It was no coincidence

Fifty years ago, precisely on September 4 1963, Robert Schuman, the founding father of the European Community, died. In his capacities as French Minister for Foreign Affairs five years after the end of World War II, he had the courage and the far-sightedness to provide a joint reconciliation plan for a future of peace with Germany, the neighboring country whose Nazi regime’s destructive fury caused tremendous sufferings to France.  His proposal, presented to German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, envisaged the union and the joint management of the coal and steel industries of both states. Based on experience at the time, coal and steel had been indispensable for the war industry. On these grounds, it was expected that by eliminating competitiveness also the two nations’ mutual motives and causes for waging war would be drastically reduced. It was therefore envisaged that with the French-German agreement the endorsement of neighboring European countries would follow suit. Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg thus accepted the invitation contained in the renowned “Schuman Declaration” of May 9, 1950. Adenauer, to whom Schuman had asked approval prior to the public presentation of his project, promptly gave his approval. The two statesmen’s relations were based on mutual trust, strengthened by the fact that both were practicing Catholics. Both came from areas on the French-German border. The experience of living “on the border” was shared also by Alcide De Gasperi, Italy’s Prime Minister at the time, also a practicing Catholic, with whom they shared mutual understanding on fundamental issues and on practical questions related to the future of the European project. Luxembourg’s Foreign Affairs minister and future premier Joseph Bech shared their same common grounds. A group of congenial personalities was therefore set up, inspired by the Schuman vision. In their capacities as statesmen they possessed the tools and the means to concretize that vision.All of them – to quote a phrase by Benedict XVI, who spoke of Alcide De Gaperi in June 2009 – had been raised at the “school of the Gospel”, their faith was deeply-rooted. They can therefore still be taken as models of Christian life and politics, taking as an example their political methods and outcomes, whose successes are still visible today. Was it by chance that also Robert Schuman, French foreign minister, played a decisive political role in that crucial period of European history; that he could use his role to put forward a proposal aimed at bringing about a decisive turning-pint in the history of the continent; that his proposal found congenial partners in the governments of neighboring countries; that finally his proposal was going to be implemented? It has not been a coincidence, rather a blessed circumstance: the fruit of lived and practiced faith. That fruit has led to the opening of a beatification process, in the light of the many chapters of the spiritual life of Robert Schuman.