Europe "will be for everyone a pleasantly liveable place only if it is built on a firm cultural and moral foundation of common values that we draw from our history and our traditions": this is why "Europe cannot and must not disavow its Christian roots", which "are a dynamic component of our civilisation for its journey through the third millennium". This was said today by the Pope, who, on the first day of his seventh apostolic journey outside Italy, in his speech at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, in front of the president of Austria, government members and delegates of the diplomatic corps, lingered on the bond between Austria, a model of "exemplary social cohabitation", and today’s Europe, which "after the horrors of the war and the traumatic experiences of totalitarianism and dictatorship, has set out on the way to the unity of the Continent". "The division that for years has painfully split the Continent has been politically overcome, of course comments Benedict XVI , but unity is still largely to be accomplished in people’s minds and hearts". Despite this, the "process of unification" is "a far ranging work" which has given "peace" to Europe, partly through the "contribution" of John Paul II.
