Something is changing

Today religions constitute a hope and not a threat. What is being experienced in Europe is in fact the fruitfulness of the Word, the living memory of the Churches, and all this is indispensable to enable our societies to rediscover a safe compass for the decisions they take. In Europe, societies have had to come to terms with the mirage of a thousand liberties and, in the face of this mirage, no longer know in what direction to go; they no longer have trust in politics: religions can help them to rediscover the sense of community and common values. In this perspective the Churches have a fundamental role to play, so long as they are a path that leads to God, and are able to teach and appreciate what God gives to man. Their presence tells us that the believer is not someone who decides to possess the truth, but someone who is conscious of receiving the truth from God. The 83rd Semaine Sociale de France is a confirmation of this. This year we wished to explore the relation between societies and religions, given that religions are perceived as a threat, whereas they constitute a great hope for societies. I am convinced that we are about to witness a change in this direction, and that the time has really come for a new and fruitful dialogue between religions and societies, especially for those in Europe. Religions are conscious of being minorities, conscious of their own fragility. They are also conscious of not being the depository of truth, but of seeking it, just like societies. This is not a situation in which religion is on the one side and society on the other; we are religious in the society of which we form part, and we have a common aspiration to truth.In the contemporary world Europe has a chance. In some sense the international crisis is revealing the importance of Europe as a political utopia that is being incarnated. The world has a need to find decision-making structures and is trying to find the way to realize them, in respect for the relation between rich and poor countries. Europe is there as an example. Europe’s moment has come on the world scenario. Europe also embodies an ancient religious and ecclesial tradition, a beacon of spirituality that, if it cannot have the temptation of power in the present-day pluralist context, can illuminate and help to form common values at a deep level, and help Europeans to have trust in themselves, to understand themselves and rediscover the path of reconciliation.We are familiar with the two lungs of Europe, that of the East and that of the West. During this past week the richness of these two lungs has been expressed in a mutual listening of Eastern and Western Europe. Eastern Europe has testified to us that faith is an essential element of life: when everything seems fragile, nothing remains for us but our opening to God. This is something that perhaps we in Western Europe have lost. Africa has been present in this session also thanks to the proposals of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, who appealed to us to consider the great sufferings of its peoples.Where is the joint venture between faith and society, between the Kingdom and world, being played out? Undoubtedly also in the privileged attention we pay to the poor, which is a way of proclaiming the Good News to everyone, especially to the weakest.What is Africa if not a warning that there’s a place of absolute poverty in the world? If the right importance is not given to this continent through friendship and solidarity, the world shall never be complete. A fragmented society that loses its own unity, in which many people no longer believe in anything, and in which they live a life of selfishness, is a society that inspires fear. And fear encourages the fundamentalist element in religions. We therefore need to avoid succumbing to this temptation, for the religious sense impels us to think and act in the certainty that we are not the depositories of truth but that it is truth that possesses us and therefore asks us to seek it and to encounter it also through contacts with our other brothers.