Madrid, Spain, Jan 29, 2004 / 22:00 pm
Archbishop Julián Barrio of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, says European unity should be established upon the values that have historically been championed by Christianity despite Europe’s growing crisis of faith.
Archbishop Julián Barrio made the statements in Santiago during the first conference of the Jacobean Holy Year, before a gathering of representatives of all of the dioceses of Spain during the first conference of the Jacobean Holy Year.
The unity of Europe, according to the Archbishop, should be built on “a system of personal and shared values in which each one offers his life in service of others.”
Europe should be established on these values protected by Christianity, which is currently in crisis “due to secular ideologies, materialism, powerful and virulent nationalism and terrorism,” he said.
The Archbishop also defended the Way of St. James as “the most important phenomenon in the configuration of medieval Europe,” and he criticized the idea that it was only for economic purposes.