“The European juridical tradition and culture forged by Christianity” comprise numerous “elements that may contribute to the European Constitution in the process of being drawn up”. That’s the view expressed by the Rector of Lumsa (Catholic university in Rome), Giuseppe Dalla Torre, to the recent conference promoted by the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas on “The presence of Christianity in the Constitution of the European Union” and attended, among others, by Italian senator for life (and former prime minister), Giulio Andreotti, and the sociologist Alberto Lo Presti. Demonstrating this, in the view of the jurist, are “the six headings under which the fundamental rights of the Charter proclaimed in Nice in December 2000 are listed: dignity, freedom, equality, solidarity, citizenship, justice; Christian values that are embodied in civil life and that express the persistent vitality of the religious phenomenon”. According to Giuseppe Dalla Torre, if the State is genuinely secular, “it must recognize its own incompetence in religious matters”. Hence the importance of incorporating in the future Constitution of Europe “the recognition by the EU of the juridical status that the Churches retain in the various national codes of law, as contemplated by annex 11 of the Treaty of Amsterdam of 1997, a theme to which no reference is made in the Charter of Nice”. “Don’t get bogged down in formulations but devote yourselves to concrete actions” is the advice given by Senator Giulio Andreotti to politicians of Christian inspiration. Commenting on the lack of any reference to the religious heritage in the preamble to the Charter of fundamental rights of the EU, Andreotti suggested that “what’s important is not so much the specific mention of the religious fact as the giving substance to the values in which we believe”. According to the senator, “decisive actions aimed at the recovery of those ‘natural’ values that form our Christian and European heritage, and that have neither aged nor been superseded”, are needed. For those values he said “remain the foundation of solidarity, subsidiarity and cooperation”. Lastly, in the view of sociologist Alberto Lo Presti “religion cannot remain confined to the private sphere, since it makes an irreplaceable contribution to the development of civilization and democracy, and effects of public significance flow from it”; a recognition that “in no way threatens the secular nature of the modern State”.
