There has been an outcry by Christian bishops, not only Catholic but perhaps even more Orthodox (Greek and Russian) because the 16 articles of the draft European constitution that have been published make no allusion either to God or to religion.

However, Rev. Prof. Peter Serracino Inglott, the government's representative at the Convention on the Future of Europe, points out that any invocation of God, or other reference to Him, and possibly also to Christianity's contribution to the common heritage of European values, should naturally occur in the preamble to the constitution, and not in the 16 articles that have been drafted so far of the expected 50 that will eventually make up the constitution.

He explained that there is one sub-article of the 16 (Article 12.6) in which an explicit mention of religion would indeed have been appropriate. And that is the opinion of both the Maltese government and of the Commission of Bishops' Conferences of the European Community (COMECE).

The sub-article states that matters related to the national identity of member states are the exclusive competence of the member states and the EU can only act through supporting measures.

The Working Group on Competencies had listed what it considered to be the main components of national identity. These include the system of regional and local government, official languages, territorial boundaries, Church-state relations and the legal status of religious and other confessional bodies.

Prof. Serracino Inglott has, in fact, proposed an amendment to the draft constitution, so that the reference to religion as one of the components of national identity, which is at present only implicit, be made fully explicit.

The European People's Party (EPP) has moreover proposed an addition to the article on values (Article 2) as follows: "The Union values include the values of those who believe in God as the source of truth, justice, goodness and beauty as well as those who do not share such a belief but respect these universal values arising from other sources."

The EPP proposal was circulated to all convention members and was signed by 21 persons of different persuasions.

Prof. Serracino Inglott himself has not signed it. He said he did not think that the mention of God, merely attributing to Him a superfluous role in relation to values, without any practical consequences flowing from it, was of any great merit.

Even more, as a philosopher, he does not think that a valid justification of fundamental human rights can be provided except by ultimate reference to God and he was therefore very reluctant to subscribe to any statement suggesting the contrary.

He specified: "I prefer the constitution to say nothing about God rather than something vacuous. I personally favour the insertion in the preamble of one of the formulae proposed by COMECE, that mention among the historical sources of the EU, the religious as well as the humanist heritage."

According to Prof. Serracino Inglott, it is quite possible that a significant minority of the conventioneers will object to the use of the word religious, as distinct from spiritual, as happened at the time when the Nice Charter of Fundamental Rights was discussed.

One must bear in mind that consensus is required for inclusion of anything in the consitution. The convention president, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, has already anticipated that many firm believers in the presence of God everywhere did not think that their belief implied He should be named in the constitution.

Although Prof. Serracino Inglott regrets this, he does not think it is tragic. He explains that the really important points that have to be safeguarded are precisely the three articles which COMECE has agreed upon with the Church-and-Society Commission of the Conference of European Churches, which groups within it practically all the Protestant and other Christian confessional organisations in Europe.

The first of these three points concerns the respect that the Union needs to have for the status, under national law, of religious communities and similar organisations.

This recognition was already agreed upon in Declaration Number 11 annexed to the Treaty of Amsterdam and it is the point of the proposed amendment of Article 12.6 of the draft constitution.

The second point is the clarification that the freedom of religion acknowledged in the Charter of Fundamental Rights is to be understood as covering not only the profession of faith and the practice of ritual, but also the full exercise of freedom in all aspects of cultural life in the light of faith, such as the running of hospitals, in which the moral values flowing from the faith are observed, and of schools and universities, where the teaching draws its inspiration from the same source.

The third point is a constitutional guarantee that the structured dialogue which the EU institutions have established with the Churches in all matters involving religious and moral issues, be maintained.

Such a guarantee could be part of the provisions for participatory democracy envisaged in Article 34 of the preliminary draft constitution.

The convention, which has already expressed its desire to expand the role of civil society in the new European system of governance, can hardly object to this third point.

Prof. Serracino Inglott believes that it is these practical points which are needed to reassure the minds, particularly of Catholics about to become members of the EU, that there will be no shifts of the EU's approach and competence in the field of religious and moral questions.

All other issues, he added, including that of complementary statements about the past contributions of Christianity, which have been, in truth, decisive for the development of European integration, are much less vital.

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