The vision and the history

“Without a unitary European vision, Benedict XVI’s description of a farewell to history is doomed to come true. We would thus become the victims of the news, conveyed through bulletins and TV screens, but it won’t be history. Hence Europe would exit from world history”, said Andrea Riccardi, the founder of the St.Egidio Community upon the conferral of the 2009 Charles-Magne Prize on May 21st. Since 1950 the Prize is awarded to recognize the promotion of values pertaining to European unity. Credit was granted to the commitment “in favour of greater solidarity in Europe, inside and outside its borders, for the promotion of understanding between peoples, religions and cultures”. A sign and an appeal. Andrea Riccardi declared, “the impact of globalization, extending to India, China, and to developing civilizations, economies and demographies cannot be addressed by the single Countries alone. If we’re not together, European countries will be quantité négligeable, leading our values and identities to fade away in the tides of globalization. It will be a loss for the world and for civilization. Without true European unity, there will be no truely European Country”, he stated in his address. “This award is a sign representing an appeal to Europeans, to Christians. Politics is not sufficient. As relates to Christianity, it must be said that we are still far from Christianising the continent”, he added, referring to the figure of frère Roger of Taizé. “This man’s Christianity, and that of many others, upsets the weary and short-sighted European conscience. Christian faith calls the faithful not to live for themselves”. The world needs Europe. “Europe cannot live for itself”, Riccardi pointed out. “The issue isn’t the economic development of one’s region or Country. Living for oneself is a purely mercantile approach. Practical materialism, ensuing Marxism, abounds in most of Europe’s morals. Marketism devours the free spaces pertaining to social life. We are witnessing the crises of communities, of the family and of local realities. Pursuing one’s interests requires also spirit, generosity, and vision”. “After having conquered the world European populations withdrew from the world almost in a state of fear. We don’t want a leading role, perhaps for fear of making mistakes. It’s all about contemporary political-correctness”. For Riccardi “it is not a question of repeating past mistakes. It is necessary to conceive a new way of being in world history, within the framework of European unity”. “The world needs Europe. It needs its humanism, its reasonable strength, it mediation and dialogic skill, along with its resources, the economic enterprise of its culture”, reiterated the founder of St. Egidio. “Europe produced two World Wars and the Shoah. Why shouldn’t it become the paradigm of peace and universal solidarity? We need a united Europe, which will enable us to exist in this wide and terrible world. If Europe is more united the wide world will be much less terrible”.Africa: the mission of Europe. Riccardi then extended his glance to the African Continent and probed into “the painful and rich history that binds Europe to Africa”. “Many European Countries are withdrawing from Africa, that remains the land of immigrants towards Europe”, claimed the historian, for whom Europe has a mission: Africa. Cooperation for Africa’s development, the struggle against diseases (AIDS) and against armed conflicts are European responsibilities. These are the answers to the ongoing migration flows, that won’t be stopped at the borders or by controls in the Mediterranean, but with the recovery of hope and of the economy!”. “I firmly believe in the dream of Senegal’s President Senghor – Riccardi added – a man with both a European and an African cultural background. Euro-Africa, two continents united in the realm of equality that need one another. The first mission of Europe is called Africa, this is where we find the meaning of our unity. “Europe is a sign of peace. It’s the civilization that is missing in the homogenizing and flattening globalized world, marked by the clash of civilizations and religions, which inhuman economy is lacking. The civilization of coexistence is our answer to terrorism and fundamentalism”.