European Editorial: The Crisis and the Future

(Vatican Radio) Europe faces the New Year with a series of problems that pose no easy solutions. Poverty, first and foremost – a problem that involves around 120 million people in Europe alone (that’s one European citizen in four) – followed by unemployment, with all its devastating social side effects. Over 26 million jobs have been lost since 2008 and in some European countries 50% of young people are without work. The number of homeless people is growing along with those pushed to the margins of society. And the family, the last safe haven in these troubled times, is under attack like never before. Still, a new economic and social model is possible – as Vatican Radio journalist, Salvatore Sabatino, suggests in the following editorial.

“I am Europe. We are Europe”. More than a slogan, this was once a declaration of solidarity, a commitment to share common ideas and ideals. Now it risks being swept away by a crisis which is destroying the very founding principles of Europe. It is the crisis that is dictating the current agenda, not the principle of union and unity. “Crisis” is the word most frequently mentioned by the people of Europe and by its highest Institutions. Because this crisis is not just a concept, it’s a reality that affects the daily lives of over 500 million European citizens. It’s not as though Europe hasn’t reacted, albeit slowly: it has sent its finest forces onto the field and created a series of defences – even if these have tended to be limited mostly to the sphere of financial protection. Those who suffer are the ordinary people who have to face the frightening social consequences of the crisis. The result is a lack of equity: the economic crisis has developed into a crisis of trust, one that risks dividing Institutions and citizens. The even greater danger is that the entire European social system, a model for the rest of the world, might collapse. Whatever happened to fundamental rights? What happened to solidarity? What will happen to Europe? Analysts seem to be concentrating almost exclusively on economic data: 2013 is supposed to be the year of transition . . . 2014 will mark the beginning of growth. On the other hand, microcredit projects are multiplying, aimed at financing small-size business initiatives from the base up, and barter systems are being implemented to guarantee the exchange of basic foodstuffs. This is happening in Greece and in Spain, Slovakia and Italy, and has even begun in France. It’s an economic model that has the support of the European Bishops Conferences insofar as it offers some kind of protection to the most vulnerable and needy members of society. After all, this crisis is also ethical-cultural and, therefore, anthropological. These are the words of the Council of European Bishops Conferences which claims that we cannot dialogue with the world by facing problems only: we have to face the cultural causes of these problems as well. Any intervention has its roots in solidarity – roots that entwine with other roots, the Christian roots that a distracted Europe has failed to cultivate. Benedict XVI’s encyclical, “Caritas in Veritate”, provides such excellent guidelines. The scope of his message goes way beyond our limited gaze, stressing how Truth must be sought out, found and expressed in an economy of charity…and how charity itself must be understood, valued and practiced in the light of Truth. Europe could use this idea to start again – at which point we could all repeat, with conviction: “I am Europe. We are Europe”.