A clearer vision” “” “

History and Christian roots, democracy and human rights, economic problems, social justice, scientific research, safeguard of the creation: the issues that John Paul II tackled in his official addresses to the European institutions, during some of his journeys in the “old continent”, are endless. Worth singling out among these speeches, in view of the richness of their observations, all of them aimed at supporting European integration, are the Pope’s address in the headquarters of what was then the European Economic Community (EEC) in Brussels on 20 May 1985, his speeches to the Council of Europe and to the members of the Human Rights Commission in Strasbourg on 8 October 1988, and his famous pronouncement before the European Parliament, again in Strasbourg, on 11 October 1988. HISTORY, CULTURE AND TRANSCENDENCE. In the Brussels headquarters of the EEC, where he was received by the President of the European Commission Jacques Delors, John Paul II began by speaking of the “sympathy” and attention that his predecessors had devoted to the birth and development of the European Community. He then pointed out his own interest in the construction of a united Europe. The speech of 1985 especially concentrated on the “historical profundity” of continental integration, traversing, through the centuries, the civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome, and the rise of Christianity from its origins to the Middle Ages and down to the contemporary period. Karol Wojtyla declared that the meeting between the pope and the personalities engaged in the construction of the “common home” is “in the order of things, because my mission is to bear witness in the world […] to this faith that marks the history and culture of this continent more than any other; the faith in which a large part of the men and women of Europe recognize the fundamental orientation of their own life”. Turning his gaze to the future, the pope added: “As the third millennium approaches, Europe is faced by a new stage in her development. It is important that today she has a clearer vision of what she is, and of what her collective memory records of a long and tumultuous past, if she is not to suffer her destiny as the product of chance, but freely to construct her future as a project”. According to John Paul II, who cited the exemplary figures of Saints Benedict, Cyril and Methodius, we need to gather the legacy of the “founding fathers” of the European Community, seen as a response of peace after the upheavals and tragedies of the Second World War. The merit of figures like Schuman, Adenauer, De Gasperi, Monnet, Churchill and Spaak, “was – he said – not to resign themselves to a disintegration of Europe, which prevented her from being reconstructed, but to strive to develop her wonderfully rich cultural and material heritage, and rediscover her driving force by restoring our links with the positive inspirations of her history”. EUROPE OF THE FUTURE, BEYOND DIVISIONS. The pope recurred to some of these questions in his later speeches to the Council of Europe and Court of Human Rights, where he insisted on the importance of respecting the “rule of law”. He then spoke at some length on the “European conscience”, the role of the family, the education of the young, and the need for scientific research to respect “the safeguarding of life from the moment of conception”. In his speech to the European Parliament on 11 October 1988 Wojtyla anticipated some of the challenges that the European Community would have to tackle. As decisive resources for the future he indicated the fostering of Europe’s own identity, the rediscovery of a shared cultural and ethical “spirit”, and the indispensable transcendental dimension of life. A few months before the sudden and momentous collapse of the Berlin wall, John Paul II affirmed: “Other nations will be able to unite themselves with those represented here. My wish as supreme pastor of the universal Church, who came from Central Europe and knows the aspirations of the Slav peoples, this other ‘lung’ of our shared European homeland, my wish is that Europe, by giving herself free and sovereign institutions, may one day be extended to the dimensions that were given her by geography and even more so by history. How could I fail to desire this, given that the culture inspired by the Christian faith has profoundly marked the history of all the peoples of our one and only Europe?”. The pope ended by indicating three “fields” in which “the united Europe of tomorrow, open to the East of our continent, and generous to the other hemisphere, ought to resume her role as beacon of world civilization: first, “reconciling man with the creation by guarding over the preservation of the integrity of nature: second, “reconciling man with his fellowmen by accepting each other as Europeans of different cultural traditions or currents of thought, and accepting foreigners and refugees; and third, “reconciling man with himself” by working for “the reconstruction of an integral vision of man and the world”, a vision “in which science, technology and art do not exclude but inspire faith in God”.