What dignity can a person ever hope to find when he or she lacks food and the bare essentials
for survival and, worse yet, when they lack the work which confers dignity?
The great ideas which once inspired Europe seem to have lost their attraction, only to
be replaced by the bureaucratic technicalities of its institutions. Together with this, 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.
Here I cannot fail to recall the many instances of injustice and persecution which daily afflict
religious minorities, and Christians in particular, in various parts of our world. Communities
and individuals today find themselves subjected to barbaric acts of violence: they are evicted
from their homes and native lands, sold as slaves, killed, beheaded, crucified or burned
alive, under the shameful and complicit silence of so many.
Keeping democracies alive is a challenge in the present historic moment. The true strength
of our democracies – understood as expressions of the political will of the people – must
not be allowed to collapse under the pressure of multinational interests which are not universal,
which weaken them and turn them into uniform systems of economic power at the service of
unseen empires. This is one of the challenges which history sets before you today.
It is intolerable that millions of people around the world are dying of hunger while
tons of food are discarded each day from our tables.
The time has come to promote policies which create employment, it is a need to restore dignity
to labour by but above all there ensuring proper working conditions.
There needs to be a united response to the question of migration. We cannot allow the
Mediterranean to become a vast cemetery!
Dear Members of the European Parliament, the time has come to work together in building
a Europe which revolves not around the economy, but around the sacredness of the human person,
around inalienable values.
A Europe which cares for, defends and protects man, every man and woman. A Europe which bestrides
the earth surely and securely, a precious point of reference for all humanity! Thank you