The author makes a reflection on the text of the apostolic exhortation of John Paul II Ecclesia in Europa. It includes a description of the contemporary cultural condition of Europe and of the current challenges as Islam and secularism. The third and most important challenge is the religious condition of those baptized persons who formally belong to the Church, but in practice they live as if there would be no God. The text emphasizes in particular the problem of limiting the perspective of life and reflection to the horizontal dimension, the temptation to extinguish hope, and the need for the Church to give in her activities priority to evangelization against any other secondary purpose.

Key words: Europe, Catholic Church, secularization, hope, Islam, Ecclesia pagana, evangelization.