So close and yet so far. It could be the title of a song to dedicate to Europe and the Europeans. My generation has lived the 'Europe of the Identity Card as a document sufficient to cross the borders of neighboring states with Italy, my country. Of course I speak of the European countries belonging to the Western bloc. Then, the collapse of the Berlin Wall, which ended with a period that implicitly reminded of the tragedy: that strange idea of Europe which started out in the ‘30s. The Europe of Hitler and Mussolini, a Roman and Gothic Europe, served by peoples of slaves.
That was 'the eclipse of reason', and the resurrection of gods and demons, escaped from the pages of the Norse sagas, to become panzers and fighter planes, and everything under the astonished eyes of Europeans stunned - to the point of thinking that the motto 'Gott mit Uns', could have referred to an unprecedented and timely version of the Christian God, rather than the incarnation of Odin, or worse, Loki.
The pagan dream soon became a nightmare even for Germans and Italians. For the rest of the Europeans, except for minority groups collaborationist, it never had been such, but the door to hell opened in the heart of Europe, devoured in the fire of the Holocaust, millions of people that would never have existed.
However, the history of Europe, although compromised with old and new horrors, did not fail to express ethical and spiritual values to inspire the cultural and political action. Of course, whatever the dream, at the base was the idea of political unity without which nothing makes sense. And unity is realized on the basis of common roots, as also of shared economic interests. After the fade of totalitarianism nightmare, Europe has gradually reached a collective consciousness, which subsequently became law, resolutely inspired by the human rights. We will not mention all the stages of this historical political journey, will therefore be sufficient to remember: The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, drafted by the European Convention, solemnly proclaimed on 7 December 2000 by the European Parliament, the Council of Ministers and the European Commission (full legal effect :Treaty of Lisbon, on 1 December 2009). This premise allows us to configure the results of the May elections according to an interpretation which takes into account the difficulties of European history, and together with its roots, which have always been the subject of controversy. But, to come to the results of the recent elections, we focus on data for the two major parties:
· EPP Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) Result: 221 MEPs Result as percentage: 29.43 % · S&D Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament Result: 189 MEPs Result as percentage: 25.17 % The interesting fact that emerges is the constant dialectic between the catholic-christian culture and the secular left. A separate merit the electoral success of far right parties in France, Greece, and to some extent Denmark. But, in this article we want to talk about what Europe has emerged relevant and majoritarian: what is important, in my opinion, is the secular-Catholic polarization. From the Renaissance onwards, it is no longer possible to speak, as the Catholic hierarchy are doing, of undeniable Christian roots of Europe. Our continent, in fact, has no roots unique. Renaissance, illuminism, positivism, rationalism, materialism, romanticism, idealism, have heavily influenced the European culture, creating epochal changes. The perennial nature of Europe is well described in Chapter 2 of the book of Daniel. «Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay». (Dan. 2:41-3) The radicalism of biblical prophecy identifies two materials which in no way can be melted together. Nevertheless, the geopolitical realities found in the feet of the statue, coexists so much to strike the imagination of the prophet himself. The prophecy was to take photographs of a situation, without going into analysis and solutions. The iron and clay, are, if taken by itself, useful and noble materials and. The problem is their combination. The criticism, perhaps, is inherent in the fact that, the manufacturers, are determined not to see the incompatibility of the materials chosen for the construction. At this point, a series of questions will require: · The combination of materials is inevitably a bad thing? Corollary to the previous question: · Were not they also problematic, in their nature, even the previous kingdoms, despite their homogeneity and formal unity? The answer to the first question is: “not necessarily”. But, immediately intervenes the biblical text to define "strength" and "weakness", the situation that has arisen, then problamatic. The answer to the second question is easier. The different metals define empires that, overall, were powerful, but also fiercely hostile to the people of God, at least for what concerns the principles that inspired them. It is obvious that those empires embody the power of man, made in itself, and independent of God's plan, which may or may not interact with them. For that strange last empire, which according to the Adventist interpretation, is Europe, the question becomes more interesting. Bible prophecy is, now, full of expectations. This last empire, influenced by Christianity, as well as by other schools of thought, could have been different from the other empires. But it wasn’t, and, in fact it wasn’t an empire either! According to some historians of Christianity, the problem was the mingling of Christianity and the secular power. We agree with that. Undrinkable cocktail Europe, is a contradictory fate to unity and division at the same time. The European elections of 2014, posing for the umpteenth time, the debate between secularists and Christians, where someone is struggling to find its proper place. Perhaps, this is one to be found right in the ranks of Christians. Once the church had its own territorial state, today the land is everywhere, wherever it is possible to influence the laws of the states through the argument of the “Christian roots”. To go down on practice: the issue of a single currency (Euro) for example. "The euro is a danger to democracy, it will be fatal for the poorest countries and devastate their economies " (Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of Great Britain) "With the euro, we will work one day earlier gaining as if we worked an extra day" (Romano Prodi, former Prime Minister of Italy) We needed a single currency, but it didn’t work. the two statements above, ironically are both founded. We needed something that didn’t work, but we can not come back, now. Iron and baked clay don’t melt together, but we try, we try again…