To make its contribution in guiding “the processes of globalization in a spirit of solidarity, Europe must not forget its own model”, said the Archbishop of Zagreb and Vice-President of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE), Cardinal Josip Bozanic, in a briefing to Sir Europe during the 40th congress of international studies of the “Istituto Rezzara” (Italy) held in recent days on the theme “International trade: risks and opportunities”. Faced by “the emergence of models of ethical thought that derive from globalization itself and that bear the hallmark of utilitarianism and ruthless competition”, the Church – said Bozanic – underlines the need for “interdependence to be transformed into solidarity”, as affirmed by John Paul II’s encyclical Sollicitudo Rei Socialis . The importance of the “European model – continued Cardinal Bozanic – consists in its culture and in being a continent in which pluralism is linked with the specific identity of each nation”. In this “challenge” of our time for the interdependence of peoples to be transformed into solidarity “the Church has an important role to play”. “It may be said – he explained – that globalization for the Church began with Pentecost, an event aimed at reuniting all peoples, each in its own language. So, experiencing and sharing that specific sense of communion in the world is for the Church something that belongs to her very origins and today she had a great mission to fulfil precisely through this spirit of globalization where solidarity must be the common horizon”. The cardinal then referred to the Third European Ecumenical Assembly at Sibiu that has just ended: “After Basel (a largely Protestant city) and Graz (largely Catholic), this time – he said – the choice fell on a city with an Orthodox majority, and situated in a developing country with a post-Communist economy which must be helped by the European Community: in this way the importance of the solidarity that must exist also in our continent has perhaps been felt more strongly”.
