✣ Pope offers ‘dream’ to struggling Europe
What happened? Receiving the Charlemagne Prize, an award for promoting “west European understanding”, last Friday, Pope Francis spoke of his dream for Europe, praising those who laid the “foundations for a bastion of peace, an edifice made up of states united not by force but by free commitment to the common good”. But he said: “Their new and exciting desire to create unity seems to be fading.” He criticised “the heirs of their dream [who] are tempted to yield to our own selfish interests”. What the British media are saying The secular press generally focused on the Pope’s criticisms of Europe. The Guardian headlined its story “Pope Francis castigates Europe in speech on solidarity”, saying: “Europe is struggling to live up to the vision of its founders, Pope Francis has said in a powerful speech that asked: ‘What has happened to you, the Europe of humanism, the champion of human rights, democracy and freedom?’” Under the headline “Pope Francis rebukes Europe: being a migrant is not a crime”, the Huffington Post began: “Pope Francis on Friday lamented a Europe he said had grown ‘weary’ and ‘entrenched’, and urged the continent not to see migrants as criminals.” The Europe edition of the political website Politico took a different political angle: “Pope’s Europe speech a boost to anti-Brexit campaign”. What the vaticanisti are saying Many websites drew comparisons with Martin Luther King’s famous speech: cruxnow.com headlined their story: “Pope Francis tells Europe, ‘I have a dream’ ”. The website’s John Allen noted a difference in approach between Francis and his predecessors. In Pope Benedict’s view, Europe was riven by secularism, and the Church needed to be a “creative minority” – a phrase which many interpreted as “a call ... to see themselves as an embattled subculture”. But for Francis, Catholics should be “agents of encounter and integration”, putting their beliefs into practice wherever they are most needed. The National Catholic Register emphasised the Pope’s plea for “a culture in which ‘getting married and having children is a responsibility and a great joy’”.
