Heritage Foundation Leadership for America

Location: The Heritage Foundation's Lehrman Auditorium

Why does Europe appear to be in a sort of a political continental drift with respect to America? Perhaps because Europe is challenged by a triple crisis: economic, political, and cultural. Economically, Europe is becoming less competitive on the world scene due to its state-centered ideology. Politically, the European Union represents an inextricable web of bureaucracy that not only confounds the average European citizen but lawmakers as well. And, culturally, Europe is affected by relativism and secularism, which separate its society and culture from its historic roots as it becomes increasingly de-Christianized.

In short, Europe is in the midst of a moral and spiritual identity crisis. Europe today does not appreciate America, especially American foreign policy, because it no longer understands it. From the European standpoint, American idealism and an appeal to religious convictions is a fundamentalism as wrong and as dangerous as any other. Although Europe and America share the same history, the current European continental drift is more risky for Europe than for America. Join us as Senator Marcello Pera examines remedies for addressing the cultural challenges confronting Europe.

Marcello Pera was elected to the Senato della Republica in 1994. From 2001 to 2006, he served as the President of the Senate. Senator Pera has authored more than ten books. His most recent, Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures, was co-authored with His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI in this year.