A sum of symbolic places” “

What is Europe? “A sum of symbolic places”: that’s the conclusion of a group of German, Polish, Slovene and Spanish academics during an international day on “Europe and its Symbols”, promoted by the Jean Monnet chair of the university of Navarre and held at Navarre (Spain) in recent days. We spoke about the meeting with Enrique Banús , director of the Centre of European Studies at the university. Is Europe a symbolic space? “There are many symbolic places. Indeed, Europe itself is a symbolic place. Speaking of Europe means speaking not just of a geographic space, but a space that we ourselves are creating, a social reality. And social realities always need to be combined with particular symbols such as coins – the euro is a symbol -, places and values. At times they are symbols to which an official significance has been given, such as a flag or an anthem, at times they are symbols that live purely in the imagination. In Europe, the traditional symbols are national and we still have a struggle to accept European symbols with the same simplicity. That’s also because there are many ‘Europes’, not just one, in people’s imagination”. Are cemeteries symbols too? “Cemeteries are attestations of history. But history is not just the facts that have happened: no one, from a human perspective, can reproduce them as such; they are interpreted facts. The hand of man continues to shape the narrative of history. And that narrative is realized not just with words, but also in places such as cemeteries. There the tombs are either cared for, or they are forgotten, even removed; there the inscriptions either have value or they cease to do so. It is particularly in countries in transition, in countries that have undergone violent and far-reaching changes, that a great deal of history is reflected in cemeteries, in streets, in city squares…” What may indifference to religious symbolic places involve? “We have noted that in some recent novels references are lacking to the religious symbols in Europe. Just as any reference is lacking to history before the second half of the nineteenth century. As if Europe only began then! For the theme of the novel is, basically, Europe. What emerges from such novels is a grey, sad, disconsolate image of Europe. A Europe of factories, workforces, stations. Has that despair, that deracination, something to do with the absence of any religious reference?”. 11 March 2004: 1st anniversary of the massacre in Madrid The first anniversary of the terrorist attacks in Madrid’s central Atocha station and in other suburban stations, which caused the death of 192 people and the injury of over 1,500, three days after the general elections in Spain, is to be celebrated on 11 March. A year after the tragedy, the Spanish Church has planned eucharistic liturgies for the souls of the victims throughout the country, especially in the archdiocese of Madrid (at 8.00 pm in the cathedral of La Almudena), and in the dioceses of Getafe and Alcalá de Henares, those most struck by the attacks. To mark the anniversary, at precisely 7.37 am, the time of the first explosions, the bells of the 650 churches of the ecclesiastical Province of Madrid will be rung in mourning for five minutes. At midday the Spanish royal family and the authorities of Madrid will inaugurate the “Wood of the Absent”, a circle of 192 trees planted in the Park of Retiro. To commemorate the attack, the “Club de Madrid”, whose members include over 40 former Heads of State and of Government, and the Varsavsky Foundation has convened an international conference on “A better democracy for a safer world” in the Spanish capital from 8 to 10 March. During the conference, the causes and motivations of terrorism, strategies and methods to combat it, democratic responses to the phenomenon and the role of civil society will be examined. The sessions are being held under the patronage of the king of Spain Juan Carlos and the Secretary General of the UNO, Kofi Annan. Finally, the work of the 74th plenary assembly of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference is due to end in Madrid on 11 March.