Pope Francis has called for the European Union to come up with new creative ways to stay together following Britain’s planned exit, saying it is clear “something isn’t working in this unwieldy union.”
Speaking to reporters as he flew home from Armenia on Sunday, the Pope said Europe must reflect on the “air of division” being sowed in the continent and beyond.
“I have not studied the reasons why the United Kingdom wanted to make this decision, but there are divisions,” he said. “The European Union must rediscover the strength at its roots, a creativity and a healthy disunity, of giving more independence and more freedom to the countries of the union.” Speaking of high unemployment and economic stagnation, Francis added: “Something isn’t working in this unwieldy union.
“But let’s not throw out the baby out with the bathwater. We look to redeem the things and recreate, because recreation of human things, also our personality, is a journey which one must always take.”
The key, he said, was to rekindle the will to stay together with “creativity and new life”.
The Pope said he believed that brotherhood and unity were always better than distance and enmity, and that “bridges are better than walls”.
Pope Francis also spoke about Brexit on the way to Armenia. He told reporters on the papal plane on Friday that the vote was “the will expressed by the people”.
He said: “This requires a great responsibility on the part of all of us to guarantee the good of the people of the United Kingdom as well as the peaceful coexistence of the entire European continent. “This is what I expect,” the Pope said.
European Catholic leaders have expressed concern that the decision by British voters to leave the European Union threatens unity across the continent, but also said that the EU bloc must rethink its priorities.
Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki of Poznan, president of the Polish bishops’ conference, said that while the conference respected the decision, “we can’t forget unity is better than division, and that European solidarity is an achievement of many generations”.
“For Christians, the building of unity between peoples, societies and nations is a key summons, ordained by Christ himself,” he said. “We’re convinced this Christ-like unity is the true source of hope for Europe and the world.”
The archbishop said he remained hopeful that “the union of European nations, built on Christ” would still prevail in a “civilisation of love”, despite the workings of the EU including “many worrying features”.
Retired Archbishop Henryk Muszynski of Gniezno, former primate of Poland, criticised the outcome, warning that the EU’s “purely declaratory notion of solidarity” would have to be “rethought from the beginning”.
“Brexit is the outcome of separatist, populist and egotistic tendencies, shown at both personal and social level, which have been discernible for a long time in Europe.
“I fear this decision won’t serve Great Britain, Europe or the world,” the prelate told the Kai news agency. Meanwhile, the Brussels-based Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community marked the outcome by displaying a “Prayer for Europe” on its website, which invoked God’s help “in committing ourselves to a Europe of the Spirit, founded not just on economic treaties but also on values which are human and eternal”.
In Germany, the Catholic Church’s youngest ordinary, Archbishop Stefan Hesse of Hamburg, told KNA Catholic News that the vote was a “step backwards for a united Europe”; in Austria, Bishop Ägidius Zsifkovics of Eisenstadt described it as “a wake-up call for a new European humanism”. He said he hoped the dream of European unity would not be “buried by self-serving gravediggers”.
“We must warn against the rise of provincial mentalities and group egoisms. Trans-national problems and challenges cannot be solved nationally,” Bishop Zsifkovics told the Kathpress news agency.
“We’ll be exposed to numerous dangers if we don’t work together for a Europe which cares about its children, stands fraternally by its elderly, protects those seeing its help and promotes and respects the rights of individuals.”
In France, Archbishop Jean-Pierre Grallet of Strasbourg said he was left with “feelings of sadness” that “what we have long fought for has been contradicted”. He said he hoped the vote would “create a clarification” rather than just “destabilising the European project”.
“I’ve repeatedly said we should work for a future which is more European than national, but on condition this Europe is an entity we can identify with,” Archbishop Grallet said.
“We must be realists: we will not build Europe against its peoples, without gaining popular support and responding properly to their anxieties. Europe may look like a beautiful project; but we should remember it’s still highly fragile.”
Cafod have said it is too early to tell what impact Brexit will have on their work. Neil Thorns, director of advocacy at the aid agency of the Church in England and Wales, said: “In practice there will be little immediate impact on Cafod’s work as a result of the referendum decision, unless the value of sterling continues to fall.”
Mr Thorns said that, although EU funding was “vital”, countries such as Norway were able to access the funding without belonging to the EU.
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