In women’s words” “

“Di che colore è l’Europa che le donne pensano?” Per “colore” si intendono contenuti, sogni, aspettative, riassunti ed espressi in brevi riflessioni scritte dalle nostre collaboratrici da tutta Europa, da Ovest ad Est, dalla Spagna alla Russia e viceversa. WE ARE EUROPE. “Europe is something I no longer dream of: I live it. I experience it in my life and I want to experience it even more strongly. I would like us no longer to reflect on Europe in the third person: ‘In Europe they say this, in Europe they do this, Europe thinks this’. No. I too am Europe. So, ‘in Europe we say this, in Europe we do this, we Europeans think this’. A Europe, therefore, in the first person. Or rather, a Europe in the first person plural. We are Europe. Men and women together, we are Europe. Unfortunately, the word Europe also has unsettling connotations: Europe spells fear. Our Europe must learn to overcome fears. It must learn to live with situations of disadvantage and transform them. We live in a Europe of the regions, where local particularities can be shared and enrich us all, and where there is not just one way, but many ways, of recognizing each other. A Europe we perhaps don’t know how to express perfectly but where there’s a common humus that makes us feel we are all in the same boat. My Europe is the Europe that knows it is, and that wants to be also your Europe”. Miriam Diez Bosch, Spain I WOULD LIKE IT TO BE A RAINBOW. “Each nation has its colours that refer to the various flags. Thinking of Europe, the colour blue springs to mind, the blue of the European flag. Then the stars, the stars of the member countries whose number is constantly growing. It seems, however, there’s no more room on the European flag for the new stars of other member states. That’s why I think that the colour of Europe ought to continue to be blue like God’s heavens where there’s room for all the stars, because it is an infinite sky. Indeed, I dream of a blue Europe behind which all the colours of the rainbow are reflected. In nature there are no pure colours; they are always mixed; perhaps because absolute things do not exist in earthly life. I therefore see a Europe that’s like a rainbow in which Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Christians live peacefully together with Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and so on. For we have got to construct Europe especially with values, those universal basic values such as respect for others, tolerance and charity. And then all the colours go well together: they are fused together in a great rainbow”. Iva Mihailova, Bulgaria I WOULD LIKE TO LIVE…“I would like to live in a Europe in which each nation would respect its own cultural tradition but without despising those of others. A Europe conscious of its own Christian origins. I would like to live in a Europe that respects life from its very beginning. A Europe that is not worried by its own ageing, because it says no to abortion. I would like to live in a Europe in which the sacred bond of matrimony were no longer to fall into disuse. I would like to live in a Europe in which the education of the young about sex were no longer taboo. A Europe that does not cultivate hedonism. I would like to live in a Europe in which young mothers were encouraged and supported by their families, so that they do not abandon their newborn babies in hospitals. A Europe where children are educated by the good example of parents and by inspiring reading and not by computers and violent videogames. I would like to live in a Europe in which the rich or social climbers no longer look down from on high at the “tiny ants” scuttling below. A Europe where the elderly don’t have to wait for a gesture of charity to be able to buy the packet of medicine they need. I would like to live in a Europe with a lovely blue sky, but a Europe whose favourite colour is that of the rainbow”. Cristina Soican, Romania LIKE A MOTHER. “The Europe I dream of? If it had fewer colours of the rainbow, symbol of peace and reconciliation, it would be poor. But if each of its colours were not in its proper place, in the original harmony of the Creation, it would be an intolerable mixture. United Europe was born on the basis of Judeo-Christian values, mutual respect, the dignity of the other person, liberty which does not mean libertinism, solidarity, and love in its fullness as described in the first encyclical of Benedict XVI. These foundations cannot be dismissed or ignored without causing the collapse of the building. But the cultural richness, rooted in these values, needs to be respected and preserved. Diversified in the course of the centuries, that cultural richness is expressed in Europe’s multiplicity of customs, languages, forms of art, and so on. United Europe perhaps ought to be like a mother, a woman who knows how to love her children as they are, and knows how to encourage them, each in the most suitable way, to their greater good and that of the whole family”. Zsuzsanna Szabó, Hungary LOVE IN FIRST PLACE. “What colour would I paint Europe? I would paint it orange, because it consists of red plus yellow. Red, in the first place, because I hope to place love in the first place in my life as spouse and mother of a large family. My faith as a Catholic enables me to experience this love every day and it inspires me in every little thing I do (from continuously putting in order my clothes scattered here and there to being ready to lend an ear to everyone). It inspires me to live the ‘made-to-measure gift’ for those who share their life with me. So I would paint Europe red, so that women may rediscover their love as wives and mothers, under God’s eye. And then I would paint it yellow, like the light of truth. My professional life teaching courses in the introduction to bioethics is a cri de coeur for men and women of our time to recognize the beauty of life and the respect we owe it, from the first to the last moment. I navigate between philosophy, ethics, science and law to involve the participants in the courses I teach at the Institute of Bioethics and enable them to be reached by the truth that inhabits them, and to dissociate themselves from what the media tirelessly repeat and hammer home. I am positively astonished to see mothers realise they can understand bioethics and take steps to educate themselves in it and disseminate its values in the world around them. Yellow, therefore, like the light that illuminates the truth”. Carine Brochier-Thieffry, belgium A GREAT PROJECT. “The European Union remains a special project, which we must not take for granted. In our attitude to it we must preserve the capacity for wonder typical of children: the wonder we feel, also as women, faced by what is fine and positive, not because it is founded on power or money, but because it is able to give a place, a dignity, and rights to each person. We stand before a great project, which finds its reason and its roots in Christianity. It is this Europe of values, of what is good, that we must construct, for the good of Europeans and other countries. I would add that, after the crisis of the European Constitution, the Union is seeking to find herself. In this process Europe must reflect on what road to take: that of life or of death, of transparency or falsehood, of real liberty or an apparent liberty based on permissiveness without criteria? Europe has a great desire to be adult, but perhaps it’s time she asked herself where her place is in the wider history of salvation. In this sense the journey is by no means over”. Marie-Claire Bonavia, malta “The eighth of March is not only Women’s Day, but also the day that finally announces the beginning of spring. In a country in which winter lasts over four months, that’s a very important moment. This Day thus becomes the sign of a new period, a signal of rebirth and new hope. And at the same time it leads us to reflect on the future. The beginning of the new season also coincides with Lent, a period of reflection and submission. And I hope this will help us to gain in trust and give people the strength to live in a way in continuous transformation. What are the colours of the Europe I dream of? First of all I think of Peace. Today, this is not a banal and boring idea, but an urgent social question. People today ought to be wiser, pay greater attention to common problems, and try to find a solution to them. The balance of the contemporary world is something extremely fragile that we must handle with care. This fact is also linked to the traditions of the Old Europe. This is a very specific, multicultural and multinational region. The co-existence of different cultures, the spiritual richness of Europe, is a great source of development in an age of modernization and globalization. And our objective is to exploit it to the best. Last but not least, I dream of a Christian Europe, a successful re-evangelization of the continent, the return to its Christian roots, and the overcoming of all the negative consequences of secularisation and of the other ‘inventions’ of the last century”. Maria Anikina, Russia