The duty to speak

What are the specific commitments that European university lecturers have to assume if Europe is once again to become capable of respecting its own identity, based on Christian roots, and in line with the process of integration begun fifty years ago with the treaties of Rome? We put this question to Giuseppe Dalla Torre, Rector of the Free University Maria Santissima Assunta (LUMSA) in Rome, on the last day of the European meeting of university lecturers “A new humanism for Europe. The role of the Universities”, promoted by the Council of European Episcopal Conferences (CCEE) and held in Rome from 21 to 24 June. During the meeting, Cardinal Péter Erdö, Archbishop of Budapest and President of CCEE, in his homily in the mass celebrated in St. John Lateran, invited the participants to continue the experience they had shared in Rome and make it ever more “qualified and incisive”. HUMAN DIGNITY. “If in recent years – remarked Cardinal PÉTER ERDÖ – we have been searching for the place of Christianity and of our mission in European culture, at once tired and fascinating, we must at any rate recognize that human calculations are not in themselves enough”. So, “when we seek a new humanism for Europe, we cannot seek it without God. If human efforts consciously dispense with the existence of God, they cannot liberate themselves from the sad shadow of the absence of meaning and of the negation of value of the universe and of the existence of humanity as a whole”. In the cardinal’s judgement, when we speak of human dignity today “sometimes we don’t clearly identify our ontological dignity which is an integral part of our nature and which derives from the fact that all human beings were created in the image and likeness of God”. Human dignity, explained the cardinal, “does not diminish even if a human being cannot effectively use all his resources. So, a human foetus, an infant, an invalid, a terminally ill person also have their full human dignity”. The Cardinal declared that honour and respect can grow or diminish, “but human dignity is inalienable: it is never lost”. In fact, “when Christians feel embarrassed and remain silent in many situations, when the objective good of man, society, and families would require that we share our Christian conviction with the whole world, this attitude may be a sign of our own uncertainty or timidity”. Therefore, “especially men of culture and of science, if they are Christians, have the fascinating vocation and the difficult task to speak out and to order temporal realities according to the Gospel”. FUNDAMENTAL CONTRIBUTION. GIUSEPPE DALLA TORRE spoke of the “fundamental objectives of common interest for Europeans” (peace, defence of human dignity and natural rights, equality, solidarity), on the basis of the European project. He recalled the appeal of Cardinal Camillo Ruini against the persecutions of Christians and the commitment to the reduction and/or cancellation of the foreign debt of the poor countries. Dalla Torre pointed out that these objectives are the “task and responsibility” of the national and European political institutions and of civil society. But nor can “the fundamental contribution of the universities to them” be excluded. It is a contribution – he explained – they must make in transmitting knowledge and fundamental ideals to the younger generations. But even more so it is “a contribution in guiding scientific research and cultural reflection, according to the lines of convergence and solidarity with the stated objectives”. According to Dalla Torre, we must never forget that the universities “have had a fundamental role, ever since their origins in the medieval period, in shaping the identity of the continent’s inhabitants, making it a crucible of the fusion of differences: of people, language, culture, law and religion”. LOOKING TO THE FUTURE. “As university lecturers – continued Dalla Torre – we feel all the responsibility to keep alive, as a vital part of our culture, the heritage of ideal values that are at the origin of the European project and that have their roots in the great Christian tradition that has marked for two millennia not only religious life, but also more generally the culture of this continent”. Looking to the future, the Rector of LUMSA identified three spheres of specific commitments. “The first – he explained – concerns the field of research. The four great thematic areas we discussed during this conference (human person, city of man, vision of the sciences, creativity and memory) can and must be the object of further study, within our individual countries”. The second sphere of commitment “concerns teaching and, more generally, education”. In this sense, the themes of the four areas may suggest “the holding of seminars, specialist courses, doctorates or degree courses promoted jointly between the universities of the various European countries”. The third commitment is “in the work of transmission of our studies to public opinion and to the civil society of our countries and of Europe”. Nor should we forget, lastly, that 2008 will be the year of intercultural dialogue.