Special issues of The Way, such as this one, are planned a long time in advance. The editorial board therefore tries to forecast which subjects might be topical when the edition goes to press. Sometimes an anniversary can ensure that this is so—in 2017, for example, we will be marking the five-hundredth anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. The current issue, though, is rather different. Admittedly we planned it when Europe was very much in the news in Britain, since a referendum on the country’s continued membership of the European Union had recently been called. It was unclear, though, whether this would still be a hot topic several months later. In fact, after the vote in June in favour of ‘Brexit’, the topicality of this issue is assured. That leads to a second question. The debate over Europe may be topical, but is it spiritual? The answer to that is, perhaps, simpler to state than to demonstrate. The Ignatian spirituality that underpins this journal holds that God is at work in our everyday world, and also that an important element of any Christian life is to be attentive to signs of God’s presence and activity. It is legitimate to ask, therefore, where signs of God at work can be found in Europe today, and in the political task of bringing the countries of what has frequently been a war-torn continent into a more peaceful and fruitful coexistence.
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