During this conference, I suggest, we have taken part in a process of demystification of various illusions about the spiritual or moral roots of the new Europe.

Garrett Fitzgerald suggested that the European Community had brought about a revolution in consciousness in three areas: it had abandoned war as a means of settling internal disputes; it had produced a Convention on Human Rights enforceable by the European Court; and it had recognised Europe’s duty towards the Third World both in the Lomé Convention and other Community structures and in individual country aid programmes. Dr Fitzgerald anticipated criticism, and backtracked a little to say that these were all revolutions in principle. With regard to the church, he was much less positive. He said that in Ireland there was an underground church, waiting for the day when the values of Vatican II would be proclaimed anew. This note was struck in all the other reports from local churches. From France and Italy too we heard of an institutional church failing to meet the needs and aspirations of many of its members, who were turning to a variety of small groups, often viewed with concern by the hierarchy. George Vass, too, discussing Eastern Europe, questioned the assumption implicit in many discussions of lux ex Oriente. The light shining in the East is less a beacon than scattered sparks. Even the small communities which have carried the weight of renewal, he suggested, may not survive emerging from the cosy excitement of the underground into the cold wind of a pluralist society.