We all have Christian roots ” “

Inserting in the future European constitutional treaty a reference to God that may be accepted by believers and nonbelievers alike: that’s the recommendation that Bishop Josef Homeyer, president of COMECE (Commission of the Episcopal conferences of the European Union) has made to Wilfried Martens, president of the European People’s Party, in a letter of congratulations for the document “A constitution for a strong Europe” drafted at the end of the People’s Party congress in Estoril (Portugal, 18 October). “We note with enthusiasm – writes Msgr. Homeyer – that the participants in the congress have inserted in the draft document a reference to the moral duty of Europe’s solidarity with the poorer countries, with all the obligations that flow from it”. Homeyer says it is “encouraging” to note that the European People’s Party “should pronounce itself in favour of the recognition of Europe’s religious heritage in the preamble to a European constitution, as well as in favour of EU respect for the spiritual traditions of member states”. The president of COMECE also expresses the hope that “the institutional dimension of freedom of religion be expressly confirmed” and that “the Convention be able to respond to the hopes of many men and women by making reference to God in the European Constitution”. “In this regard – he points out – I think it will be possible to find formulas that would be acceptable both to believers and nonbelievers”. The statement of the president of the Commission of episcopates of the European Community came on the eve of the audience granted by the Pope to Valery Giscard d’Estaing, president of the Convention on the future of Europe, on 31 October. John Paul II, in numerous addresses in recent months, has expressed the hope that the future European constitution would contain an explicit reference to the Christian roots” of the European continent, as the common heritage on which Europe has been built. “That there may be a reference to the religious heritage in the future European constitutional treaty cannot be excluded”, comments Elmar Brok, member of the Convention and chairman of the foreign affairs, human rights, common security and defence policy Commission of the European Parliament. Brok, who is German and member of the European People’s Party group in the EP, on briefing journalists, has repeated the willingness of his parliamentary group to have such a reference inserted in the European constitution, but reveals that probably there are “diversified positions on this point within the European Convention”. So far the debate on the “Christian roots of Europe” has remained outside the debating chamber of the European Convention: “We still have to begin discussing this issue”, admits Brok. “When the discussion opens we should then be able to form an idea of the exact strength of the various positions and the possible points of convergence”. The German MEP does not even exclude the possibility that agreement may be reached on another aspect: the provision of permanent structures and forums of dialogue between the Churches and the European institutions. “We must – concludes Brok – seek an acceptable compromise on the whole wide-ranging issue concerning relations between the Churches and the European institutions”. Like the European People’s Party, the European Socialist Party has also prepared a contribution for the work of the Convention on the future of Europe. The document was discussed at Birmingham on 30 and 31 August in the course of the seminar of the European Socialist Party for the participants in the European Convention but was only released on 3 October. This document also touches on the problem of religions. According to the Socialists, it would be possible to insert a reminder of the role of religions in the construction of Europe in the first part of the constitutional treaty, while the problem of permanent structures of dialogue is bound up with the agreements and concordats that the religious confessions have already concluded with the member states.