Posts From Edoardo Zin
EN | IT – On 25th March the heads of state and government of all EU member states are meeting in Rome to commemorate the sixty years since the signing of the Treaties of Rome. The top leaders of the European institutions will be present as well. Men and women, representatives of European movements, youth and seniors will join them and march through the streets of Rome to push their representatives to be bolder in pursuing the path towards the political unity of Europe.
EN | IT – “Europe is not a superstate nor a sophisticated technocracy, but a coexistence of diversities, able to make them work together and integrate them within the horizon of the meaning of a personalistic humanism”: it was reaffirmed by Cardinal Angelo Scola, Archbishop of Milan, on December 7th on the occasion of St Ambrogio’s celebrations. The words seem to echo Robert Schuman’s ones, who dedicated his life to the construction of Europe.
EN | IT – May 9th the “Europe Day” will be celebrated throughout Europe. This date was chosen because the historians let from this day start the process of European integration that should lead to the political unity of Europe.
EN | IT – Today, Europe is in search of its soul. There is no gap that cannot be filled. To all those whom God loves, to those who believe to be non-believers, to the Christians is the great task of bringing to fruition what Adenauer, De Gasperi and Schuman began.
EN | IT – The cold wind which has blown undaunted from the north of Europe these days has perhaps caused fierce damages to the process of European integration. Europe, grappling with a severe economic crisis, tired and depressed, decadent because launched to a merciless old age caused by population decline, drunk with his recent technological progress, which has caused corruption, crime, moral libertinism in addition to well-being, has found scapegoats in Islam, identified only with terrorism.
EN | IT | FR – Citizens are outraged when the supranational dynamic is asphyxiated by the intergovernmental approach. Citizens are offended when they are considered only consumers of economic recipes and not actors of the integration process. Citizens feel betrayed by the lack of greater boldness, strong ideals, of durable foresight to bring back hope in a politically united Europe. To this resignation Europeans must react with new ideas and broad visions. We all feel the need for an awakening of latent energies especially among young people.
EN | IT – The impression recently felt by the thinking world after listening to Pope Francis’ speech at the European Parliament on November 23rd is still very vivid. Pope Francis’ urging, in Strasbourg, was to “have faith in the human being”, to “take care of fragility”, to “preserve memory and identity”, and “open up to the transcendent dimension of history”, “not to lose our souls”, to “keep democracy alive”, and “acknowledge the centrality of the human being” by means of the educational work of families and schools.
EN | IT – Fifty years ago, from Montecassino, Paul VI called “all men of good will” to recompose the “absolute beauty… broken through a maze of historical events” through the book to bring back a taste for knowledge, through the plough to inspire in men “loving care of order and justice that forms the foundation of true society”, and through the Cross, through Faith, to give “consistency and growth to the ordering of public and private life”.
Europe is longing for life, yet it is tired, empty. It is half-expectant, half-disconsolately resigned. To recover from such depression, our continent needs to find, again, the meaning of being together, the value of time, of silence, of listening, of working and of accepting, as Benedict used to teach.
EN | IT | FR – While today in Europe Ukraine risks to be attacked and in the Middle East blow strong winds of war, while tens of thousands of refugees land on the southern border of the continent in order to seek refuge, while skepticism invades the hearts of many Europeans, while the minds of many politicians are obstructed by arrogance and distrust, while institutions are blocked by the parasitism of the techno-bureaucracy, we need to resume the heroism of things possible, of dynamic hope and work for peace.
EN | IT | FR – The new Parliament, elected on May this year, is preparing to face the great cultural, social, economic and political challenges. The responses coming from the hemicycle will determine the future of the European Union. Edward Zin, vice-president of the Saint-Benoît Institute (www.robert-schuman.com) which promoted the cause for the beatification of Robert Schuman, now in its ‘Vatican’ stage, wrote this “Decalogue of the MEP.” A commitment to Europe articulated in ten commandments.
