Pope Francis's address to the Heads of State of the European Union

  • Thread starter Thread starter RomanoAmerio
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Many thanks Romano, for the link!

I read this address yesterday, most enlightening. He does many important things in this talk. He encourages the EU leaders to return to the Christian ideals underpinning the thought of the original founders of United Europe when they signed the Treaty of Rome on 25 March 1957, which today’s anniversary commemorates.

He expertly identifies the crises facing the Union - lack of solidarity, lack of openness from some members of the Union to welcome refugees, the distance perceived between citizens and the institutions which is breeding populism - and suggests the appropriate pathways to address this, most importantly solidarity and a fresh vision on behalf of the youth of the continent.

My favourite paragraph:

w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2017/march/documents/papa-francesco_20170324_capi-unione-europea.html
"…**Forms of populism are instead the fruit of an egotism that hems people in and prevents them from overcoming and “looking beyond” their own narrow vision. There is a need to start thinking once again as Europeans, so as to avert the opposite dangers of a dreary uniformity or the triumph of particularisms.
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Politics needs this kind of leadership, which avoids appealing to emotions to gain consent, but instead, in a spirit of solidarity and subsidiarity, devises policies that can make the Union as a whole develop harmoniously. As a result, those who run faster can offer a hand to those who are slower, and those who find the going harder can aim at catching up to those at the head of the line…
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Europe has a patrimony of ideals and spiritual values unique in the world, one that deserves to be proposed once more with passion and renewed vigour, for it is the best antidote against the vacuum of values of our time, which provides a fertile terrain for every form of extremism. These are the ideals that shaped Europe, that “Peninsula of Asia” which stretches from the Urals to the Atlantic**…"
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