1. Our generations have been marked by a new awareness of European unity. After one of the blackest centuries in our history, after the conflicts and the fascisms, the night and fog of the nazi extermination, the scourge of communism - for the first time our continent can imagine a shared future, in a democratic prospect of freedom, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights. Thus the 20th century saw the birth of great hopes. It was the time when democracies took root, when the economy boomed as never before, when the first ecumenical gains were made, when the thought of the founding fathers of the united Europe was shaped and there was a pastoral and religious renaissance launched by the Vatican II Council.