Memory transfusion

Francis questioned, in halting language, the direction Europe has taken: “What has happened to you, Europe … the home of poets, philosophers, artists, musicians, and men and women of letters? What has happened to you … the mother of great men and women who upheld, and even sacrificed their lives for, the dignity of their brothers and sisters?”

Quoting the Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, Pope Francis said a “memory transfusion” was needed to recall how Europe’s founders “dared to change radically the models that had led only to violence and destruction … [and] dared to seek multilateral solutions to increasingly shared problems”.