Italian cardinal: refugee crisis is opportunity for Europe to rediscover its soul

March 28, 2016

The “immense joy” of the Resurrection is mingled with the “inexpressible pain” of 60 million migrants and refugees, an Italian cardinal said in an article published on the front page of L’Osservatore Romano on Easter Sunday.

Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti of Perugia – Città della Pieve, who wrote the meditations used during the Way of the Cross in the Colosseum on Good Friday, recalled the example of Giorgio La Pira (1904-77), a mayor of Florence and Dominican tertiary known for his strong commitment to those in need.

Recalling La Pira’s statement that the “the pains and joys of man are pains and joys of Christ,” Cardinal Bassetti said that refugee camps, with their often hellish conditions, challenge a Europe beset by an “endless economic crisis and a profound crisis of values” to return to its roots and “rediscover its soul,” as Blessed Paul VI, St. John Paul II, and Pope Benedict XVI invited the continent to do.

 

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Further information:

• Un’occasione irripetibile per passare dalle parole ai fatti (L’Osservatore Romano, p. 1)