Building the future together” “

The fundamental rights of the European peoples do not include that of “amnesia”: starting out from this provocative remark, Cardinal Paul Poupard , president of the Pontifical Council of Culture, stressed the need to “create a genuine and not merely superficial or bureaucratic unity between the European peoples”. The occasion for his remarks was the opening of the conference “Towards a European constitutions?”, being held in Rome until 23 June. A “lay and religious humanism”. The cultures of the European countries are “founded on an immemorial tradition of lay and religious humanism”, emphasized Poupard, in referring to a “European declaration of cultural objectives”, drafted by the 23 European Ministers of Culture in Berlin, in May 1984; a “forgotten” document, as it was called by the cardinal – who had personally participated in its drafting. He also drew attention to the Charter of fundamental rights of the European Union, proclaimed at Nice in 2000, and to the Laeken Declaration of December 2001. “It was precisely thanks to the vision proposed by humanism, which emerged in turn from religious thought and secular though – commented Poupard – that the inalienable rights of man were formulated and the full liberty of each human being was recognized”. Hence the need to pay attention to the “totality of the European heritage” and not succumb to a “reductive and simplistic view which would like to transform the rich and enormous heritage composed of spiritual and religious values, characteristic of the European peoples, into a thing of the past, a mere collector’s piece or archaeological artefact”. In Poupard’s view, this heritage “risks being forgotten and rendered obsolete, and yet it is a heritage that “still enriches and inspires the daily experience of millions of European citizens, both in the West and in the East”. Beyond the “disaffection” of citizens. The future European Constitution, therefore, “cannot fail to cherish and reaffirm this heritage, if it does not want to “reduce European unity to a functional union of economic and political interests, or transform it into a complex and artificial bureaucratic mechanism” which would only foment “the disaffection of the men and women of Europe”, who are present in the Union “merely as subjects of political and economic rights and duties”, but “extraneous to a soulless Europe that repudiates its own culture, its own historical memory”. “Favouring access to all” and “participating actively in the construction of Europe”: these two objectives were judged essential by the above-mentioned Declaration and they still remain as relevant as ever today, given that “there cannot be a Europe with a clear identity and with a project of communion in liberty and responsibility, if there is no profound and vital link with the Christian and humanistic roots of our continent”, said Poupard citing recent interventions of the Head of State on the future of our continent. Four “European” Popes. Pius XII was a “great supporter of the idea of a united Europe, pointed out the president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, while John XXIII contributed to “supporting the collaboration between the peoples and nations of the continent, by reaffirming the principle of subsidiarity”. But it was especially Paul VI who expressed himself in favour of European unity, declaring that “Europe must maintain her identity and remain herself on condition that she does not reject her profound Christian identity”. The Church, in Paul VI’s view, presents herself to the world as “expert in humanity”, in full respect for the principle of the secular nature of the State, but also distinguishing clearly between secularism and “laicism”. Finally, it is the merit of John Paul II to have given a “new emphasis” to European integration, through the promotion of a process of integration in which Europe would breathe with two lungs (East and West) and in which any kind of “marginalization of religions” would be “an injustice and an error in perspective”. Maria Michela Nicolais