Vatican City, 25 November 2014 (VIS) –
At midday the Holy Father proceeded by car to the seat of the Council
of Europe, where he met the authorities, including the secretary
general Thorbjørn Jagland, who accompanied him to the lobby of the
Committee of Ministers. This was followed by an exchange of gifts,
after which they entered the Great Hall where, following greetings
and the opening discourse by the secretary general, the Pontiff
addressed those present, thanking them for their invitation and for
their “work and contribution to peace in Europe through the
promotion of democracy, human rights and the rule of law”.
He continued, “This year the Council
of Europe celebrates its sixty-fifth anniversary. It was the
intention of its founders that the Council would respond to a
yearning for unity which, from antiquity, has characterised the life
of the continent. Frequently, however, in the course of the
centuries, the pretension to power has led to the dominance of
particularist movements. … The dream of the founders was to rebuild
Europe in a spirit of mutual service which today too, in a world more
prone to make demands than to serve, must be the cornerstone of the
Council of Europe’s mission on behalf of peace, freedom and human
dignity”.
On the other hand, the road to peace,
and avoiding a repetition of what occurred in the two World Wars of
the last century, “is to see others not as enemies to be opposed
but as brothers and sisters to be embraced. This entails an ongoing
process which may never be considered fully completed. This is
precisely what the founders grasped. They understood that peace was a
good which must continually be attained, one which calls for constant
vigilance. … Consequently, the founders voiced their desire to
advance slowly but surely with the passage of time. That is why the
founders established this body as a permanent institution. Pope Paul
VI, several years later, observed that 'the institutions which in the
juridical order and in international society have the task and merit
of proclaiming and preserving peace, will attain their lofty goal
only if they remain continually active, if they are capable of
creating peace, making peace, at every moment'. What is called for is
a constant work of humanisation, for 'it is not enough to contain
wars, to suspend conflicts ... An imposed peace, a utilitarian and
provisional peace, is not enough. Progress must be made towards a
peace which is loved, free and fraternal, founded, that is, on a
reconciliation of hearts'”.
Achieving the good of peace first calls
for education in peace, “banishing a culture of conflict aimed at
fear of others, marginalising those who think or live differently …
Tragically, peace continues all too often to be violated. This is the
case in so many parts of the world where conflicts of various sorts
continue to rage. It is also the case here in Europe, where tensions
persist”, he said. “Yet peace is also put to the test by other
forms of conflict, such as religious and international terrorism,
which displays deep disdain for human life and indiscriminately reaps
innocent victims. This phenomenon is unfortunately bankrolled by a
frequently unchecked traffic in weapons. The Church is convinced that
'the arms race is one of the greatest curses on the human race and
the harm it inflicts on the poor is more than can be endured'. Peace
is also violated by trafficking in human beings, the new slavery of
our age, which turns persons into merchandise for trade and deprives
its victims of all dignity. Not infrequently we see how
interconnected these phenomena are. The Council of Europe, through
its Committees and Expert Groups, has an important and significant
role to play in combating these forms of inhumanity. … Peace is not
merely the absence of war, conflicts and tensions. In the Christian
vision, peace is at once a gift of God and the fruit of free and
reasonable human acts aimed at pursuing the common good in truth and
love”.
“The path chosen by the Council of
Europe is above all that of promoting human rights, together with the
growth of democracy and the rule of law. This is a particularly
valuable undertaking, with significant ethical and social
implications, since the development of our societies and their
peaceful future coexistence depends on a correct understanding of
these terms and constant reflection on them. … In your presence
today, then, I feel obliged to stress the importance of Europe’s
continuing responsibility to contribute to the cultural development
of humanity.
“Throughout its history, Europe has
always reached for the heights, aiming at new and ambitious goals,
driven by an insatiable thirst for knowledge, development, progress,
peace and unity. … But in order to progress towards the future we
need the past, we need profound roots. We also need the courage not
to flee from the present and its challenges. We need memory,
courage, a sound and humane utopian vision. … Truth appeals to
conscience, which cannot be reduced to a form of conditioning.
Conscience is capable of recognising its own dignity and being open
to the absolute; it thus gives rise to fundamental decisions guided
by the pursuit of the good, for others and for one’s self; it is
itself the locus of responsible freedom. … It also needs to be kept
in mind that apart from the pursuit of truth, each individual becomes
the criterion for measuring himself and his own actions. The way is
thus opened to a subjectivistic assertion of rights, so that the
concept of human rights, which has an intrinsically universal import,
is replaced by an individualistic conception of rights”.
“This kind of individualism leads to
human impoverishment and cultural aridity, since it effectively cuts
off the nourishing roots on which the tree grows. Indifferent
individualism leads to the cult of opulence reflected in the
throwaway culture all around us. … And so today we are presented
with the image of a Europe which is hurt, not only by its many past
ordeals, but also by present-day crises which it no longer seems
capable of facing with its former vitality and energy; a Europe which
is a bit tired and pessimistic, besieged by events and winds of
change coming from other continents. … Europe should reflect on
whether its immense human, artistic, technical, social, political,
economic and religious patrimony is simply an artefact of the past,
or whether it is still capable of inspiring culture and displaying
its treasures to mankind as a whole. In providing an answer to this
question, the Council of Europe with its institutions has a role of
primary importance”.
“The history of Europe might lead us
to think somewhat naively of the continent as bipolar, or at most
tripolar … and thus to interpret the present and to look to the
future on the basis of this schema, which is a simplification born of
pretentions to power. But this is not the case today, and we can
legitimately speak of a 'multipolar' Europe. Its tensions – whether
constructive or divisive – are situated between multiple cultural,
religious and political poles. Europe today confronts the challenge
of creatively 'globalising' this multipolarity” which calls for
“striving to create a constructive harmony, one free of those
pretensions to power which, while appearing from a pragmatic
standpoint to make things easier, end up destroying the cultural and
religious distinctiveness of peoples”.
To speak of European multipolarity is
to speak of peoples which are born, grow and look to the future. The
task of globalising Europe’s multipolarity cannot be conceived by
appealing to the image of a sphere – in which all is equal and
ordered, but proves reductive inasmuch as every point is equidistant
from the centre – but rather, by the image of a polyhedron, in
which the harmonic unity of the whole preserves the particularity of
each of the parts”.
“The second challenge which I would
like to mention is transversality. … Were we to define the
continent today, we should speak of a Europe in dialogue, one which
puts a transversality of opinions and reflections at the service of a
harmonious union of peoples. To embark upon this path of transversal
communication requires not only generational empathy, but also an
historic methodology of growth. In Europe’s present political
situation, merely internal dialogue between the organisations
(whether political, religious or cultural) to which one belongs, ends
up being unproductive. Our times demand the ability to break out of
the structures which 'contain' our identity and to encounter others,
for the sake of making that identity more solid and fruitful in the
fraternal exchange of transversality. A Europe which can only
dialogue with limited groups stops halfway; it needs that youthful
spirit which can rise to the challenge of transversality”.
“In the light of all this, I am
gratified by the Council of Europe's desire to invest in
intercultural dialogue, including its religious dimension, through
the Exchanges on the religious dimension of intercultural dialogue.
Here is a valuable opportunity for open, respectful and enriching
exchange between persons and groups of different origins and ethnic,
linguistic and religious traditions, in a spirit of understanding and
mutual respect”.
“This way of thinking also casts
light on the contribution which Christianity can offer to the
cultural and social development of Europe today within the context of
a correct relationship between religion and society. … European
society as a whole cannot fail to benefit from a renewed interplay
between these two sectors, whether to confront a form of religious
fundamentalism which is above all inimical to God, or to remedy a
reductive rationality which does no honour to man. There are in fact
a number of pressing issues which I am convinced can lead to mutual
enrichment, issues on which the Catholic Church – particularly
through the Council of Episcopal Conferences of Europe (CCEE) – can
cooperate with the Council of Europe and offer an essential
contribution”.
“Similarly, the contemporary world
offers a number of other challenges requiring careful study and a
common commitment, beginning with the welcoming of migrants. … Then
too, there is the grave problem of work. … It is my profound hope
that the foundations will be laid for a new social and economic
cooperation, free of ideological pressures, capable of confronting a
globalised world while at the same time encouraging that sense of
solidarity and mutual charity which has been a distinctive feature of
Europe, thanks to the generous efforts of hundreds of men and women –
some of whom the Catholic Church considers saints – who over the
centuries have worked to develop the continent, both by
entrepreneurial activity and by works of education, welfare, and
human development. These works, above all, represent an important
point of reference for the many poor people living in Europe. How
many of them there are in our streets! They ask not only for the food
they need for survival, which is the most elementary of rights, but
also for a renewed appreciation of the value of their own life, which
poverty obscures, and a rediscovery of the dignity conferred by
work”.
“Finally, among the issues calling
for our reflection and our cooperation is the defence of the
environment, of this beloved planet earth. It is the greatest
resource which God has given us and is at our disposal not to be
disfigured, exploited, and degraded, but so that, in the enjoyment of
its boundless beauty, we can live in this world with dignity”.
“Pope Paul VI called the Church an
'expert in humanity'. In this world, following the example of Christ
and despite the sins of her sons and daughters, the Church seeks
nothing other than to serve and to bear witness to the truth. This
spirit alone guides us in supporting the progress of humanity. In
this spirit, the Holy See intends to continue its cooperation with
the Council of Europe, which today plays a fundamental role in
shaping the mentality of future generations of Europeans. This calls
for mutual engagement in a far-ranging reflection aimed at creating a
sort of new agora, in which all civic and religious groups can enter
into free exchange, while respecting the separation of sectors and
the diversity of positions, an exchange inspired purely by the desire
of truth and the advancement of the common good. For culture is
always born of reciprocal encounter which seeks to stimulate the
intellectual riches and creativity of those who take part in it; this
is not only a good in itself, it is also something beautiful. My hope
is that Europe, by rediscovering the legacy of its history and the
depth of its roots, and by embracing its lively multipolarity and the
phenomenon of a transversality in dialogue, will rediscover that
youthfulness of spirit which has made this continent fruitful and
great”.
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