On Eve of E.U. Anniversary, Pope Warns of Bloc’s Fragility<br />By JAMES KANTER and GAIA PIANIGIANIMARCH 24, 2017<br />ROME — On the eve of celebrations commemorating the 60th anniversary of treaties<br />that led to the creation of the European Union, Pope Francis warned the bloc’s leaders on Friday that while their countries may be "inseparably linked," the project could still fail.<br />Francis said that Today’s prosperity seems to have clipped the continent’s wings and lowered its gaze.<br />Twenty-seven European Union leaders — representing all of the bloc’s members except Britain, which is preparing<br />to leave the union — met with Francis in an ornate, marbled hall in Vatican City on Friday evening.<br />" he said, "it experiences a regression and, in the long run, risks dying." In an interview this year with the Spanish newspaper El País, Francis invoked the example of 1930s Germany.<br />that When a body loses its sense of direction and is no longer able to look ahead,<br />That gathering was ahead of formal celebrations on Saturday of the Treaty of Rome, which was signed March 25, 1957, by six nations<br />and established the European Economic Community, a major precursor to the European Union.
