“The European Constitution could reconcile religion and modernity”, declared Bishop Josef Homeyer, president of the Commission of the European Bishops’ Conferences (COMECE) on 18 July. The bishop was speaking at the “Colloquium Europäischer Pfarrgemeinden” (CEP a free association of Christians founded by the Austrian Cardinal Franz König, and since 1978 part of the NGOs with advisory status at the Council of Europe), held at Erfurt in Germany. Homeyer said that a reference to God in the European Constitution would be a guarantee against totalitarianism”. He is of the view that the matter is far from closed. The bishop emeritus of Hildesheim recalled that Europeans “are living on scorched earth as far as the question of the relation between religion and politics is concerned” and that “from the Crusades and the Thirty Years War to the conflicts in Yugoslavia and Ireland, religion has lost its political innocence in Europe”. Homeyer re-affirmed the role of the reference to God, arguing “it is not a question of refurbishing premodern societies but of safeguarding the European memory”. Moreover, he added, “the God of the European Constitution is the God invoked at Auschwitz. And to consider that invocation a private affair reveals a shocking cynicism”. Bishop Homeyer declared that “to safeguard the dignity of this memory, the European Constitution must contain a reference to God” as a perpetual “reminder of the universality of human rights that Europe has too often failed to respect”.
