Last Tuesday, Pope Francis paid a four-hour visit to Strasbourg where he delivered two major speeches to the European Parliament and the Council of Europe assembly. The following quotes from his speech to the European Parliament.
Individual rights and the common good
“Today there is a tendency to claim ever broader individual rights; underlying this is a conception of the human person as detached from all social and anthropological contexts… As a result, the rights of the individual are upheld, without regard for the fact that each human being is part of a social context wherein his or her rights and duties are bound up with those of others and with the common good of society itself.
“It is vital to develop a culture of human rights which wisely links the individual, or better, the personal aspect, to that of the common good, of the ‘all of us’ made up of individuals, families and intermediate groups who together constitute society.
“Unless the rights of each individual are harmoniously ordered to the greater good, those rights will end up being considered limitless, and consequently will become a source of conflicts and violence.”
Cogs in a machine
“We encounter certain rather selfish lifestyles, marked by an opulence which is no longer sustainable and frequently indifferent to the world around us, and especially to the poorest of the poor. To our dismay we see technical and economic questions dominating political debate, to the detriment of genuine concern for human beings.
“Men and women risk being reduced to mere cogs in a machine that treats them as items of consumption to be exploited, with the result that – as is so tragically apparent – whenever a human life no longer proves useful for that machine, it is discarded with few qualms, as in the case of the terminally ill, the elderly who are abandoned and uncared for, and children who are killed in the womb.
“This is the great mistake made when technology is allowed to take over; the result is a confusion between ends and means.”
The transcendent dimension of life
“A Europe which is no longer open to the transcendent dimension of life risks losing its soul and that ‘humanistic spirit’ which it still loves and defends. I reaffirm the centrality of the human person, which otherwise is at the mercy of the whims and the powers of the moment. I consider to be fundamental not only the legacy that Christianity has offered in the past to the social and cultural formation of the continent, but above all the contribution which it desires to offer today, and in the future, to Europe’s growth. To give Europe hope means implies nurturing the gifts of each man and woman. It means investing in individuals and in those settings in which their talents are shaped and flourish.”
Europe and Christianity
“A 2,000-year history links Europe and Christianity. It is a history not free of conflicts and errors, but one constantly driven by the desire to work for the good of all. We see this in the beauty of our cities, and even more in the beauty of the many works of charity and constructive cooperation throughout this continent. This history is our present and future. It is our identity. Europe urgently needs to recover its true features in order to grow, as its founders intended, in peace and harmony, since it is not yet free of conflicts.
“The time has come to work together in building a Europe which revolves not around the economy, but around the sacredness of the person, around inalienable values.”
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)