“Europe cannot be made with a single face, nor shall it be built all together; it will rise from concrete achievements, creating above all a de facto solidarity”: it was the 9 May 1950 when the then French Foreign Minister Robert Shumann pronounced these words, which have been adopted as the point of departure for the construction of Europe. Each year, therefore, May 9th is commemorated as Europe Day. The theme this year is “The Euro: the European Union in your hands”. On the same day Catholic Church celebrated the feast of the Ascension. The coincidence of the two dates did not escape the bishops of England and Wales, who made an appeal for British Christians to devote themselves in person to the construction of the European Union. In a document entitled “Europe Day” and presented by Bishop John Patrick Crowley of Middlesbrough and head of the department of international affairs of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, the bishops recall that, just as in the Gospel episode of the Ascension, two men in white tell the disciples not to stand there looking up into the sky, ignoring what is happening on earth, so English Catholics are urged to reject a eurosceptic position and commit themselves personally to the construction of the new European house. “We have a need in the European Union write the English bishops to recover the vision, the idealism and the solidarity of the post-war years. It would be sad to lose the overall vision by concentrating on a myriad minor problems”.
