The primacy of God, community life, reconciliation and the choice "freely" made to live in chastity, poverty and obedience. These values are the "wealth of religious life". From now on, they mean to become "an answer to the challenges of Europe". The message that the religious men and women of the continent sent out yesterday, at the end of the XII meeting of the Union of the European Conferences of the Major Superiors (Ucesm), held in Fatima, Portugal, from February 6th to 12th about "Religious life today: our spiritual life before the European challenges", is a promise of commitment. Ucesm brings together major superiors of religious institutes from all over Europe, accounting for approximately 395 thousand religious men and women. "Europe reads the message is facing a multitude of challenges that raise hope and creativity as well as fear, withdrawal and mistrust. These challenges are calling us in. They are also our challenges", for the "most essential and precious" ones reveal: "Life and its meaning, the dignity of every human being, justice and peace". The message begins by recalling "the primacy of God", chosen by the religious in their lives, and adds: "The experience of praying and contemplation makes us witnesses, who know how to offer faith in a world searching for meaning, often hopeless and uncertain about the future". The appeal to reconciliation is powerful: "We become the witnesses of a forgiving that can heal the wounds inside us, between us and between the peoples that suffer under the weight of history and societies scarred by violence".
