The Pope also mentioned that Croatia wishes to "join the European Union" to "cooperate, by joining the EU, to the good of all the inhabitants of the Continent". In this way, added Benedict XVI, "the country can come into contact with the other European peoples and give the contribution of its culture and traditions, in the shared quest for the full truth on man". According to the Holy Father, it is actually "essential that the building of the European common house be always based on the truth of man, laying therefore on the assertion of everyone’s right to life, from conception to natural death; the recognition of the spiritual component of the human being, in which his inalienable dignity is rooted; the respect of everyone’s religious choices, which testify of the irrepressible opening to the transcendent". In these values, highlighted the Pope, "one can find agreement even with those people who, although outside the Catholic Church, accept the voice of reason, sensitive to the dictates of the natural law". From this point of view, went on Benedict XVI, "you are committing yourselves along with your priests and your devotees", but we must not forget that "a journey, even to a good and desirable destination, is not free of the perils of today’s cultural currents such as secularisation and relativism". (to be continued)
