Bishops appeal for reference to God in European constitution

The Maltese bishops yesterday joined their European counterparts in appealing for reference to be made in the European constitution to God and the Christian roots of Europe.

The draft constitution was presented in Brussels last week by the president of the Convention on the Future of Europe, Valery Giscard d'Estaing.

A Curia spokesman said when contacted yesterday: "The bishops... pray and hope that the role of religious faith as a source and foundation of the common European values will be recognised in the final version of the constitutional treaty.

"If this is rejected or set aside, it would amount to a non-recognition of a historical fact."

The Curia said the Pope last Sunday rightly said that the essence of the common Christian roots of Europe permeated European history and institutions. Precisely because of this, the Pope said, it had been requested that the future constitutional treaty of the European Union give space to this common patrimony of the East and the West.

The Pope argued that such a reference would take nothing away from the just lay nature of the political structures. On the contrary, it will help preserve the continent from the double risk of ideological laicism, on the one hand, and sectarian integralism on the other.

The Conference of the European Churches welcomed the draft of the first 16 articles of the constitution and, in particular, the reference to the solidarity between generations and between countries.

However, the general secretary of the Council of the European Episcopal Conferences, Mgr Aldo Giordano, said the bishops were disappointed, "not because of what is written in the text, but what is left out of it".

Mgr Giordano's voice is not isolated. Expressions of dissent about this draft have been voiced on various sides, and by various local churches in the hope that it may be amended.

Various European episcopates are expected to exert pressure on their respective governments and on the European Convention in Brussels.

The president of the Episcopal Conference of Greece, Mgr Nikolaos Foskolos, was among the most vociferous: "A Europe without God and without Christianity is no longer Europe."