For a shared future

The contribution of religions to the construction of a new European citizenship is one of the knotty problems that those who reflect on the future of our society, and in particular of our Continent, often have to tackle. Yet, faced by the ambitious project of European unity, we cannot ignore, or fail to take into account, the cultural and religious characteristics that animate the different countries and populations of Europe; their integration and cooperation are unequivocally conditional on mutual understanding, respect, a willingness to listen to each other and a capacity to appreciate each other as resources. This too was discussed in recent days at Strasbourg, at the meeting of the Council of Europe on the religious dimension of intercultural dialogue. The representatives of the institutions and exponents of the religions traditionally present in Europe and of civil society met together to reflect in particular on the questions of teaching and of education that involve religious facts and convictions in the sphere of education in state schools, aimed at all children. It’s a form of teaching that should be “in complete respect for the freedom of conscience of pupils and their parents, and without giving rise to any form of discrimination”, explained Jean-Paul Willaime, general rapporteur at the meeting in Strasbourg. The approach of the Council of Europe – insisted Willaime – is “non-confessional” and its “key elements” are intelligence and dialogue. It’s an approach that should be common to all Europeans, with particular attention to tackling religious themes at school in a “pluralist and well-informed” way and with the proper training of teachers. Apart from the various discussions and analyses begun in Strasbourg, the European meeting emphasised the importance of fostering and gaining a better understanding of the religious elements that form part of European culture. If intercultural dialogue, as recognized by everyone, has become in recent years an ever more concrete need – and this year has been expressly dedicated to it by the European institutions -, the religious component and the religious contribution to the elaboration of culture, and of ways in which people think and live, is at the same time increasingly to be considered in the perspective of a possible shared European citizenship – with the by your leave of those who, in various contexts, continue to want to relegate the religious dimension and questions of confessional membership to the private life of citizens alone. This is an idea that has long been circulating in our societies and that, for example, was also expressed in the discussions that led to the exclusion of the recognition of the Christian roots of Europe in the Constitution. It’s an idea that impoverishes the very concept of secularism enunciated by the Council of Europe, almost as if it were possible, with dialogue and intelligence – the elements of secularism recalled by Willaime -, to construct an “aseptic” society, purged of confessional membership and the “passions” of religions. Such membership and passions, on the contrary, are the concrete terrain on which citizens, and also the citizens of Europe, live and on which dialogue and intelligence are exercised to find common ground, ententes, communities of intent, for a shared future. And in this context Christianity, as Benedict XVI too has recently recalled, has a leading role to play that no one can honestly pass over in silence.