In the dockyards of Solidarnosc

In his opening address on “Solidarity, the challenge for Europe” at the “Catholic Social Days for Europe” being held at Gdansk (until 11 October) yesterday afternoon, Bishop Adrianus van Luyn of Rotterdam, President of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE) which is promoting the event, took as his cue the events linked to the birth of Solidarnosc in the dockyards of the Polish city. Mgr. Van Luyn then underlined the importance of the Christian image of man, which is “an incontestable contribution of Christianity to the European heritage” and the way Europe understands itself. Towards a new Europe. According to the President of COMECE, this “European heritage” is not “to be considered obvious or something that belongs to the past or to be enclosed in a museum. On the contrary, Europe has a need of this image of the person, this solidarity as active love for our fellowmen and the cardinal virtues connected with it, as ‘living and still effective parts’ of this heritage”, to prevent “the common values of Europeans, listed in article 2 of the Lisbon Treaty, from remaining a dead letter and ensure they be filled with new life”. Solidarity, continued the Bishop of Rotterdam, “includes the past” and “does not forget the victims”. The memory of these victims, and “the decision never to repeat these experiences again, gave birth to the courageous step towards a new Europe. From this, the ‘fathers of Europe’ drew their vision of a united Europe and gave rise to the strength not to accept the partition of Europe and the courage to resist, and ultimately defeat, a totalitarian system. As Christians, we can believe that these efforts were not in vain”. Solidarity – he added – also needs to be expressed towards future generations”. It must however “widen its horizon and embrace all the sectors in which we live at their expense: our squandering of natural resources, our approach to the environment, and the climate change for which we are co-responsible. But also the current economic and financial crisis will impact on the following generations, which will have to pay the price for the irresponsible and selfish actions, unilateral and aimed at maximising profits, committed by the present generation, and not exclusively by bankers”.“No” to national selfishness. “Solidarity cannot forget our neighbouring countries”, continued Mgr. van Luyn. It must go beyond the confines of Europe, “in particular to Africa, a continent that Europe has colonized and depredated for centuries, and that today risks being newly destroyed due to corrupt governments, wars, drought and the scourge of Aids”. “The daily news stories of refugees drowned at sea or captured, refugees who try to cross the Mediterranean or the Atlantic on rubber dinghies or makeshift boats to reach Italy, Spain or the Canaries, leave us almost indifferent: and yet – warns the President of COMECE – there are hundreds of them every day. The answer to the problem cannot take the form of a further reinforcement of ‘Fortress Europe’, nor of the complete opening of the frontiers. Our solidarity must be aimed at changing the living conditions of the people in the countries from whence they come”. Faced by these challenges, observed Mgr. van Luyn, we risk “despair” and “also the dissolution of solidarity. The feeling of impotence, of not being able to help in an adequate way, risks giving rise to the lethargy that can help nobody”. The current deep problems of an economic and financial character must urge our politicians to reflect” on Europe’s action, to avoid “the danger of abandoning European solidarity in favour of national selfishness”.Sense of measure and intelligence. “We need more than ever a sense of measure and intelligence”, continued Mgr. van Luyn. “The available resources must be used in a responsible way, without succumbing to the old national mechanisms that were the cause of so much bloodshed in Europe in the past. Otherwise the process of European unification would suffer an arrest and we would risk losing everything we have so far achieved. But the willingness and the effort adequately to communicate what needs to be done are also needed”. For, according to the bishop, “the motivations of current euroscepticism include not least the fact that what the political process recognizes and decides as realizable is not brought into public discussion in a proper way. The consequence is lack of solidarity between rulers and the ruled”. After having expressed satisfaction for the result of the Irish referendum on the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, Mgr. van Luyn identified among the tasks of Christians the need to make their own contribution, by drawing on the “treasure of our experience”, and “directing the attention of our fellow-citizens to those on the margins of society”.