editorial" "
The great Molière created, in one of his best known comedies, the famous Tartuffe, who has become a synonym of the impostor in French. Molière’s famous dramatic character once again sprang to mind in reading the draft preamble of the future European Constitution before the unexpected cancellation of any reference to the century of the Enlightenment and Greco-Roman civilization (page 2). But even thereafter Tartuffe continued to hold the stage. The draft preamble had explicitly evoked, among Europe’s cultural legacies, the Greco-Roman civilization, the philosophic currents of the Enlightenment and a curiously vague “spiritual impetus”. Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, President of the Convention charged with the task of drafting the Constitution, had made a point of explaining, in an Italian national daily, that the “spiritual impetus” was a veiled reference to Christianity and had emphasized that if the name “Christian” had been explicitly written in the text (“Horror! Conceal this name! I cannot bear to hear it!” as Molière’s Tartuffe would exclaim), it would also have been necessary to include a reference to Judaism and Islam. “Christianity”, in this view, is therefore a word that could not be written in an official text and had to be concealed behind the expression “spiritual impetus”. But why on earth put Islam and Judaism on the scales, like a threat or a form of blackmail? These religions have had and still have their role in the history and civilization of Europe. The truth is that contemporary Europe was fundamentally born from Christianity. It was also born from Greek and Roman civilization, from the Enlightenment. It was influenced by other strands of thought. But the Christian contribution still remains to this day the bedrock of our continent. How come that some politicians thought it possible to conceal a history extending over 18 centuries under so vague a formula? Recognizing this bedrock does not mean thinking of a theocratic government, something impossible to propose. All it means is recognizing a fact that no one can change precisely because it is a fact. In his recent book on secularization, La secolarizzazione. Religione e società nell’Europa contemporanea (Laterza, 1999), the French historian René Rémond notes that “of all the continents, Europe presents an originality in its attitude to the religious phenomenon that is of capital importance: the shared belonging to Christianity is a component of the European identity. Christianity has impressed its indelible mark on the continent. Europe has covered itself with a great white mantle dotted with churches. Monasteries were founded all over the continent, and their monks contributed to till the land. The land was divided up into a chequerboard of fields, humble crosses were raised at the crossroads, the great cathedrals and basilicas were built in the towns. Christianity left its mark not only on space but also on time, through the liturgical calendar”. We need to look at the facts and stress that the Christian roots of Europe do not exclude other roots. To ignore some or all of these roots seems a gesture worthy of Tartuffe. In the debate now underway, revelatory of so many ghosts, the truth is at stake. A Constitution is a founding act: can Europe be founded on cancelled words?
