There will be other "beginnings"” “

“Democracy is learnt day by day. And a large ‘common home’ like the European Union is built with patience, tackling one challenge at a time, and pursuing common objectives in a spirit of solidarity”. ATHANASSIOS CHATZOPOULOS , metropolitan bishop of the Greek Orthodox Church of Athens and all Greece, is a convinced supporter of united Europe. He is archbishop delegate for relations with the EU institutions in Brussels. His participation in the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, promoted by COMECE, Commission of the Episcopates of the European Community, in April was a significant gesture. Metropolitan Chatzopoulos praises the spirit and aspirations of the Union, without concealing its limitations. In an interview with Gianni Borsa, SIR correspondent in the Belgian capital, he reviews the situation after the enlargement of the frontiers of the Community to Eastern Europe and to the Mediterranean and in the light of the approaching deadline for the renewal of the European Parliament and the approval of the Constitution. With the enlargement of the EU to 25 States a large part of Europe has been reunited under the banner of peace and development. Yet the co-existence of so many different peoples will not be without problems. In this light, what does 1st May represent? “Peaceful co-existence and a shared mentality are fostered through history, which is a long-term process. I think that far-reaching changes, not only at the political level, are taking place in Europe. They require the commitment and responsibility of everyone. United Europe is built gradually day by day. We must learn to live together and walk in the same direction: national interests must give way to higher common goals… We also need to perceive the meaning of this unity. We too, in Greece, have felt for centuries that the continent was divided into two, the West on the one hand, and the East on the other. But after 25 years of belonging to the European Community and with the recent enlargement, we are overcoming this perception”. Your words seem to imply that European integration is not achieved solely through politics, still less can it be pursued just at the institutional level. “Exactly. Democracy is learnt, not acquired; it must enter into our mentality. That goes for those countries that boast of centuries-old roots of democracy, like Greece and England, and also for those countries in which democracy has been consolidated more recently. The real obstacle that needs to be overcome is the difficulty of living together with ‘others’. That explains the priority, in the Europe of the third millennium, of promoting dialogue and mutual trust between individuals and peoples. A shared history, the real cement for the Union of the future, will only be born from partnership”. Yet history is at the same time the product of ideas and events… “We need to undertake common tasks and commit ourselves together to economic development, job creation, and social justice. At the international level we need to foster peace, in the Middle East, in Iraq, and in the African continent; the EU may make a tangible contribution to this”. All this confirms that after 1st May we need to look ahead… “After 1st May, a date that will remain fixed in our memory, there will be other beginnings; we’ll always have new challenges to tackle. Peoples and governments will have to give proof of their willingness to proceed together, without getting discouraged”. The need for an historical recognition of our Christian roots in the Constitution is being widely emphasized. Can religions still make an original contribution to European unity? “It should be said, firstly, that each religion tends to define itself in its own terms: with its own history, its own doctrine, its own presence in society. Sometimes this has created situations of conflict between Churches and even between peoples. This is an obstacle that needs to be recognized and then overcome. We must rediscover our original unity: only thus can we act together at the service of man and society. Times have changed. Up till a century ago it was felt important to have a thorough knowledge of one’s own religion, in order to demarcate it from the ‘outside world’. Today secularisation has made enormous strides, and the real challenge to the faith is now posed not by other believers, but by religious indifference. For this reason too Christians must join together, if they are to be credible witnesses in Europe today”.