The Need for Reconciliation in Europe (Part I)
The Need for Reconciliation in Europe (Part I)

Summary/Abstract: “The need for healing and reconciliation in our broken world cannot be overemphasized.” This perception leads to the question: What unhealed wounds and unhealedinjuries still lead individuals, cultures and nations in Europe to keep at heard theirwounds as permanent felt injuries. There are hundreds of reports about EuropeanHistory and several large publications about, but according to the knowledge of theauthor there are no detailed reports about the European unhealed “deep historicalwounds” in Europe. The following study is an attempt to understand confl icts in thenear past of Europe as well as still ongoing prejudices and delimitations betweencultures and nations of Europe.Part I.2. as well as II.1.d) is oriented at Charta Oecumenica 3: The European Christian community had to confess that “the history of the Christian churches … hasbeen marked by many benefi cial experiences but also by schisms, hostilities andeven armed confl icts.”1The chapters II.1. to II.4 list several confl ict, injuries and reasons of long-lifewounds in heart in Europe. This list starts with wounds regarding violence againstindigenous peoples in Northern Europe and other minorities. But also it is necessary1 Charta Oecumenica, chapter 3: Moving towards one another : http://www.cec-kek.org/content/charta.shtmlTEOLOGIA4 \ 2016STUDIES AND ARTICLES 45to understand the centuries old wounds between nations (Northern Ireland confl ict,Russian–Finland confl ict, Poland-Germany-Russia confl ict). But to understandwounds in Eastern Europe is very important to remember the “East-West Borderline” since about thousand years (II.1.d) as well as the wounds regarding the Ottoman occupation (II.1.e). To understand still partly unhealed wounds in Northern andWestern Europe we have to take in account as well the wounds which leaded to theSecond World War (II.2.a) as the wounds after the Second World War (II.2.b) and asthe wounds regarding the several Genocides in Europe (II.2.c). This fi rst part of thereport ends with the description of the new European wounds regarding the communist dictatorships (2.3.a) and new wounds in the Europe of the second half of the 20thcentury (2.3.b). But we have to take in account also the new challenges through thenew “neighbourhood of Christians and Muslims” in Northern Europe (II.4.)The following second part of this study will focus the “Church’s Ministry of Reconciliation in Europe” as well as the importance of Healing of Memories for Reconciliations in Europe.

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