Not only article 37″ “

“Recognizing the Christian roots of Europe means guaranteeing the dignity and liberty of each person. Art.37 of the draft Constitution is a significant step in the right direction, but does not exhaust the recognition of the religious experience in the European Constitution”. The point is made in a press communiqué released in Brussels in recent days, at the end of the plenary session of the European Convention, by the Convention of Christians for Europe (CCE). Founded in Spain in April 2002, the CCE brings together Christians and laypeople in various European countries, pledged to the promotion of religious freedom. It held an international Colloquium in Brussels last week on “God and Europe? Religious liberty and political liberty in the founding treaties of the new Europe” (cf. SirEurope no.25/2003). Article 37. “Status of the churches and non-confessional organizations. 1 – The EU respects and does not prejudice the status recognized in national legislations for the churches and the religious associations or communities of the member states. 2 – The EU also respects the status of philosophic and non-confessional organizations. 3 – The EU shall maintain a constant dialogue with these churches and organizations, and recognize their identity and their specific contribution”. Inadequate recognition. While expressing “appreciation for the work of the members of the Convention on the future of Europe, and their efforts to incorporate in the draft Constitution both what is already established in declaration no. 11 annexed to the Treaty of Amsterdam with regard to the recognition of the status of the Churches and the institution of ‘a regular dialogue’ between the religious confessions and the Union”, the CCE points out that “the formulation of article 37 might be further improved by explicitly recognizing the institutional autonomy of the Churches”. The CCE maintains moreover that “such recognition would be inadequate if no clear reference to the religious roots of Europe were to be made in the preamble”. The colloquium. The French vice-president of the CCE, Elizabeth Montfort, declared that “the right to life, from conception to natural death, the role of the family as fundamental cell of society, the recognition of the principle of subsidiarity as guarantee of individual freedom and responsibility, the campaign against poverty as condition for peace, and economic progress as condition for social justice and solidarity”, deserve to be enshrined in the draft European Constitution. In the view of Joel-Benoit d’Onorio, director of the Institute of Church-State Relations at the French university of Aix-en-Provence and president of the European Association of Catholic jurists, the best compromise for the reference to God in the European Constitution is represented by the well-known formulation contained in the recent Polish Constitution. At the end of the work, Msgr. Noel Treanor, general secretary of COMECE, after having stressed that “the European project has always aroused the interest and support of the European Churches, expressed the hope that the future Constitution “would incorporate declaration no.11 annexed to the Treaty of Amsterdam on the juridical status of the Churches and religious communities, uphold the principle of self-determination of the specific identity of the Churches, and codify a structured dialogue with the EU (a kind of ‘pre-legislative consultation’), aimed at guaranteeing the effective contribution of the Churches to society, as recommended by the European Commission’s recent White Paper on Governance”. Telegram from the Pope. On behalf of John Paul II, Cardinal Secretary of State Angelo Sodano sent a telegram to the colloquium emphasizing the “fundamental requisites” of believers that need to be satisfied in the future constitutional Treaty: “the recognition of the social dimension of religious freedom, respect for the identity and juridical status enjoyed by the Churches and religious Communities in conformity with national legislations, and the opportunity for a structured dialogue between the Union and the religious confessions”.