“It is urgent to rely on a common basis to become more effective in the construction of Europe. The history of the latest centuries showed us how serious the division sin was, also in relation to the tragedies tormenting our Continent”. It was said by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, while he welcomed the participants in the meeting which started today in Rome. It is the meeting of the delegates of Churches, Bishops’ conferences, communities and European ecumenical organizations, and it is the first stage towards the European Ecumenical Meeting in Sibiu (Romania), in 2007. “At the beginning of the new Millennium – stated the Cardinal, – we have to face numerous and difficult questions. I am thinking about the process of European unification, which is going through a deep crisis causing its slowdown, and forcing everybody to review the very concept of Europe by means of profound meditation. We have to ponder over the very foundations of the whole construction”. According to Ruini, the future of Europe was marked “in an irreversible way” by the “exchange of gifts between East and West, rendered possible by the tragic collapse of the wall dividing us”. In spite of that, “we still have to walk a long way on the path towards European unity”. That future “will be possible only if we are able to understand the deep roots of Europe, its culture and its Christian tradition, as well as its welcoming and harmonizing capacity”.
