"In the friendly message of hope and encouragement that Pope Francis addressed today to Europe I found, with renewed gratitude, some themes of the speech that the bishop of Rome addressed to our community during his visit last 15 June. Even then, the pope addressed to a 'tired' 'aged' Europe, and urged people to rediscover their roots to rejuvenate fighting the 'culture of waste' and revitalising its most hidden energies, including the young, the elderly, migrants". In these terms president of the Community of Sant'Egidio Marco Impagliazzo commented on the two speeches delivered today by Pope Francis during a visit to Strasbourg to the European Parliament and the Council of Europe.
"Today the pope knows that he addresses to a Europe that is still hurt, tired and pessimistic - continued Impagliazzo -; but he invites it to not give up, indicating in the recovery of their original values the way to come back and play a key role in a globalised world, which risks losing its ideals in the face to the prevalence of bureaucratic technicalities, pressure of financial power, deafness in front of the emergencies of the moment: peace, a good to achieve constantly, the safeguarding of human rights, the protection of the dignity of the person and of work, terrorism of religious origin, trafficking in human beings, migration. With the denunciation of the 'globalisation of indifference' and with the appeal to a responsible freedom that keeps alive the democracy of the European peoples basing it on the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity, we return to the origins of the teaching of Francis. I remember that the denunciation of the globalisation of indifference was launched for the first time by Pope Francis on 8 July 2013 in front of the victims of the sinking of Lampedusa: a wound that still bleeds in the conscience of Europe".
"Let us make our own - concluded Impagliazzo - the pope's appeal to avoid that the Mediterranean becomes a large cemetery; let us ask Europe to schedule a generous and responsible welcome, to implement all its energies to ensure that the legitimate protection of its citizens does not affect the duty of hospitality for those fleeing from conflict, from poverty, from hunger. Already today the Europe of rights is the only continent without the death penalty: a positive example. Europe will be able to help in giving hope to the future by continuing on this path and being itself again". |