Neither to impose, nor prevent” “

The debate continues on the lack of any reference to Christianity in the draft European Constitution. At the recent session of the Convention in Brussels, Giscard d’Estaing, president of the European Convention, presented his amendments on the question of religion. We have gathered some views on the matter. “May secularism not be the religion of Europe”. An appeal “not to turn secularism into the religion of Europe” is made by Archbishop José da Cruz Policarpo, Patriarch of Lisbon: “There’s a tendency to turn secularism into a synthesis of European culture, and thus relegate religion to the private sphere and exclude it as a form of public expression. There’s also a tendency to reject the identification of European culture with a European identity. Today the common assumption is that there are various cultures in Europe, but there’s no European culture. These are errors in outlook, because what is being asked is not privileges to protect religions in Europe, but the objective recognition of a common source of Christian inspiration for the larger part of European culture. To fail to recognize this is a big mistake: if Europe does not defend its identity from a cultural point of view, it will lose out to other cultures that are so strongly marked and defined by other religious phenomena”. “The essential has been done”. According to Noël Treanor, general secretary of COMECE, “article 2 should be the basis of the values on which the Union is built and ought also act as a fundamental sanction against any member countries that fail to respect the article as a whole”: “We propose that a reference to the religious heritage of Europe be contained in the Preamble. In my view, the essential was done as regards religion in the strict sense in the juridical and legislative provisions as a whole”. “Remembering who we are”. “Recognizing our Christian roots means remembering who we are and whence we come, without any prejudice to the democratic decisions to be taken”: so writes Msgr. Giuseppe Merisi, auxiliary bishop of Milan and representative of the Italian episcopate in COMECE (Commission of the Episcopates of the European Union). Recalling “the three normative provisions” that the Christian confessions have asked to be incorporated in the Constitution (cf. SirEurope no.15, p.15), Bishop Merisi suggests that “the importance of these references [to Christian roots] be proclaimed in Christian communities and in civil society. The aim in doing so is not to impose something on someone, or prevent someone from doing something, nor is it to reject the role and the contribution of other religious or cultural roots to the construction of Europe, or repudiate the rightful secular order of civil society. The aim is, rather, to offer a contribution, noble and important, to the construction of the common house, respectful of the contribution of all people of good will, in a context of dialogue and reciprocal esteem”. On the other hand, continues Bishop Merisi, “I believe that persons attentive to the teachings of the Church who are involved in the political debate or who play a role in Europe, must identify the best way of convincing their colleagues and the various political parties of the need to incorporate the recognition of Christian culture in the constitutional Treaty”.