editorial" "
“Perhaps it wasn’t just a pure coincidence, but on the very day in which the first European city mission was being celebrated in Vienna, the draft of the future European Constitution was published in Brussels, a Constitution which in its preamble (text on page 13) makes no explicit reference to the Christian roots of Europe”. The point is made by Erich Leitenberger, director of the Kathpress news agency in the Austrian capital. The text approved by the Presidium of the Convention on 28 May is, however, only a draft of the EU Constitution. It will be discussed in plenary assembly on 30 and 31 May, while scheduled for June is a crowded programme of further meetings to try to achieve, if possible, the formulation of a single proposal to be presented to the European summit in Salonika on 20-21 June. Not until October will the Treaty pass to the examination of the intergovernmental Conference (IGC) where it will be discussed by the Fifteen plus the ten new EU members. So changes are still possible. The first official reactions of the European Churches to the draft Constitution were not excessively harsh. Behind the scenes there was talk of a diplomatic solution: on the one hand the Churches by not insisting too much on the explicit reference to the Christian roots of Europe had enabled the proponents of secularism to save their face. On the other, the Churches’ request to be treated not just as mere “non governmental organizations” (NGO) or expressions of “civil society” was accepted by the incorporation of article 51 in the draft Constitution; the article recognizes the particular status of the Churches and also provides the basis for a permanent and structured dialogue between European Institutions and Churches. That dialogue will permit the Churches to be the voice of those who don’t have any voice, the poor, the outcast. It may be that the request for an explicit recognition of the Christian roots of Europe is still premature, yet without these roots it is impossible to understand the history and culture of the continent. The famous phrase of the Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce springs to mind: “We cannot fail to call ourselves Christians”. Without Christianity Europe becomes a ghost. The experience of the city mission now in progress in Vienna has emphasized that the Christian heritage of the continent is alive and kicking, and may give new impulses to civil life. What are the salient aspects of this event that are already visible in Vienna, also with their “European value”? Three particular aspects can be identified. First, the Church after years of problems and turbulence is once again becoming a creative force. Even the most secular-minded journalists and politicians acknowledge that the strength of the Church is alive, that the Church is not “a museum piece”. Second, the Church is symbolically reconquering the squares and public spaces of the city. For so many years you could see everything but a Catholic presence in the square in front of St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna. But now with the city mission, and with the huge stage erected to the side of the cathedral, the Church is re-appropriating this public space. Third, the Church in Vienna has succeeded in bringing together the movements one of the mainstays of the mission. The fascination of the Gospel is alive even for people today, for the men and women, for the young and the old who are seeking an answer to three fundamental questions: Where do I come from? Where am I going? What meaning has my life? Governments too should recognize this.
