Our common future

“Solidarity is a duty inherent to each one of us”. “It is our common future”. Thus declared the approximately 500 delegates from 29 European Countries during the “first Catholic Social Days for Europe”, held in Gdansk October 9-11 on the initiative of COMECE (the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community). The Days addressed the theme “”Solidarity, a challenge for Europe”. The final statement “Solidarity is the future of Europe” closed the meeting (Previous news reports in SIR Europe 68 and SIR daily news October 8-9-10 – Agensir.it). Charity. “Today there is a need for a new international order, a new Europe for a new future”, said the archbishop of Dublin Msgr. Diarmuid Martin. After having recalled the warning conveyed by Benedict XVI in “Caritas in Veritate”, to not confide exclusively in progress and technology, Msgr. Martin remarked, “in our world we don’t devote the just attention to questions regarding ‘why’, and restrict ourselves to ‘how’. As the Pope said, “we must ask ourselves what we intend by ‘progress'”. Reflecting on the relationship between justice and charity in the social doctrine of the Church, the archbishop of Dublin pointed out that charity leads to solidarity, which is not “an abstract feeling. It means sharing”. “And sharing is one of the EU’s pillars, engrained in its inspiration and activity”. According to Msgr.Martin, there can “be true human development” only if “the factual interdependence of peoples and nations is combined with the interaction of minds and conscience”, and “becomes solidarity”. “The most important capital to be safeguarded nowadays is the integrity of the human person”. For this reason, concludes the archbishop referring to the Pope, Christian charity “ought to be acknowledged” as a “crucial element in all human relations, including the public ones”. The family. The EU, the family, human rights, social and economic models were among the themes addressed by the European delegates during the workshops in Gdansk. MEP Anna Záborská from Slovakia said the family is “the vital cell of society”, within the framework of “solidarity”. The MEP denounced European Parliament resolutions, which “clearly condemn the natural family to the benefit of other forms of coexistence”. “In fact, these resolutions bear no juridical value”, she added. “But their very existence contributes to an unhealthy atmosphere that doesn’t promote the development of family solidarity in Europe”. MEP Zàborska brought evidence to the fact that the Fundamental Rights Charter lacks a clear definition of the “family”. For example, the authors of the Charter “were far from specifying the parents’ gender in art. 9”. As relates to the rights of the child, the Charter “deliberately omits mentioning mother and father, replacing it with ‘two parents'”. Záborská concluded her address with a provocation: “honestly, I’d like you to answer my question. As Catholics engaged in political life, can we promote the family according to the Gospel using a neutral political and institutional language, in compliance with EU administrative performance?”.Human rights. The dignity of each human being “does not depend on the person’s current state”. This is the key-concept of the address of Maureen Junker-Kenny, Theology professor at the Trinity College of Dublin, Ireland, on “The human person and his rights”, presenting the principles of Catholic social teaching. “Since every human person was made to God’s image and likeness there is a fundamental equality among mankind, that ought to take shape within the legal environment”. In concrete terms, this means that “pain, suffering and weakness don’t strip human beings of their own dignity”; and that “dignity and the ensuing human rights are prior to the acknowledgement of other human beings”; that “even though individual dignity could be respected or violated, nobody is in the position to bestow it or take it away from us”. The dream of De Gasperi. “Just like Adenauer and Schuman my father had a dream. Alas, he wasn’t a dreamer. His idea of Europe was grounded in a concrete political vision”. Maria Romana De Gasperi thus recalled her father, underlining the topical relevance of De Gasperi’s political thought “at a moment when Europe is called to recover its identity and Catholics are invited to give their contribution with greater determination”. Msgr. Adrian Van Luyn, President of COMECE, as a sign of gratitude donated to Maria Romana De Gasperi the book “European Union and the Social Doctrine of the Church. The journey towards Emmaus”, published by the Vatican.