Revitalize a community of memory and progress. The Pope Francis in the European Parliament

Abstract

Based on the recent visit of the Pope Francis to the European Parliament (November 2014), the editorial proposes an exercise in historical memory about European construction, which contrasts with pessimism about the current state of democratic deformation (there is not only the democratic deficit of the EU institutions, they suffer a deeper deficit of legitimacy of the same) and competitiveness in a global context dominated by the “culture of discarding” so contrary to the social cohesion, able to integrate the binomial competitiveness / social justice, a central feature of the process of European construction. Certainly in the mind and the word of Francis in the Strasbourg Parliament all is not reduced to such integration, but to another that it retains essential, expressed by the transcendent dignity that permeates all originating European traditions. But the future of the European Union passes no doubt maintain and further superior exactingly in social market economy system and the guarantee of fundamental rights. The editorial, therefore part of the interpellation of the Pope in Strasbourg (paragraphs 1 and 2) to propose two essential axes of European integration (paragraphs 3 and 4). From both perspectives, the ethical view and the political proposal, European citizenship can regain their trust in this project.