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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, FEBRUARY 14, 1986
PAGE 9
transactions will certainly reduce the barriers to eventual
currency union••••
Both Charlemagne and Napoleon sought to introduce a common
currency (also known as the ECU) to Western Europe through
conquest. [A French gold or silver coin known as "Ecu" was in
use from 1266 to 1803.]
Where military force has failed,
economic forces appear to be succeeding. The ECU of the 1980s
is history's closest approach to a common currency for Europe,
. and the key to its success is not governmental fiat but market
L_!cceptance.
Papal Update
A European third force, united militarily and
economically, would still need to "rediscover its roots"
in
the
cultural and spiritual sense. Such is the position of Pope John Paul
II
in his latest appeal to Europe's Roman Catholic bishops, to "re
evangelize" the continent, as well as to push ahead "with complete
1
�
1
commitment in the cause of ecumenism," or church unity. (See "On the
Y-
,"
;
World Scene," 31 January 1986.)
r
l . !Th e Pope appears to be fighting a self-imposed deadline of the year
1 i 'i. 2-000 to get his church revitalized, including the goal of church
I ( '
reunion. Speaking in Turkey in late 1979, in a meeting with Greek
Orthodox Patriarch Demetrios I, John Paul said:
"During the second
millennium, our churches were rigid in their separation.
Now
the
1 �hird millennium of Christianity is at the gates. May the dawn of
�is millennium rise on a church which has full unity again."
Two weeks after his letter to Europe's bishops was released by the
Vatican (on January 16, although it was dated January 2), the Pope was
off on his 29th international trip. On this trip he revealed that his
thinking goes beyond the confines of Europe. He envisions for himself
a key role in a worldwide religious cooperative venture in the causa
of world peace. Here is a summary of the most noteworthy event on his
10-day trip to India, as reported in the February 3, 1986 LOS ANGELES
TIMES:
�pe John Paul II on Sunday met Tibet's living Buddhist deity,
[ the Dalai Lama, and called on "all the reliaions of the world
to collaborate in the cause of humanity."•.. Later"-In the day,
the Pope told a quietly respectful audience of about 10,000
mostly middle-class Indians of various faiths at Indira Gandhi
Stadium here [in New Delhi] that "there is a need for all
religions to collaborate in the cause of humanity and to do
this from the viewpoint of the spiritual nature of man.
Today, as Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsees
and Christians, we gather in fraternal love to assert this by
our very presence," he said.
Two weeks ago, in a little-reported remark during a ceremony
at a church in Rome, the Pope proposed � world gathering of
leading figures from all of the religions of the world in
Assisi, Italy, the home of St. Francis, to share a retreat
together during which they would meditate and pray for world
peace.
Vatican spokesman Juaquin Navarro-Valls said the
l
�� ntiff is still waiting for replies to his call to the other
� eligious leaders..••