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We receive from the Diocesan Presidency of Italian Catholic Action and publish: 70 years of peace and cooperation, between countries that have historically fought each other for centuries, represent a period of time that induces those who have not lived through the years of conflict to imagine brotherhood of the European peoples as a given and risk-free. However, the roar of cannons and the flow of women, children and men from neighboring Ukraine towards the European borders impress and light up the echoes of a past that has not yet finished knocking on our doors.
In this regard, the words of the president of AC Giuseppe Notarstefano, pronounced in St. Peter’s Square in Rome on 25 April, are emblematic: “Peace must return to being a fundamental social objective of contemporary democracies”.
These wishes have become an appeal signed together with the most important ecclesial associations, especially when the absurd carnage perpetrated in the Holy Land was added to the war in Ukraine and the many wars around the world: “We appeal to the political forces and to those who are running for the upcoming European elections to explicitly assume the responsibility of acting as an interlocutor for Peace, proposing without reservations the diplomatic and true political path. We cannot resign ourselves to the fact that war rhetoric and the non-culture of conflict invade our lives from personal relationships to social and political relationships. […] Today more than ever, politics is “the highest form of charity” if it pursues Peace”.
Added to this profoundly challenging scenario are the continuing economic and social difficulties, the undeniable environmental crisis, the unstoppable technological and digital transformations, the demographic crisis and massive migrations, the structural changes in the world of work and in production models.
A lot is expected from Europe especially since – in the past – it has been able to unite citizens around the highest values of equality, freedom, democracy, social, civil and human rights. These are the challenges brought by the electoral consultation for the renewal of the European Parliament, the only government institution of the Union directly elected by all its citizens. Yet despite the gaze of the European citizen being entirely focused on the politics of the Union, the most worrying fact is that which derives from the possibility of high abstentionism.
The distancing of Italian and European citizens from the polls, even before being a symptom of disappointment for the many betrayed expectations, is the increasingly widespread behavior of a habit of democratic life. Yet, especially in the case of the European Union, government structures produce notable instruments of direct participation which however often remain largely unknown, because the Union continues to be perceived as distant.
Public consultations promoted by the European Commission, the European citizens’ initiative, petitions to the European Parliament and complaints to the European Ombudsman are just some examples of the participatory methods referred to.
The Conference on the Future of Europe and citizens’ assemblies encourage participation in the decision-making process, demonstrating that our democracy can be strengthened by combining the work of elected representatives with the contribution of citizens and organized civil society.
We cannot therefore avoid inviting people to actively participate in the vote. The formation of the new European Parliament will depend on it and the general direction that will be given to the entire continent in the next five years will derive from its composition.
Furthermore, the great global challenges will influence the economic, social and cultural choices that the “Old Continent” will decide to make prevail to direct its internal management and relations with the rest of the world.
For our part, the experience of associative democracy, which holds together differences in age, position and sensitivity, continues and will continue to help people not to be afraid of complexity, but to experience it in its entirety, without ifs or buts ..
The different dimensions will be valued with the NOI.
Peace, which needs high and skilled architecture, also needs the local craftsmanship of being together.
As men and women of this time so complex, but also so rich in possibilities, we are called to exercise our co-responsibility for the foreseeable future. Because Europe, Peace, the exploitation of the planet’s resources, are also a personal responsibility, which none of us can ignore.
As believers we have the task of making space for others within us, working in the dimension of the network, of synergistic contacts, in sharing experiences, building ever wider and more solid alliances.
We have the obligation to look at and celebrate the European experiences which make meeting and sharing the characterizing feature of a broad community experience which must be increasingly tailored to the women and men of our time. Good mark!
