If we want the young to have a profound sense of their own identity, it’s essential to oppose the attempt to forget, still less sever, the roots with the past of European civilization”. So said Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, on opening the work of the 10th Symposium of the European bishops, held in Rome from 24 to 28 April on the theme: “Youth of Europe in the process of change. Laboratory of the faith”. In his homily during the Mass that opened the symposium, referring to the fact that “the communities of believers were not explicitly mentioned” in the recent Convention of Laeken, Re reiterated the “no” pronounced by the Pope in his recent address to the diplomatic Corps, to any kind of attempt to “marginalize religions”. “In the course of the centuries Card. Re recalled Europe and Christianity were inseparably intertwined and mutually enriched by those values that became the soul of European civilization”. Today too, in his view, “European unity must go beyond the logic of a mere monetary and economic union: the euro, the single currency, is undoubtedly a positive step, but Europe has a need for a soul to inspire its political and economic efforts”. In a period like our own, “characterized by pluralism and relativism, it is more than ever essential to transmit to the young a clear consciousness of their own identity. If the bell-towers and the cathedrals built in Europe through the centuries concluded the cardinal end up merely illustrating picture-postcards, the youth of this old Continent, that for centuries represented the hub of the world’s cultural and political events, will see their humanity gravely impoverished”.
