Experts in humanity

“The Catholic Church and the other Christian Churches vis à vis the European Integration Process”, is the theme debated by a panel of history scholars from Italy, France and Germany who convened in Rome on Friday April 17 for a meeting organized by the Alcide De Gasperi Foundation. The speakers surveyed 20th century history focusing on the role played by the Church, the Papacy and European episcopates in the framework of Europe’s integration process. The European project stems from a “spiritual and Christian dimension” which the Church upholds with her vision of man. The Church cultivated this dimension in the course of her millenary experience. As Pope Paul VI said in his speech to the UN: “we are experts in humanity”. No pretensions. The Church is an “expert in humanity”. In this very capacity and for this reason only does it ask not to be marginalized to “the private sphere” and that its “social relevance” be acknowledged. Thus declared Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Sant’Egidio Community, in the lecture delivered in his capacity as history scholar. Mr. Riccardi gave a survey of the history of 20th century history, in which “Europe emerges as a world that has relinquished God. Religion has been slowly driven out of the public sphere and restricted to private life”. “More modernity and less religion. This appeared to be the fate of history”. But “history proved this model to be wrong”. This is why 20th century Catholicism ascribes special value to “religious freedom”, namely the awareness that “the religious, spiritual and Christian dimension bears a social relevance that ought to be acknowledged”. “Religion – continued Riccardi – is not just a fact that involves a more or less large group of people. Rather, to a certain degree it innervates the social fabric with profound undercurrents. Until a few years ago this thought was understood as a pretension. But the new role of religions in social life is more apparent today”. Italy. Italian historian Alfredo Canavero, President of the Lazzati Foundation called upon Catholics to cast their vote in June’s elections for the renewal of the European Parliament. “Europe’s history is rooted in Christianity, but if these roots are not nourished and cared for they will dry up and Europe will develop into a Europe made of technocrats, a radical Europe, a Europe that will be very distant from the Catholic world”, he said. “And those Catholics who are Europeanists in words and not in deeds would be accountable for this drift”. Professor Canavero pointed out that the participation of the Catholic Church in the European project (with the establishment CCEE, COMECE and other initiatives), stems from the awareness that “Europe cannot be understood without Christianity. This is the main bond that unites the Catholic world to Europe”. France. Philippe Chenaux, director of the Study and Research Centre on the Second Vatican Council, who has been interested in European integration since the beginning of his academic career, recalled that in France “Catholics’ attention for the Community underwent alternate phases”. In the years prior to the EEC establishment, and “on the wake of political initiatives by statesmen like Robert Schuman”, these issues were much debated and the episcopate “reiterated the pro-European statements of Pius XII”. At a later stage, the failure of the ratification of the ECD treaty (European Community Defense, 1954) and the establishment of the Economic Community (1957), “cooled down enthusiasms”, while “new sceptical and cautious stands came to the fore”, also in environments like those of the magazine “Esprit” and in the Social Weeks of France. De Gaulle’s reinstatement led the French people – including Catholics – to become more cautious vis à vis the Community edifice whose erection “continued until today”.Germany. “In Germany the debate regarding adhesion to the European project – stated Thomas Brechenmacher, history scholar from Potsdam University – intersected the establishment of the Federal Republic, as well as Germany’s rearmament in the post-war period, the Country’s role in the international arena and the nation’s division in two separate parts. Thus, “it appeared clear that Europe would act as a bulwark preventing the expansion of the Communist bloc”. “This was also the belief of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who held great influence on public opinion at the time”. Brechenmacher lingered on the relationship between the different Christian denominations in Germany and the unitary project. To this regard, he said, “the greatest commitment in this area was that of Catholic environments such as the Katholigentag”, that represents still today an organized presence of open faithful who support the European Union.