{"id":306574,"date":"2018-10-18T23:10:04","date_gmt":"2018-10-18T21:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/the-roots-of-europe\/"},"modified":"2024-05-15T20:38:22","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T18:38:22","slug":"the-roots-of-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/the-roots-of-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"The Roots of Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

The next event<\/strong> with the Friends of \u201cTogether for Europe\u201d is going to be held in Prague, the land of the Hussites, the Prague Spring and the Velvet Revolution.<\/strong> The vast history of the Czech people will serve as the backdrop for the conversation among participants. It is a troubled history, marked by grand idealistic and spiritual re-awakenings and by a search for truth and justice that often ended in disappointment. Thus was the case of the three examples just mentioned: the Hussite Movement that began after the death of the priest Jan Hus, who was burned at the stake in 1415<\/strong> and considered a martyr for the truth by his followers. Unfortunately, the wars that followed didn\u2019t deal in truth, but in the lust for power and they completely devastated the country. Likewise, many centuries later, in 1968, the main actors in the Prague Spring, with the enthusiastic support of the whole country, wanted to install a Socialist regime with a human face, free of all the lies and cruelty of the recent past. Unfortunately, this hope was crushed under the wheels of armed tanks and ended in general resignation. Then came the Velvet Revolution in 1989, which many still remember. It was brought forward by its main protagonist, Vaclav Havel:<\/strong> \u201cLove and the truth must win over the lies and the hate.\u201d But no one expected the hard battle that followed: the spiritual values that were so strongly felt during the mass demonstrations in the public squares slowly dwindled as they were substituted with the pragmatism of the \u201ctechnology of power.\u201d The President of the Republic\u2019s banner bears the words: \u201cThe Truth Wins.\u201d However, two words were removed from the original version of that slogan: \u201cThe Truth of God Wins.\u201d<\/strong> We\u2019re sure that his truth will win before the end of the story.

\"\"

Ji\u0159i Kratochvil<\/p><\/div> \u201cTogether for Europe\u201d wants to help build unity between Eastern Europe and the West. What role does the Czech Republic have to play in this?<\/strong> The Czech Republic is a very secularised country. The majority of the population doesn\u2019t want to identify with a Church. Yet, surprisingly, the number of declared atheists is falling. Among the people, the young and the intellectuals, there is a very strong sense of spiritual and cultural values. It was demonstrated by the warmth with which Pope Benedict XVI<\/strong> was welcomed to Prague. Secularized laity can be found everywhere in Europe with their different characteristics and features. The Czech Republic could become a laboratory of dialogue. Thinking of Europe\u2019s future, what further challenges are there for reaching unity? It is said that every nation \u2013 and it\u2019s also true for continents \u2013 lives of the ideas from which it was born.<\/strong> We only need to remember where Europe came from: Jerusalem (Faith), Athens (Reason) and Rome (Law).<\/strong> Europe\u2019s cultural, spiritual and material wealth and greatness grew from this foundation. Today we find ourselves facing a migration of peoples similar to that of the early Middle Ages. The greatest challenge consists in being able to live with the \u201cotherness\u201d of the new arrivals. We must not delude ourselves: Europe as we know it will sooner or later disappear, also because of the falling birth rate. We Christians should be the \u201ccreative minority,\u201d we should return to the roots of our tradition and to all the values that were born from that tradition. Upon this spiritual basis, with the help of God\u2019s grace, we can search for a new unity in the new Europe. Ji\u0159i Kratochvil was born in 1953, graduated in Economics in Prague, and worked in the finance sector of various state administrations.<\/strong> Following the fall of Communism, he helped rebuild Caritas. He has lived in Canada, Italy and Germany, besides Czech Republic and Slovak Republic. He currently works in Prague as a translator for the Czech Bishops Conference. Source: Together4europe<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every country and continent lives of the ideas from which it was born. In preparation of the upcoming meeting of Friends of Together for Europe, three questions were posed to Jiri Kratochvil from Prague, who is an expert in economy and dialogue among cultures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[893],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-306574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focolare-worldwide-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306574\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}