The European and its penates

Abstract

Where does the European really feel at home, if not in his academic culture, in his
mother tongue, in his Christian tradition? Attending to these three dimensions, I will look
at the European construction, which, as a house, is both inclusive and exclusive. But it
happens that this very sense of homeliness is put in check today by the fear of having to
lose it all. The intellectual norms and values of the University life are threatened, the liberty
of speaking our own national language, instead of a constraining “lingua franca”, is
reduced to the private space, the will to recall the Christian roots of the historical Europe
and of the European Union is more and more controversial. No wonder that, under such
circumstances, the European citizen should see his home as definitely mortgaged.