“Populism is born of selfishness and solidarity is the antidote to this”, he told leaders of the 27 member states, before urging them to avoid using emotions to gain consensus.
The Pope added that there was a need to focus on the issues of modern times, beginning with the masses of women, men and children, fleeing war and poverty, who “ask only a chance for a future for themselves and their loves ones".
He also stressed that solidarity is the answer to the forces that are pushing the EU apart, and that it was what had ensured 60 years of peace in Europe.
Adding that the EU was a political, economic, but primarily human “reality”, the Pope concluded by stating that Western values are “incomprehensible without Christianity”.
“The common denominator of the Fathers of Europe was the spirit of service, united with political passion, and the awareness that at the origin of European civilisation was Christianity, without which Western values of dignity, freedom and justice turn out to be mostly incomprehensible,” he said.
Introducing the Pope, Premier Paolo Gentiloni said that "the Union is not only that of parameters but also that of values, of a richness in diversity, of examples, of morals and ideas".
"Today globalisation, which is an opportunity, has created unbearable imbalances: millions of poor question our responsibility, the economic crisis has made unemployment grow," he added.
“Faced with these challenges we have a duty to identify common solutions."
With ANSA
