A never-ended story

The creation of a political network encompassing intellectual, Catholic, transnational unionist networks led to the adoption of the political program of Christian Democrats in Europe, along with the emergence of figures with the stature of Karol Wojtyla, promoting the development of relations of the Holy See/Catholic Church and international bodies. The point emerged yesterday during the meeting "Christian Democratic internationalism in Europe", coordinated by the Luigi Sturzo Institute and by the Centre for European studies, during which were presented the works by Italian, European and American scholars focused on new domains of historical research."A history of success". "Those who view the 20th century as the century of ideologies is overlooking the Centre movements", said Christiane Liermann, from the Italian-German institute Villa Vigoni. "The story of European Christian Democrats is a history of success. Welfare state, European integration, constitutionalism, the defense of human rights, were all the fruits of their reflection". Michael Gehler, from the University of Hildesheim, in his opening address underlined that "Europe has been reunified and the Christian Democrats’ project was realized. Now our task is to preserve this achievement. Challenges lie ahead" which include "Europeanization and nationalization". The scholar recalled that thanks to the official establishment of the European People’s party, on April 29 1976, "cooperation and dialogue between the European party and national parties has grown stronger. At the time the main theme regarded customs and military interventions in Czechoslovakia, preparing the grounds for enlargement, for the fight on terrorism, the oil crisis, international détente, Vietnam, the fall of Bretton Woods, the contacts with South American countries…" But "a European political culture" was lacking, and "the divisions between progressive and conservative movements" within the EPP, determined also by the entry in the European Community in 1972, of Ireland, Great Britain, and Denmark, "fuelled a series of conflicts". For Antonio Varsori, professor at the School of Governance Luiss Guido Carli, the "changes occurred inside the Catholic Church influenced European people’s parties. In the years ’40 -’50 the Church was euro-centric, while after the Council it grew international and global, to the extent that in the years 1960-1970 the Christian Democratic parties started to focus their reflections on the problems linking the Northern and Southern hemispheres".Polish "syncretism". Transnational contacts didn’t work; neither in the political nor in the cultural realm. An emblematic example is Poland, whose relations with Western countries, notably those thriving even under the Communist regime, brought to the fore two "giants" like card. Wyszyñski and card. Wojtyla. Piotr Kosicki, from the University of Virginia, pointed out that even after World War Two, with the presence of Russian soldiers, "Catholic foundations were never eliminated. A popular faith survived in Poland, and role models such as Wojtyla e Wyszynski were formed, in the 1920s-1930s by French thinking". Theological and philosophical national debate was promoted by a large group of lay Christian intellectuals. For example, "in the mid 1930s there was a movement for the promotion of the human person through the encyclicals of Pius XI and the thought of Maritain". Kosicki pointed out that "Christian Democrats in the period between the two world wars weren’t strong but they were present, and after the last world conflict they promoted a set of values, although after 1947 some Polish Christian Democratic leaders fled the country and others were put into prison. In any case the Christian Democratic party was a form of syncretism of Christianity and Marxist revolution" and the future John Paul II "had undertaken a dialogue with the socialists".The ILO model. Speakers also addressed the relations between the Holy See, the Catholic Church and international bodies. "During the 18th century – said Liliosa Azara from Roma Tre University – the Holy See undertook a long process in which her privileged interlocutors were not the ‘Catholic nations’ or national States but international organizations. There is an unquestionable diffidence and hostility towards lay cosmopolitanism, and even more towards socialist internationalism, also Wilsonian internationalism, but the Holy See, with its strong universalistic identity, despite criticism to its strong universalistic identity, and despite criticism regarding its international role, doesn’t take a prejudicial stance against adhesion to the Society of the Nations". In this framework, "the relations with the International Labour Organization (ILO)" established in 1919, occupy a special role on the scenario of international relations of the Holy See". Ecclesiastic Jesuits served as assistants for ILO from 1926 until the establishment of official relations in 1967. ILO, recalled panel speaker Aurélien Zaragori from the Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3 "is a three-party organization which involves the states as well as entrepreneur and unionist organizations". For this, according to Andrea Ciampani from LUMSA university "it regards their relations". The "relationship between ILO and the Holy See is a relationship between the political dimension and the social dimension". In the course of the years "Christian internationalism has changed, and with ILO it now shares the enhancement of civil society organizations".