A vital encounter

When talking about nations as communities sharing the same destiny, it can be said that Europe’s centuries-long history engendered a community of interdependent and intertwined destinies. Vicinity, along with collective experiences, has led to the establishment of special relationships linking European populations, whether or not explicitly acknowledged. Also in those cases where coexistence has turned into confrontation, where vicinity prompted the erection of boundaries, and whereby cohabitation has been transformed into conflicts which ultimately led to the outburst of war, the community experience has deeply shaped Europeans, originating their very identity. The common historical experience is strengthened by considerable cultural unity, where, paradoxically, multiplicity was preserved at constitutive level. The afore-mentioned multiplicity has a common root, namely, the combination of Greek-Roman Mediterranean culture and continental Slav-Germanic culture. In this synthesis, Christianity played a decisive, catalyzing role. In the Middle Ages, the European world that was born of this synthesis always acknowledged its unity. Also in modern times, and in contemporary societies, this awareness never ceased to exist, despite fierce armed conflicts, waged under the banner of the differentiation of nations and nationalistic and/or ideological antagonisms. Certainly, today this unitary awareness is no longer based on a declared and lived adherence to the Church or to a Christian religious community. It’s a shame. But even Europe is no longer the “Christian Europe” that was taken for granted a century ago, dear to European populations after World War Two and notably in the aftermath of the Holocaust, as it was dear to the Founding Fathers of the European Community, who considered it their hope and their project. European Christianity presents itself today with differentiated facets, and so does Europe. Catholicism, Orthodoxy, along with Protestantism – a product of the Reformation – with their diverse expressions, contributed to the establishment of the multifarious cultural richness of our continent. On the other hand, the various confessions, for too long viewed as opposing ways of Salvation, mutually excluding one other, implied a considerable potential of conflicts and divisions. But if Christianity, with its numerous manifestations and tensions, marked by wrong paths and divisions, is considered co-responsible of Europe’s divisions, then the extent to which Christianity has always been exploited by political leadership, falling victim of territorial, hegemonic and social divisions, should not be overlooked. In a complex way, in the history of Christianity is reflected the destiny of Europe. Even the Enlightenment, which under many angles questioned ecclesiastic traditions and doctrines, could only flourish on Christian grounds. For this reason the claim that Christianity – exception made for Orthodoxy – has internalized the Enlightenment in its proclamation and in particular within its very own social doctrine, it is not contradictory. On the other hand, it can be said that even atheistic humanism, born of the Enlightenment, cannot deny its Christian roots, even when marked by evident anticlerical and antireligious stands. Despite numerous attempts at erasing the forming role of Christianity, its contribution to Europe remains, perceivable across European nations and cultures. European populations’ cultural consensus, made possible by Christianity, has been a fundamental prerequisite of the astonishing success of the European unification process of the past decades. Such consensus is not obvious, it must be healed and recreated, over and over again. It is the condition sine qua non for European cohesion, which encompasses the future developments of the European Union.