” “A "Convention of Christians"” “” “

The first meeting of the “Convention of Christians on Europe” will take place at Barcelona from 6 to 8 December with the objective of contributing to the discussion of the European Convention and the intergovernmental Conference that will follow it up. The convention will focus on the process of participation and on such questions as the definition of the rights of the person in the Constitutional Treaty, the socio-economic model of the Union and especially the role of religion and the juridical status of the Churches in the European Union. We interviewed the promoter of the event and founder of the Catalan website www.e-cristians.com Josep Miró i Ardèvol. Does Europe, to be herself, need an explicit Christian reference? “European culture is impregnated by the Christian conception: Rousseau and Kant are just two examples of significant thinkers who have made a major contribution to the formulation of European thought on Christian foundations. To deny this evidence is to make the past and present of European culture incomprehensible. The second evidence is that a large part of European society is Christian”. Europe is founded not only on Christian, but also on pagan, Jewish, Muslim, agnostic and other roots: does your proposal recognize this pluralism? “Our model, of course, is that of a non-confessional state. That means that the state institution as such does not possess any confession of its own, but at the same time recognizes in positive terms the existence of the religious phenomenon. The recognition of Christianity forms part of the recognition of pluralism and of freedom of expression of religion or cult”. What do you hope this Convention of Christians will achieve? “I hope it will establish an active network of people in the European context to promote the Christian contribution and thus help to form a more human European society”.