My name is Liborius C., I am the W\M\  of the Lodge Europe  in Orient Riccione. It is a great pleasure today to see here again my dearest  Brethern  that last year in Riccione gave life to the Symposium of the Europe Lodge that has been necessary and also useful.

This year the Romanians Brethren have shown a strong attachment to the Masonic Institution, organizing this superb meeting. Thank you, first of all, for the invitation, which brings us back here, after an year, to discuss the theme of the great Masonic and human engagement for which we, Freemasons, are all so sensitive.

I would like to start from the title of this meeting, which  refers to Europe. Today we talk so much about how the European Union, as a hope, can conduce us to a future more suitable to our era needs. The globalization that we live in has no purpose, and also we don’t know where it begins and where it ends .

In some cases it seems that we are losing the “keys” of reason and also common sense. We have just left behind us an absolutist culture, a spiritual and cultural uniformity. Only the ideas and values of modernity have laid the foundations to overcome the strong differences and to create a peaceful existence.

In this improvement and renovation, Freemasonry has made a major contribution. The culture and social Peace is  a product of Tolerance, an idea and a typical value of Freemasonry! Certainly we need some wisdom or maybe we should  go back to our European origins. I would like not to deepen the story of the  ancient Greek Myth of "Europe" that we all well know.

I would like to point out that Italy is not only Europe, but first of all is situated in the Mediterranean area, an  unique inland sea, situated between three continents, Europe, Asia and Africa, which divides North and South, East and West. On the coast of the Sea, we find  also the three great monotheistic religions of the world, we can compare developed and underdeveloped countries, Immigration and Emigration countries. Charles Baudelaire, in his famous "Les Fleurs du mal",  wrote: "The Free Men always love the sea!" It is natural to rely on the words of a poet, to express in best way feelings that are directed to the sea. My Lodge  belongs to a sea city, the sea that we like to call the “Sea of Europe”. Our sea is the eternal source of inspiration for men, so that they can challenge the unknown or also to depart and to explore an  adventure, to know the new, to weaver relationships with new people and make new experiences. From this spirit, that we  "People of the Sea" have,  was born the idea of bringing together all the Lodges named Europe in a first meeting held  in Riccione last year in order to know each other better.

In each epoch the Italic Peninsula, thanks also to its seas that have allowed the possibility of an immediate and intense conversation,  has managed to assume important roles, crucial to the development of the human being  and discoveries, ideas and progress.

Progress, can also be called our conference of the Lodges named “Europe”:  since last year, when was its first meeting, today it has more than doubled its participants. These initiatives are not unknown to the Grand Orient of Italy, which has always, with its Grand Master, worked for closer cooperation between the European Grand Lodges and to a faster diffusion of ideas which can contribute to improving the world in which we live.

That this dream is possible, it can be also shown by being here today united for the same purpose in Bucharest, in this conference so beautifully organized by the Romanians Brethern.

Only 15 or 20 years ago an idea of this kind would not have been thinkable. Just because “the Europe” of today was missing and there would have been missing many of those so-called new Lodges of Eastern Europe, that were simply not yet refounded after the Second World War. Symbolically, the collapse of the Berlin Wall made  the dream possible, to see the rebirth of the Freemasonry  on the other side of the Iron Curtain, and it was our duty to help these processes and our Brethren as well.

Freemasonry  respects and helps the new changes, the transformation processes in a uniting and communicating Europe, because Freemasonry has always been, in human  history, an active part of society with  Great Men among its Members. These Masons were great because they lived their present thinking about the future.

The processes of the last twenty years have led  to the collapse of ideologies. The absolutist cultures which  had not left space for free thought have also collapsed. Today we, Freemasons, are conscious that the freedom values and  the human being  respect must be reaffirmed.

The freedom of research, the freedom of being cured in illness in the appropriate way, but still leaving to the individual the chance to choose for himself and for his own life. These are the values that will make possible future changes.
 
On the other side, in the confusion of different languages and  customs, European Nations must play a balancing role that will unite us from the north to the south of our continent.  Do we lack a common language? I think we do not.

Freemasons have their common language, which is the  language of symbolism . So all of us gathered here, we speak the same language, this means that we must finish the work that the Freemasons of the past were doing. They have spoken the same language, passing over their thinking and working to the future.
 
So, the question is, what are we doing today? What kind of world will we  leave to our future generations? All good questions,  my Brethren. Well,  we must talk about this matter, but, before that,  we have to  understand the world we are living in. 

Perhaps before creating the Euro, the single currency, Europeans should have made a modern constitution  of ideas, values and principles of Europe, based on their cultures and traditions. For the general background, it seems that it has been built an "economic market", ignoring the culture of Europe and our common roots.

This would have helped the knowledge, the belonging to the same civilization, rich in its diversity, but essentially based on the same essential values. The recovery of this cultural identity would be helpful to arm ourselves against the global challenges, especially between elementary human needs and the interest of Single Nations.

We have to make an agreement with those who affirm that the current Western European societies  have  deep contradictory tendencies. In fact, we assist, at the same time, to The Process of Globalization,  not only in knowledge and research, wealth and  the pursuit of peace and happiness, but also, unfortunately, in  ignorance, poverty and war.

All these new horizons impose deep thought, and requires new knowledge and also an answer from our Institution. Freemasonry, with its traditional-initiatory knowledge was always given excellent idea to make  Human  History; it has been the  Innovation of the Man and his destiny.

Our tradition can and should be defined as the hidden treasure that is handed down within the Masonic Institution. This treasure is founded in the heart of every brother  from whom is released  the strength to find the true meaning of Life and existence of the universal whole. 

My thoughts  go towards  how we can overcome the social and cultural tensions between globalization and localism, between real and virtual world and increasing Nihilisms especially by young people. One thing is certain, the values and principles of  Freemasonry  are still actual, and certainly  we must not alter our  traditions based on  a well-organized institution which has answer to the needs of the new millennium.

Dear Brethren, considerations foregoing should have highlighted a number of lines of reflection and discussion.

It is possible to identify specific areas to deal and deepen with,  to enable to build and develop an Institutional model , appropriated to the European Freemasonry historical and current needs.

R\W\Bro\Liborius C\

Grand Representative of the Grand Orient of Italy

W\M\of Lodge Europa No.765, Or\Riccione