"We risk a clash of civilisations in the name of a religious identity that is used as a weapon". This cry of alarm was given by the President of the Senate, Marcello Pera, as he spoke today at the opening ceremony for the European University of Rome. Such values as "freedom, tolerance, respect of others", according to Pera’s central assumption, are not general "humane values", but "Christian values", as proven by "the history" of our Continent: hence the pressing need to "defend conquests that apply to everyone, at all latitudes", just like the Pope asked to do yesterday in his speech to the Diplomatic Corps. "In Europe, are we politically and culturally equipped for this job?", this is the question raised by the President of the Senate, for whom "these values cannot be defended unless we are aware of the value and the role of Christian civilisation and determined to defend and promote its values by mentioning their roots", otherwise we risk that these values might "drown" "in an intimidated, often insincere and sometimes hypocritical Europe, which hides its weaknesses of today under cover of the conquests of the past centuries". While going over the speech given yesterday by Benedict XVI, Pera lingered over "mutual respect" and "reciprocity" in religious freedom which the Pope asked for: "If religious freedom is one of man’s fundamental rights and the first criterion to define the freedom of a state commented the President of the Senate it must be respected by all nationas, at all latitudies, on mutual terms".
