“The Church in Europe is a church that deeply believes in the European continent. It loves that continent, so steeped in history, traditions, cultures, populations that wish to keep their own faces and to join forces in a spirit of unity and communion, for a continent that has its own physiognomy in the great plurality of its histories but also has its own joint physiognomy, which is ultimately summed up in the Gospel, in Christian faith”. This was said by cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, who, as the president of the Council of European Bishops Conferences (Ccee), met Pope Francis with the two deputy presidents of Ccee, this morning. The European bishops – Bagnasco said – “look at the unifying process of the European Union with the attention of shepherds who are worried and must promote the integral good of people and individual populations and who want therefore to be leaven and salt, without any special self-assumption, without any arrogance, in a spirit of total service and believing in those fundamental truths that shine on Christ’s face and that are the roots of a genuine humanism that finds its cradle in the European continent”. “We hope – the president of Ccee concluded – that each one of our words and gestures may always be understood from this perspective of genuine love and effective service”.