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About fifteen years ago, somebody at a meeting of the European organisation for priests (Ccpe) wisely asked whether Europe in future would have 29 flags or 210. He recognised that hopes for a straightforward unification of the states that then existed might be unrealistic. There was every risk that those states would split into smaller groups. The war in Yugoslavia has divided it beyond recognition. The United Kingdom (of which I am a citizen) now has two parliaments (one in London, one in Edinburgh) and a national assembly (in Cardiff). It is definitely not “cool” to be British, but to stress one’s Celtic origins. Spain and Italy have had very different experiences threatening fragmentation. Edmund Burke had stressed two centuries earlier that “to love the little platoon we belong to in society is the first principle of public affections” Loyalty to society and humankind come later. He has been proved to be a good observer of human nature. In industry, large corporations often operate in small units with which workers can identify. In the sphere of religion, the Churches are often accused of being unable to deal with the individual’s joys and hopes, griefs and anxieties. Thousands of people have left traditional Churches and joined “house” churches, where they feel they are taken more seriously, and there is a more “human” atmosphere, rather than the anonymity of the average parish. Even within the Catholic Church, the new movements answer this same need for a “person-friendly” spirituality and a community where people recognise each otherConcerned by a possible transverse disintegration in Europe, Immanuel Kant wrote a study called “On Perpetual Peace” in 1795, in which he did not limit himself to speaking of a mere cessation of hostilities: the “sweet dream” of the philosopher was a universal peace that demands the conversion of many minds. The philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas also encouraged everyone, especially Christians, to resist every temptation of form, thought or action that, in a more or less subtle way, would aim at self-enclosure in a small group, failing to communicate with others or prevailing over others. The years in which I worked in the Holy See have taught me to attach the right value to unity within the Catholic Church, and the analysis of Lévinas on the origins of ethics suggested to me, in the European experience, the direction in which we need to go towards unity: “Ethics begins (…) before the face of the other person, who commits my responsibility through its human expression (…). An ethical vision of this kind is not slavery, but a service rendered to God through the responsibility we have for our neighbour”. Those in Europe who are ‘seeking for something’ will be attracted by a community of faith that respects them and ‘cultivates’ them with the communication between faces so dear to Lévinas.
