Cardinal Parolin: Europe needs faith in God as it struggles with ‘demographic winter’

Strasbourg, France, Jul 5, 2021 / 05:45 am

Cardinal Pietro Parolin said on Sunday that Europe needs faith in God as it struggles with a “demographic winter.”

Preaching at Mass in Strasbourg Cathedral in France on July 4, the Vatican Secretary of State urged the continent to rediscover its Christian roots.

“Europe needs hope if it wants to put an end to the demographic winter, which is not primarily the result of an economic or social crisis, but of the weakening of hope and the authentic meaning of life and existence,” he said.

He continued: “Europe needs faith in God, who is Father; it needs confidence in its potential, especially spiritual.”

His comments follow a speech by Pope Francis in May highlighting the low birth rate of many European countries.

Parolin was celebrating a Mass marking 1,300 years since the death of St. Odile, patron saint of Alsace, a region in northeastern France bordering Germany and Switzerland.

In addition to serving as papal legate at the anniversary celebration, the Italian cardinal ordained Msgr. Gilles Reithinger, former superior general of the Paris Foreign Missions Society, as an auxiliary bishop of Strasbourg archdiocese at the Mass.

In his homily, Parolin emphasized the importance of charity in renewing Europe.

“Europe needs charity, to put at the center of its concerns those who survive on the margins, in poverty or in exclusion, and to manage the migratory phenomenon with wisdom and foresight, so as to make a real integration feasible, which becomes a source of opportunity and fraternity, and removes the risk of separations and painful misunderstandings, specters of a culture that denies that all human beings are brothers and sisters, fratelli tutti,” he said, citing the title of Pope Francis’ 2020 encyclical.

The 66-year-old cardinal had originally planned to visit Strasbourg last year, but was forced to cancel trips in June and November due to the coronavirus pandemic.

He had intended to visit the city on the France-Germany border to mark the 50th anniversary of the Holy See’s presence as a permanent observer at the Council of Europe, a human rights organization based in Strasbourg.

He began his two-day visit with a meeting on the topic of Europe. In an address, he said that the Holy See had shown “a strong and lively interest in the work of the European Institutions” since their inception.

He recalled Francis’ visit to Strasbourg in 2014, during which the pope addressed both the Council of Europe and the European Parliament, which is also based in the city.

“Europe is particularly dear to Pope Francis, not only because of his family origins, but also because of the central role in the history of humanity,” Parolin said, referring to the Argentine pope’s Italian ancestry.

“He hoped that Europe could rediscover its Christian roots, starting from this path of fraternity, which undoubtedly inspired and animated the Founding Fathers of modern Europe, beginning precisely with Robert Schuman,” the cardinal said, highlighting the French statesman declared “venerable” by the pope last month.

Parolin said that in a pluralistic Europe, the Church’s task was to “elevate man” not only in his body, “but also in his soul and spirit.”

“Without respect for man in his natural and supernatural dignity of being in the image and likeness of God, his Lord and Creator, society will never be better,” he said.