During his recent meeting in Madrid with the Conference of Spanish Bishops, the Pope used the metaphor of the road to Santiago de Compostela, signaling the richness but also sometimes the difficulty of meetings between people, pilgrims or inhabitants of the regions crossed, animated by very diverse concerns and cultures.
This comparison struck me because I found myself a few days earlier walking with friends towards Compostela.
As during other experiences on the Camino, I admired the diversity of the people I met, coming from all over France and the vast world, and their motivations; even if sometimes communication is difficult in the absence of a common language, sharing the path, and what it represents, establishes a strong bond.
And I wondered how, in an increasingly torn, increasingly worrying world, it was possible to mobilize this aspiration of a growing number of human beings to ensure peace and cooperation prevail, starting with our own country.
Culture of meeting
Pope Leo XIV, it seems to me, provided an answer to this question in his encyclical Magnifica humanitas and in the messages he sent during his pastoral visit to Spain. In his speech to members of the Spanish Parliament, he stressed the importance of living in a society that respects the irreducible value of every human being.
In Madrid, he also recalled that it is not the culture of confrontation but that of encounter which generates stability and prosperity. His evocation of the 16th century and the new worlds which then opened up draws a striking parallel with the advent of the age of artificial intelligence which we are witnessing and which his encyclical has just dealt with.
To evoke this century which appears distant, the pope does not mention the destruction of pre-Columbian civilizations but the School of Salamanca whose members, spiritual heirs of Saint Thomas Aquinas, placed limits, in the name of the common good, on the exercise of temporal powers.
The entire evolution of Europe is outlined here by the Holy Father through ancient “disputationes”. A Europe which has rediscovered the values of the Thomistic city pursuing the common good, after having been the main protagonist of several of the worst horrors of past centuries.
This Europe is the one that inspired the venerable Robert Schuman, whose personality is perhaps not unrelated to the announcement of a stopover in Metz during the Pope’s pastoral visit to our country next September.
Leo XIV’s speech before the Cortes, the Spanish Parliament, contains an explicit reference to the motto of the European Union which is directly related to his teaching: Europe finds its cohesion in its diversity and in respect for it.
Because, in this age where empires try, by pure military force, by other means of coercion or by technological domination, to impose their will on other nations, European construction has been based since its beginnings 76 years ago on the free sharing of sovereignties respecting the identities of each component of our Union.
In fact, this diversity of languages and cultures which still marks Europe today constitutes its identity and also its strength. Conversely, any desire for standardization can only lead to rejection.
Respect for diversity, this shared essential
We still need to understand the underlying nature of this unity in diversity. Europeans, through their tragic history, through the resulting attachment to the values of freedom, tolerance and solidarity, in fact share the essentials, and respect for diversity is precisely part of this shared essentials.
It is no coincidence that the decisive impetus was given to European construction in the aftermath of the Shoah. My personal experience as a diplomat is that it is when they are on other continents that Europeans feel that way, whether they come from Portugal or Finland, Greece or Ireland.
However, to defend and develop this heritage, forged through the Renaissance and the Enlightenment and now faced with immense perils, they must strengthen their Union when some call to weaken it, they must make it a real power which remains faithful to its values.
Reconciling individual freedoms and respect for the human person
The Pope’s message encourages Europeans to defend their model which seeks to reconcile individual freedoms and respect for the human person with life in society.
His encyclical can only encourage them to explore, in terms of the digital economy and artificial intelligence, a third path, which is neither that taken by the United States and its giant platforms, nor that developed by China and its authoritarian model.
This third way uses regulation to protect the most vulnerable individuals and economic actors and must also promote creativity and the development of important economic actors.
However, this papal message is not complacent towards the European Union. Referring in particular to the tragedy of migration, he recognizes the value of coordinated action between States – as the European Union does – but emphasizing that we must go beyond simple management of flows.
Leo May she hear his messages, find comfort and encouragement to move forward.
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