the single currency must be considered neither hell nor paradise: it is an historic step, certainly, but it represents neither an end in itself, nor a miraculous solution…. It must undoubtedly be balanced by measures taken at the political level”. Europe of the markets, of business – in Tietmeyer’s view – cannot by itself support the ever closer rapprochement between the various cultures, civilizations and religions. Politics cannot be left on the sidelines; what is urgently needed is a clear political project for Europe. This can only come from a culture that is based on the values and ideals that the Founding Fathers of European unity left as their legacy: a legacy that needs to be updated and not just consigned to the reference books. Rediscovering and reproposing our Christian roots is therefore essential, not as a sterile exercise in nostalgia, but to give the right direction to the progress of Europe, the direction of the dignity and the rights of each person and each community. SirEurope shares this perspective. It is conscious of the responsibility that Christians, like others, have in the building of a Europe that may be a “place of hope”: for itself, for the whole world, and for the new generations. Paolo Bustaffa