Those “yes” for the cathedral

A written Declaration, number 54, began to pass through the European Parliament in Strasbourg in late May. Aimed at protecting the Catholic cathedral of St. Joseph in Bucharest, Romania, it was the first initiative of its kind, sponsored by five MEPs (4 Socialists and 1 Liberal) of the country that had entered the EU on 1st January. The authors of the Declaration denounced a series of illegalities committed to be able to proceed to the erection of a 19-storey skyscraper just 8 metres away from the historic cathedral in the Romanian capital. These illegalities were aimed at obtaining the necessary building permits, which were issued in fragrant violation of all the existing regulations, as well as of common sense. The MEPs also accompanied the Declaration with some technical studies that highlighted the serious dangers of grave structural damage that the Catholic cathedral would incur in the event of an earthquake, a hardly far-fetched hypothesis given the high seismic risk of Romanian territory. The Declaration was written, and presented to the EP, after a tireless campaign of protest by the Christian community of the country against the constant refusals of the competent authorities to tackle the problem and the scandalously long delays with which legal action in the courts was proceeding. To tell the truth, on 10 July 2007, after only 15 months since the presentation of the suit by the archdiocese of Bucharest, the court ruled in favour of a suspension of the building work on the site, but during those 15 months the building contractors had already raised the building almost to its final height.The affair aroused great interest in Strasbourg. The Declaration met with extraordinary support: 424 MEPs signed the document, well in excess of the necessary majority of 393. And the deputies who signed it represent all the political groups (People’s Party, Socialists, Liberals, Europe of Nations, Identity-Tradition-Sovereignty). By their signature they wished to express, on behalf of the European citizens they represent, a clear “no” to the destruction of the cultural heritage of Romania – in the year in which one of its cities, Sibiu, has been chosen as European Capital of Culture – and implicitly to make an appeal for the respect of the rights of religious communities. This is hardly the place to cite all the names of the signatories, also because we are convinced that only the Lord can reward their commitment, but we would like to thank in particular the Italian, Polish, Irish, Slovak and Lithuanian delegations that signed the Declaration en bloc. Our thanks also go, of course, to the Romanian delegation; though a minority did not wish to tackle the problem, most offered their continuous support in the collection of signatures. We are sustained by the hope that the reasons of justice and a reasonable justice shall prevail in this unequal struggle against those who only think of money and forget that European history with its monuments is the cradle of the culture in which we all grew up. We wish to recall – hoping they may be prophetic – the words that European Commissioner for Culture Jàn Figel spoke to us on the evening of 26 September 2007 when the written Declaration no. 54 reached its completion: “ veritas vincit”.