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After the altogether positive results of enlargement and the approval of the Constitutional Treaty, and in the light of the elections of the new Parliament in Strasbourg (which confirmed the worrying phenomenon of abstention), it is now time for the Union to address the thousand tasks that await it. Among others we may recall: the installation of the new Parliament; the nomination of the Commission, after the designation of the Portuguese Durao Barroso as President; the need to extend Community policies to the ten countries that joined the “common home” on 1st May; and the definition of the EU’s “financial prospects” for the period 2007-2013. The priority tasks include, not least, the signature and ratification of the European Constitution, which will then have to be fully implemented in the 25 member states. In this long series of “internal challenges”, the Union will more than ever have need for the initiative and intelligence of Christians, and, more generally, for the active presence of believers of all the religions that “inhabit” Europe today, as peacemakers and partners in dialogue. In spite of the Constitutional Treaty’s “deafening silence” on the “Christian roots” of Europe, individual believers and Christian communities must feel themselves called to build the Europe of hope lucidly delineated by John Paul II in “Ecclesia in Europa”. That silence, far from being transformed into an alibi for disengagement, must prompt those inspired by the Gospel to devote further efforts to the “European common good” that the European bishops have repeatedly recalled. The latest appeals of Comece (Commission of the Episcopates of the European Community) have also moved in this direction. It published three documents between March and May: the first focused on family policies within the EU; the second indicated solidarity as the indispensable “soul” of the enlarged Europe; while the third was dedicated to the election for the renewal of Parliament, forcefully underlining the Church’s “commitment to Europe”. Various “external challenges” are, at the same time, pushing at the doors of the EU. The decision (explicit during the EU-USA summit in late June) to support, in full accord with the international community, the rebirth and development of Iraq, confirms the global stature of the Twenty-Five. The “vocation” of the Union to operate on the international scene is re-affirmed by the Constitution itself in its chapter on “external action”, aimed at “promoting in the rest of the world: democracy, rule of law, universality and indivisibility of human rights”, and “respect for international law in conformity with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations” (art. 193). Cooperation in the development of the poor countries, the promotion of peace and freedom, and the commitment to real social justice that privileges the poor throughout the world: these are values rooted in Christianity and at the basis of the European Community. In this perspective, as stressed in recent days in Athens, at the meeting of the spokespersons of the Catholic Churches promoted by the Council of the Episcopal Conferences of Europe (Ccee), the role of sound, timely information, attentive to people’s lives, as well as to the activities of the institutions, will be of the greatest importance. sir
