The cross, the book and the plough

“The Church feels at home in Europe” and therefore “expects that its European citizenship be recognized”. In response to “certain attempts to ‘privatize’ them”, the Churches “hope that their own laws will be juridically recognized, so as to escape the arbitrary power of the political options of the moment”. So said the secretary for relations with states within the Holy See’s Secretariat of State, Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, in speaking on 13 May to a conference on “The future of the new Europe” promoted by the international Centre of Communion and Liberation in Rome. The Church – he said – has every right to request a central role in the construction of the new Europe: for “the term ‘Europe’ was used for the first time in the modern era by Pope Nicholas V in 1453, the year of the fall of Constantinople”. The Church, moreover, has “inspired and shaped the institutions of the continent”, born “from the cross, the book and the plough”, he added, adopting the expression with which Paul VI recognized the contribution “made by Benedictine monastic life to the formation of Europe in the spiritual, cultural and economic fields”. In response “to certain attempts to ‘privatize the Churches – Tauran continued – the Holy See has always claimed the right to participate constructively in the public dialogue of European society”. It is important, therefore, “in the framework of the European Convention, that the voice of the Churches be heard. For they can propose values without which man would risk being crippled in his progress towards the unity of the continent”. Archbishop Tauran also stressed that “the values on which a community is based transcend the contingent decisions of politics and law; they are, in truth, the source of fundamental rights”. Hence the importance that any constitutional treaty valid for all citizens of the EU should “recognize the sources from which its values derive their inspiration”. In response “to the great challenges that await Europe and the memories of the tragedies of the past – archbishop Tauran concluded – the Church seeks a religious space at the heart of the new cultures” and “must always be able to speak of God to all men and women. No one should be surprised by this claim! A ‘Church of silence’ cannot exist: it would be a contradiction in terms, all the more so today, when “the Pope is urging that there still be a place for God in the Europe of the future”. European identity and Christian values. In agreement with this assessment is Gianfranco Fini, deputy Italian prime minister and representative of the Italian government to the European Convention. In his view, “Christian values are the factor that most unites Europe”. Fini said he was convinced that “European unity will not have a future unless it has a profound cultural and moral dimension”. In this sense the Charter of fundamental rights, “devoid of any explicit reference either to God or to religion”, and hence censured by John Paul II, “can and must – he said – be corrected, or at least supplemented, making good its shortcomings”. To this end Fini pledged “the Italian government’s efforts within the Convention” to ensure that the new Constitution take account of values that “are not merely ‘spiritual’, but specifically religious and Christian”. The current challenges for Europe were also addressed by Ana Palacio Vallelersundi, president of the EU’s Commission for citizens’ rights and freedoms and delegate of the Spanish government to the European Convention. Since “the European Union rests on a dual legitimacy: that of the states, and that of the peoples and citizens”, it is essential, in Palacio’s view, to “equip the Union with a coherent system of government and representation; and for this a genuine and far-reaching reform of the Council is needed”. It is also necessary – she said – to proceed “to a substantial simplification of the Treaties with the aim of improving the presentation and visibility of the European project and permit greater understanding of and identification with it by citizens”, because “the Europe of the future will either be the Europe of the citizens, or nothing”. Giovanna Pasqualin Traversa