front page" "
One cannot hardly pass over in silence the concerns being felt about the future of Europe after the French and Dutch “no” to the Constitutional Treaty and the postponement of the British referendum on the same treaty. No one, on the other hand, imagined that the construction of Europe would be an easy task and no one considered perfect the legislative and political decisions made in recent times. Nonetheless, this setback has aroused some bitterness and raised many questions. Even more so, it demands the assumption of new responsibilities, especially bearing in mind the young generations of Europe and of the world. It is not enough to hand down to them some grand pages in the history books: we need to design and construct a Europe with them and for them as a place and promoter of peace, freedom, justice and, hence, hope. In a time of disarray it is useful to recall the European process as “prophetically” conceived by ROMANO GUARDINI . “The formation of Europe said the Italo-German philosopher in 1962, on receiving the Praemium Erasmianum in Brussels presupposes that each of its nations rethinks its own history and understands its own past in relation to the formation of this great and vital formula. But what a degree of self-overcoming and self-deepening does that imply!”. We place his reflection alongside the well known, and now more than ever incisive, remarks of Cardinal JOSEPH RATZINGER taken from an address he gave in Rome on 31May 2004. “There is a self-hatred of the West that is strange and that can only be considered something pathological. The West tries, indeed, in a praiseworthy manner to open itself, full of understanding, to external values, but it no longer loves itself; of its own history it only sees what is deplorable and destructive, and is unable to perceive what is grand and pure. Europe, if it is to survive, has a need for a new though certainly critical and humble acceptance of itself. The multiculturalism, which is constantly and passionately being encouraged and supported, is sometimes, above all, abandonment and rejection of what is peculiar to Europe, a flight from Europe’s own inheritance. But multiculturalism cannot subsist without common denominators, common guidelines, or shared values. It certainly cannot subsist without respect for what is sacred. Treating with respect the sacred elements of others forms an intrinsic part of that, but we can only do so if the sacred, God, is not alien to ourselves. Of course, we can and must learn from what is sacred for others, but especially in relation to others and on behalf of others it is our duty to nourish in ourselves a respect for what is sacred and show the face of God who has appeared to us the face of the God who has compassion for the poor and the weak, the widows and orphans, the stranger in our midst: the God who is so human that he himself became a man, a suffering man who by suffering together with us gives dignity and hope to grief. If we don’t do this, not only do we repudiate the identity of Europe, but we fail to perform a service to which others have a right. The absolute profanity that has been taking shape in the West is something profoundly alien to the cultures of the world. They are convinced that a world without God has no future. So it is precisely multiculturalism that is appealing to us to take renewed possession of ourselves. We don’t know how things will develop in Europe in future. The Charter of Fundamental Rights may be a first step, a sign that Europe is newly seeking its soul in a conscious manner. In this we cannot help agreeing with Toynbee [Arnold Toynbee, English historian and philosopher, 1889-1975] that the destiny of a society always depends on creative minorities. Believing Christians ought to conceive themselves as just such a creative minority and help Europe to re-appropriate the best of its inheritance and thus place itself at the service of the whole of humanity”.
