Pope: Man at centre of European project
(Vatican Radio) In his address to European leaders, Pope
Francis spoke about embracing the past, but also looking to the future with
hope.
Referring to the 60th anniversary of the Rome Treaties – the
occasion for the meeting – Pope Francis said “Returning to Rome, sixty years
later, must not simply be a remembrance of things past, but the expression of a
desire to relive that event in order to appreciate its significance for the
present.” He said, “We cannot understand our own times apart from the past,
seen not as an assemblage of distant facts, but as the lymph that gives life to
the present.”
Calling attention to the founding fathers of the European
project, whom he quoted repeatedly, the Pope said Europe is not “a
conglomeration of rules to obey” but “a way of life, a way of understanding man
based on his transcendent and inalienable dignity.” And so, he said, it was
clear from the outset “that the heart of the European political project could
only be man himself.” But this outlook, he continued, depends on solidarity.
Turning to a vision of the future, Pope Francis notes that
Europe today faces many crises – crises of the economy, the family, a crisis of
institutions, the migration crisis.
The answers to these crises, the Pope said, “are to be found
precisely in the pillars on which they determined to build the European
economic community”: “the centrality of man, effective solidarity, openness to
the world, the pursuit of peace and development, openness to the future.”
Concluding his remarks, Pope Francis said the European
Union, at 60, “is called today to examine itself, to care for the ailments that
inevitably come with age, and to find new ways to steer its course.” The
success of the European Union, he said, “will depend on its readiness to work
together once again, and by its willingness to wager on the future.” And he
called on Europe’s leaders “to blaze the path of a ‘new European humanism’ made
up of ideals and concrete actions.”
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