Distinguished Gentlemen!

On the occasion of these study days, dedicated to the "Common Christian Roots of the European Nations", you have wished for this audience, to meet with me.

As I extend my most heartfelt greetings to all of you personally, men of culture from Europe and the entire world who have come to Rome, I express my thanks to you, not only for this visit, which is so welcome to me, but also because you have chosen as the starting point and subject of your reflections ideas that I feel are intimately rooted in my spirit and which I have had the opportunity to express since the beginning of my pontificate (Speech of 22 October 1978) and then gradually, in the Homily in the Cathedral Square of Gniezno (3 June 1979), in the speech given in Czestochowa to the Polish Bishops (5 June 1979), during the visits to Subiaco, Montecassino, Norcia on the occasion of the 1550th anniversary of the birth of St Benedict, in the speech given at the UNESCO General Assembly (2 June 1980), and above all I manifested it openly and summarised it in the Apostolic Letter Egregiae virtutis (31 December 1980), with which I proclaimed Saints Cyril and Methodius patrons of Europe together with St Benedict.

Thank you for this sensitivity and attention to apostolic concerns, which characterise the life of the supreme Pastor of the Church who, in the name of Christ, also feels himself to be an affectionate and responsible Father of all humanity.

1. The cry that came spontaneously from my heart on that unforgettable day, on which for the first time in the history of the Church a Slav Pope, a son of the martyred and always glorious Poland, began his pontifical service, was nothing other than an echo of the yearning that drove St Cyril and Methodius to undertake their evangelising mission: "Open, open wide the doors to Christ! Do not be afraid to welcome Christ and accept his power ... To his saving power open the boundaries of states, economic systems as well as political ones, the vast fields of culture, civilisation, development. Do not be afraid. Allow Christ to speak to man. He alone has words of life.

You are familiar with the lives and events of the two saints: it is safe to say that their existence is presented in two essential aspects: an immense love for Christ and a threefold loyalty.

Their passionate and courageous love for Christ was manifested in their fidelity to the missionary and evangelising vocation, in their fidelity to the Roman See of the Pontiff and, finally, in their fidelity to the Slav peoples. They proclaimed truth, salvation, peace; they wanted peace! And so they respected the spiritual and cultural riches of each people, well convinced that the grace brought by Christ does not destroy, but uplifts and transforms nature. Because of this fidelity to the Gospel and to the local cultures, they invented a special alphabet to make it possible to transcribe the sacred books in the language of the Slav peoples, and so, against the recriminations of those who considered the three sacred languages, Hebrew, Greek and Latin, almost a dogma (the "Pilatians" as St Cyril called them), they introduced the Slav language also into the liturgy, with authoritative confirmation from the Pope, and as the first message they translated the "Prologue" of the Gospel of John. "Greeks by origin, Slavs by heart, canonically sent by Rome, they are a shining example of Christian universalism. Of that universalism which breaks down barriers, extinguishes hatreds and unites all in the love of Christ the Universal Redeemer" (Letter of the Cardinal Secretary of State to the faithful taking part in the celebrations of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Velehrad, Czechoslovakia) (cf. "L'Osservatore Romano", 6-7 July 1981).

2. The proclamation of the two holy apostles of the Slavs as patrons of Europe together with St Benedict was first of all intended to commemorate the eleventh centenary of the letter Industriae tuae, sent by Pope John VIII to Prince Svatopluk in June of the year 880, in which the use of the Slavonic language in the liturgy was praised and recommended, and the first centenary of the publication of the encyclical letter Grande munus (30 September 1880), in which Pope Leo XIII reminded the whole Church of the figures and apostolic activity of the two saints. But with it, in particular, I wanted to emphasise that 'Europe as a whole is, so to speak, the result of the action of two currents of Christian traditions, to which are also added two forms of culture that are different but at the same time profoundly complementary' (Leo XIII, Grande munus): Benedict embraces the predominantly Western and central European culture, which is more logical and rational, and spreads it through the various Benedictine centres in the other continents; Cyril and Methodius especially emphasise the ancient Greek culture and the more mystical and intuitive Eastern tradition. 

This proclamation was meant to be a solemn recognition of their historical, cultural and religious merits in the evangelisation of the European peoples and in the creation of the spiritual unity of Europe.

You too, distinguished gentlemen, who have come from so many parts of the world, have paused to reflect on this undeniable phenomenon of ideal unity of the continent. The heads of the Lateran University of Rome and the Catholic University of Lublin have wished to draw here, to the Eternal City at the See of Peter, for four days of intense activity, more than two hundred intellectuals from twenty-three European and non-European nations, with a study scheme divided into twelve working groups with hundreds of papers. Two cultural institutions of international prestige invited thoughtful and responsible men to enter into a fraternal and constructive dialogue in the spirit and area of solicitude not only of the Catholic Church, but also of the world's supreme organisations. A line of absolute convergence was appropriately followed: the search for the Christian roots of the European peoples in order to offer an indication to the life of each individual citizen, and to give an overall and directional meaning to the history we are living, sometimes with alarming anguish.

In fact, we have a Europe of culture with the great philosophical, artistic and religious movements that distinguish it and make it the teacher of all the Continents; we have the Europe of work, which, through scientific and technological research, has developed in the various civilisations, up to the current era of industry and cybernetics; but there is also the Europe of the tragedies of peoples and nations, the Europe of blood, tears, struggles, ruptures, and the most appalling cruelties. Even on Europe, despite the message of the great spirits, the drama of sin, of evil, which, according to the evangelical parable, sows in the field of history the dreadful weeds, has made itself felt heavy and terrible. And today, the problem that besets us is precisely saving Europe and the world from further catastrophes!

3. Certainly, the Congress, in which you participate, has directly a scientific programme and value. But it is not enough to remain on an academic level. It is also necessary to search for the spiritual foundations of Europe and of each nation, to find a meeting platform between the various tensions and currents of thought, to avoid further tragedies, and above all to give man, the 'individual' walking along various paths towards the Father's House, the meaning and direction of his existence.

Here, then, is the message of Benedict, of Cyril and Methodius, of all the Christian mystics and saints, the message of the Gospel, which is light, life, truth, the salvation of man and peoples. Indeed, to whom should we turn to know the 'why' of life and history if not to God, who became man to reveal the saving Truth and to redeem man from the emptiness and abyss of useless and desperate anguish? "Christ the Redeemer," I wrote in the encyclical Redemptor Hominis, "fully reveals man to man himself. This is ... the human dimension of the mystery of the Redemption. In this dimension man rediscovers the greatness, dignity and values proper to his humanity ... The man who wants to understand himself to the full ... must, with his restlessness and uncertainty and even with his weakness and sinfulness, with his life and with his death approach Christ. He must, so to speak, enter into Him with his whole self..." (John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis, 28). Europe needs Christ! One must come into contact with Him, appropriate His message, His love, His life, His forgiveness, His eternal and exalting certainties! It must be understood that the Church that He wanted and founded has the sole purpose of transmitting and guaranteeing the Truth that He revealed, and keeping alive and current the means of salvation that He Himself instituted, namely the Sacraments and prayer. This was understood by chosen and thoughtful spirits such as Pascal, Newman, Rosmini, Soloviev and Norwid.

We find ourselves in a Europe in which the temptation of atheism and scepticism is becoming ever stronger; in which a painful moral uncertainty is taking root, with the disintegration of the family and the degeneration of customs; in which a dangerous conflict of ideas and movements dominates. The crisis of civilisation (Huizinga) and the waning of the West (Spengler) only signify the extreme topicality and necessity of Christ and the Gospel. The Christian sense of man, the image of God, according to the Greek theology so much loved by Cyril and Methodius and deepened by St Augustine, is the root of the peoples of Europe, and we must appeal to it with love and goodwill to give peace and serenity to our age: only in this way can we discover the human sense of history, which is in reality 'Salvation History'.

4. Distinguished and dear Gentlemen! 

I like to conclude by recalling the last gesture and words of a great Slav, bound by a deep love for Europe, Fiodor Michailovic Dostoyevsky, who died one hundred years ago, on the evening of 28 January 1881 in St Petersburg. A great lover of Christ, he had written: "...science alone will never complete every human ideal and peace for mankind; the source of life and salvation from despair for all men, the sine qua non and the guarantee for the entire universe are enclosed in the words: The Word became flesh and faith in these words (F. Dostoyevsky, The Demons, Sansoni, Florence, 1958). Before he died, he had the Gospel that had accompanied him during the painful years of his imprisonment in Siberia brought to him and read to his children.

Europe needs Christ and the Gospel, because here lie the roots of all its peoples. be ye also heedful of this message!

May my blessing accompany you, which I impart to you with great effusion in the name of the Lord!

[Pope John Paul II, Speech 6 November 1981]