Steps of freedom

A “Centre for Studies on the Judeo-Christian roots of European civilization” was set up within the University of Perugia department of Assisi. The Centre was conceived during the celebrations for the 700th anniversary of the University’s foundation, held September 8 2008. On that occasion, Benedict XVI addressed a letter to the dean of the University conveying his appreciation for the initiative. “In the contemporary cultural climate, marked by dispersion and relativism, effective and wholesome reflections capable of both supporting a renewed European conscience and enhancing dialogue with other civilizations can develop only by drawing from this heritage”. Follow excerpts from the address delivered by the archbishop of Chieti-Vasto Msgr. Bruno Forte. A “new Christianity”. “The Judeo-Christian roots of Europe are once again being debated. Renewed thrust to this theme was occasioned also by the visit of Benedict XVI to Rome’s synagogue on January 17. Indeed, it responds to the growing need of giving a soul to the common European Home, gradually erected over the past years. We ought to identify the significance of the recovery of these roots”. In writings of 1799 Georg Friedrich von Hardenberg – better known with the nom de plume of Novalis – addresses “the crisis triggered by the French Revolution” which led to “a messianic-spiritualist perspective that could help overcome its tragic aftermath”. The requisite, underlines Msgr. Forte, was “the primacy of religion”, since “only with the order of Christianity shaped on Medieval order could Europe be saved”. According to Novalis “it wasn’t only a matter of returning to ancient times. Rather, a utopian revolution, aimed at the establishment of a ‘new Christianity’ was necessary in order to ‘rebuild a visible Church which regardless of political borders could welcome in her womb all those souls yearning for transcendental nourishment and act as mediator between the new and the ancient worlds'”.Emancipatory aspirations. However, continues the archbishop, “the only appeal of the utopian recovery of an ideal, which in fact never existed, could merely consist in suggestions manipulated by nostalgic and reactionary stances.” Conversely, Novalis’ essay “carries symbolic meaning for the contemporary world, whose crisis recalls the one experienced upon the aftermath of the French Revolution. Notably, the Fall of the Berlin Wall – which took place exactly two centuries after the fateful 1789 – signaled the definitive end of those ideologies which had characterized the opposing Blocs”. It must be noted, pointed out Msgr. Forte, “that the ensuing disintegration – which proved greater than ever expected – shows that the real and true identification marking modernity took place between Europe and the ideological model resulting from the adult reason of the Enlightenment”, since “the ancient ‘European Home’ forged all aspirations for emancipation of the modern era, along with those of Eastern and Western totalitarianisms, influenced by ideologies’ pretence to superimpose rational order, whereby the ‘will to power’ (Friedrich Nietzsche) was also concretized in the systematic performance of violence”. According to the archbishop “The risks embodied within the proposal of new ideological models – including the quest for its roots” are foreseeable. It ensues that “Judeo-Christian heritage will serve to overcome current difficulties experienced by European conscience, provided that it is not viewed as a reassuring ideology marked by a return to the past”. Ultimate hope. Rather that standing behind, said the archbishop, “the potential of the Judeo-Christian roots of Europe lies ahead of us. This is why we ought to undertake daring steps on the path of freedom, along with choices marked by creative intelligence”. “This thrust forward motivates the rejection of passivity and renouncement vis a vis the ongoing crisis, along with the assumption of responsibility towards others, in order to jointly erect the ‘Common European Home'”. “The Judeo-Christian roots of Europe are not a certainty nor a possession. Rather, they constitute a destiny and a source of hope. Far from being reassuring, they challenge each one of us to relinquish individualistic calculations and embrace the wide-ranging scope of solidarity between individuals, peoples and nations, along the unfading horizon that motivates commitment: namely, the ‘ultimate’ hope which reposes on God’s promises of the Covenant, capable of granting meaning and long-lasting value to the complex choices of all that is ‘second-last’. Thus, Judaism and Christianity, marked by the contribution of Greek culture and Latin pragmatism, offer that very spiritual supplementation which Europe needs more than ever before”, Msgr. Forte concluded.