Democracy, the new frontier

"The Europe of democracy and peace is the promise born with the Liberation": David Maria Sassoli's speeches offer a clear message for the society of the future.

The German philosopher Ernst Bloch, who engaged in dialogue with the Protestant thinker Jorgen Moltmann and, in his own way, influenced his "theology of hope," wrote: "A historical novum is never entirely new. It is always preceded by a dream or a promise." The Europe of democracy and peace is the promise born with the Liberation, with the liberations of Fossoli, the Risiera di San Sabba, and the camps scattered across Central Europe, but also with the blows we struck at the Berlin Wall, reconquering our Eastern European countries.

We must always remember that it is not enough to believe we are safe, and reiterate that the horror that overwhelmed us was born within great democratic, liberal, and even progressive cultures, in a time of great technological inventions, discoveries, cosmopolitan and ingenious artists, writers, and philosophers, yet all, all, incapable of sensing in time the danger of fascism and Nazism. Cultures confident that a reversal of the fundamental values of humanity and civilization was impossible.

What happened is the result of societies aware of rights, but incapable of making them prevail against prejudice and hatred. A society with a pacifist temperament, yet incapable of eradicating the pandemic of war. Societies that believed themselves better than their neighbors, exacerbating an antagonism that transformed love for their homeland into fanatical and criminal nationalism.

Giuseppe Dossetti – political leader, constituent, and monk – wrote that it is necessary to maintain "a lucid historical conscience" to always bear truthful witness to the events that have occurred and prevent denial, amnesia, and vulgar opportunism. But he also added that historical conscience alone is not enough. Our conscience must be "vigilant," capable of "opposing every beginning of a system of evil, as long as there is time." This is why we cannot afford to underestimate the manifestations of hatred, violence, and discrimination manifesting themselves in the European space.

We must focus on dialogue: developing dialogue always means becoming richer. And we must realize that history is not built without difficulty, without obstacles, or simply by intuiting objectives and declaring them. Always engage in dialogue, but not to seek alliances to vampirize others or find a compromise of power, but by focusing on the state of our democracy and our country's priorities. After all, you cannot govern the seventh world power with full powers; full powers are not needed to govern complex societies. Full powers are demanded by those who consider themselves self-sufficient and believe that a strong man can solve problems with a magic wand or the use of force.

We must invest in people and communities, in the freedom of the individual and of social bodies. This is the modern frontier on which an important part of the European social model is played out, because the entire body of social, civil, and supportive relations is the backbone of democracy. This too is a legacy of Christian culture that has become the foundation of our common home. And we must be clear about this because the verticalization of power (economic, financial, even geopolitical) seems to discourage protagonism, autonomy, and social responsibility.

Those who set Europe ablaze also found a Christianity spiritually unprepared, engaged in the fight against modernity and deluded into thinking that the fall of liberal regimes was a victory for "Christianity" and not a horror. We all want to understand the lessons of the "short century" and how the Catholic world has succeeded in overcoming suffering and rebirth. There is no doubt that it will be up to political Catholicism to identify in democracy and parliaments the tools to reverse the trend and bring us to safety.

The Constitution and Europe are the terms of rebirth. In Italy, the Catholic constituents—Giuseppe Dossetti, and with him Aldo Moro, Giuseppe Lazzati, Giorgio La Pira, Costantino Mortati, Professor Bianchini—were able to design the masterpiece that is our Constitution: imbued with a personalism that smells not of stale and exploitative incense, but of a passion for Christian truth that Catholics have a duty to oppose to those who, even today—in Poland, Hungary, Italy—dare to brandish the symbols of our faith like amulets, with blasphemous shamelessness.

Mussolini, in a famous speech to the Fasci di Combattimento, said: "We must succeed in transforming fear into hatred." Today, many years later, we must transform fear into solidarity. Because solidarity multiplies well-being, and also security. But this is only possible with a vibrant, plural, and dialoguing society, supported by the principles of humanity: not a society of separate monads, but of solid interrelationships. Who can continue to proudly say in today's world that individual freedoms are an inviolable heritage? If Europeans can continue to say so, Christians will be able to say they have done a good job.


By the Editorial Staff
NP in-depth analysis
NP May 2025