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Published by Ecclesia.gr,
April 19, 2004
Pope seeks EU
recognition of Christian roots
(Washington
Post / UPI)
Pope John Paul II is lobbying European governments
to officially recognize the European Union's
Christian roots, but diplomatic sources say
secular opposition is likely to block his efforts.
Vatican diplomats, and the pope himself in
meetings with European officials, say they want to
see a strong reference to Christianity worked into
the preamble to the EU constitution, now being
drafted by the Convention on the Future of Europe
chaired by former French President Valery Giscard
d'Estaing.
Working through the Catholic delegates among the
more than 100 European parliamentarians attending
the convention, the Vatican hopes to have a
statement written into the text identifying the
European Union with the Christian faith, a senior
European official in Washington told United Press
International yesterday.
The Vatican's argument is that Christianity's
fundamental role in shaping European culture
should be acknowledged in what is destined to
become the European Union's key document. "It's
something that is apparently close to Pope John
Paul's heart," the official said. "But it won't
survive the process."
A reference to the European Union as a Christian
institution would further complicate the debate in
Europe over whether Turkey is eligible for
admission, some analysts say.
Turkey is officially a secular state but is seeing
a revival of its Muslim origins. A party with
Muslim roots, the Islamic Justice and Development
Party, emerged with a majority in elections in
November.
But European sources said that is only a secondary
point. Although the picture was mixed, few of the
15 EU member states, and of the new members
scheduled to join in the next two years, include a
reference to religion in their respective
constitutions. These sources report a widespread
reluctance among convention delegates to involve
religion in the process of shaping the new Europe.
Even predominantly Catholic Italy and Spain are
not officially described as Catholic countries.
The Italians removed the religious designation
from their postwar constitution in 1945. France's
tradition of secularism goes back to the French
Revolution.
Greece is still officially an Orthodox country,
but the Greek government, under pressure from the
European Union, recently removed the bearer's
religious affiliation from its passports. Britain
recognizes the Anglican Church as the country's
official religion, and the British monarch is the
head of the church.
The convention expects to complete its work on
determining the shape of the European Union by the
autumn, after which its proposals will be sent to
member governments for approval and finally
adopted at a special conference in 2004.
"If anything, the statement the Vatican wants
should more correctly refer to the Judeo-Christian
culture, but that would really set the cat among
the Islamic pigeons," the European official said.
"But any reference to Christianity would create
additional problems, and the [European Union] has
enough of them."
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