SENT TO ATHENS. Pope Francis lands in Athens, where «democracy was born. The cradle, millennia later, has become a home, a great house of democratic peoples: I am referring to the European Union and the dream of peace and fraternity that it represents for so many peoples ». This is how the Pontiff expresses himself in his speech to the Greek authorities, the first appointment after the days in Cyprus.
The Bishop of Rome has arrived in Greece at the capital’s international airport, where he is welcomed by the Foreign Minister, Nikos Dendias. Then he goes to the “Presidential Palace”, where he meets the President of the Greek Republic, Ekaterini Sakellaropoulou, then Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, then the authorities and civil society of the country, to whom he will address his speech.
Francis in Greece gives a speech of high political value, and raises an alarm against the advance of regimes but also of the national-populist malaise within our societies. “We cannot, however – denounce the Pope – but note with concern that today, not only on the European continent, there is a retreat of democracy”, which instead “requires the participation and involvement of all and therefore requires effort and patience. It is complex, while authoritarianism is hasty and the easy reassurances offered by populisms appear tempting ».
According to Francis, «in various societies, worried about security and anesthetized by consumerism, fatigue and discontent lead to a sort of ‘democratic skepticism’. But the participation of all is a fundamental need – he highlights – not only to achieve common goals, but because it responds to who we are: social beings, unrepeatable and at the same time interdependent ”. And there is “also a skepticism towards democracy caused by the distance of the institutions, by the fear of the loss of identity – continues the Pontiff – by the bureaucracy. The remedy for this does not lie in the obsessive search for popularity, in the thirst for visibility, in the proclamation of impossible promises or in adhering to abstract ideological colonizations, but lies in good politics ». Because politics is “a good thing – he points out – and so it must be in practice, as the highest responsibility of the citizen, as an” art of the common good “”.
The Pontiff expresses concern for the European Union: “The European Community, torn by nationalistic selfishness, rather than being the driving force of solidarity, sometimes appears blocked and uncoordinated”. If once the “ideological contrasts prevented the construction of bridges between the east and the west of the continent – he argues – today the migration issue has also opened holes between the south and the north”. Bergoglio wants to exhort “once again to an overall, community vision of the migration issue and encourage people to pay attention to the most needy so that, according to the possibilities of each country, they are welcomed, protected, promoted and integrated in full respect of their human rights” .
This country, Greece, “characterized by hospitality, has seen in some of its islands a number of migrant brothers and sisters greater than the inhabitants themselves, thus increasing the hardships, which are still affected by the fatigue of the economic crisis”. But even “the European procrastination persists”, he complains. Instead, welcoming migrants, “more than an obstacle for the present, represents a guarantee for the future, because it is in the sign of peaceful coexistence with those who are increasingly forced to flee in search of home and hope”. These people are “protagonists of a terrible modern odyssey”.
In order for the good “to be truly shared”, priority attention “must be paid to the weaker groups”, the Pope affirms. This is the direction to follow, “which a founding father of Europe (Alcide De Gasperi, ed) indicated as an antidote to the polarizations that animate democracy but risk exasperating it ”. A change of pace “in this sense is necessary, while, amplified by virtual communication, fears spread every day and theories are developed to counteract others”. Instead, one must “pass from taking sides to participating; from committing oneself only to supporting one’s own part to getting involved in promoting everyone. From taking sides to participating – he remarks – It is the motivation that must push us on various fronts: I am thinking of the climate, the pandemic, the common market and above all the widespread poverty ». These are challenges “which ask to collaborate concretely and actively”. For the Pontiff, “the international community needs it, to open ways of peace through a multilateralism that is not suffocated by excessive nationalist pretensions. Politics needs it, in order to place common needs before private interests. It may seem like a utopia – he admits – a hopeless journey in a turbulent sea, a long and unattainable odyssey. Yet the journey in a rough sea, as the great Homeric tale teaches, is often the only way “. And he reaches the goal “if he is animated by the desire for home, by the search to move forward together”.
Speaking of the pandemic, Francis defined it «the great adversity. It made us rediscover the frail and needy of others », he reiterates. Even in this State “it is a challenge that involves appropriate interventions by the Authorities – I am thinking of the need for the vaccination campaign – and not a few sacrifices for the citizens. In the midst of so much effort, however, a notable sense of solidarity has emerged, to which the local Catholic Church is happy to be able to continue to contribute, in the belief that this constitutes the legacy not to be lost as the storm slowly subsides. Some words of the Hippocratic Oath seem written for today, such as the commitment to “regulate the standard of living for the good of the sick”, to “refrain from causing harm and offense” to others, to safeguard life at all times, in particularly in the womb ». The Pope says: «The right to care and care for all must always be privileged, so that the weakest, especially the elderly, are never discarded. Life is in fact a right, not death, which must be accepted, not administered ».
Francis invites us to “advance this country in openness, inclusion and justice. From this city, from this cradle of civilization, a message has risen and always rises that directs towards the High and towards the other; that to the seductions of authoritarianism it responds with democracy; that individualistic indifference opposes care for the other, for the poor and for creation, essential hinges for a renewed humanism, which our times and our Europe need ”.
The Pope hopes that the commitments «undertaken in the fight against climate change will be shared more and more and will not be superficial, but will be seriously implemented. The words are followed by the facts, so that the children do not pay the umpteenth hypocrisy of the fathers ».
After the two-day visit to Cyprus, Francis today in Greece, where he will remain until the morning of Monday 6 December, including tomorrow’s stop on the island of Lesbos, is planning religious dialogues in addition to the political-institutional summits. In the afternoon at 4 pm the courtesy visit to Ieronymos II, archbishop of Athens and of all Greece, at the Orthodox Archbishopric, and the public conference in the presence of their followers in the «Throne Room». At 5.15 pm the meeting with the bishops, priests, religious and seminarians in the cathedral of San Dionigi; at 6.45 pm the private conversation with the members of the Society of Jesus at the Apostolic Nunciature.