"Nowadays, Europe which is just out of a century that was deeply wounded by two world wars and after the collapse of the great ideologies, which turned out to be tragic utopias is in search of its own identity", commented the Pope, who thinks that, "to create a new, lasting unity, political, economic and legal instruments are no doubt important, but an ethical and spiritual renewal must also be awakened, taking inspiration from the Christian roots of the Continent". "Without this lifeblood warned Benedict XVI , man remains exposed to the danger of giving in to the ancient temptation to be wanting to redeem himself a utopia that, in XX-century Europe, has caused, as noticed by Pope John Paul II, an unprecedented regression in the troubled history of mankind". "The father of western monasticism", began Benedict XVI in the catechesis of the audience, Saint Benedict of Norcia "had a fundamental influence on the development of the European civilisation and culture". As Saint Gregory the Great wrote in his "Dialogues", Saint Benedict was "a concrete man" who illustrated that "the rise to the peaks of contemplation can be accomplished by those who completely surrender to God".
