Leaving the roots out?

Romano Prodi and Gianfranco Fini hardly agree on anything. On this particular topic they do. The European People's Party (EPP) gave its approval. Turkey is not amused and others do not agree. Catholics and Protestants are in favour though they disagree on some aspects.

Confusing? Not at all. The subject is the place of Christianity in the European Constitution.

Writing in the latest edition of Dialoghi (No. 3), the quarterly magazine of Italian Catholic Action, European Union Commission, President Prodi demonstrated the inseparable bond between Europe and Christianity calling for the latter's recognition in the Constitutional Treaty.

According to Prodi, "the monotheist religions, particularly the Christian religion," have been "one of the essential roots of Europe and one of its factors of development" as "the history of Europe and the history of Christianity are indissolubly united". All this "must be recognised in the Constitutional Treaty", he writes.

Italy's deputy prime minister Fini is of the same opinion. He said that Italy should push the EU to include a mention of Christianity among historical influences on the continent in its new constitution.

Fini said the current draft of the Constitution is mostly adequate, but that the reference to Christianity should be added. "The Italian government has been quite clear right from the outset of the Convention and we have not changed out opinion. We feel that it is necessary to include this reference," he told a news conference after addressing the European Parliament.

These positions have now been strengthened since last week the EPP, the largest group in the EU Parliament, has taken a definitive position in favour of the mentioning of Christianity in the constitution.

A number of European countries - most probably the majority - do not agree. So does Turkey, which hopes to join... eventually. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has indicated that he will oppose any reference to Christianity in the EU Constitution. He made his comments in an interview with the Italian daily La Repubblica.

Erdogan said that "freedom of conscience and the prohibition of all discrimination are the founding principles of modern Europe". He elaborated: "If the idea of religion is included in the constitution, that would be a contradiction of the principles and the progress made in this continent over the centuries."

Support comes from unexpected quarters. Joseph Weiler, a practising Jew and constitutional lawyer of international renown, thinks it is absurd that a future EU Constitution would not mention Christianity.

Weiler, who holds the Jean Monnet Chair at New York University and is director of the Global Law School and New York Centre for International and Regional Economic Law and Justice, presented the book he has dedicated to this issue, A Christian Europe, to Comunione e Liberazione followers.

Weiler considers the absence of references to Christianity in the future Constitution an absurdity. "If the German, Irish and Polish Constitutions mention God and the Christian roots, why does the text elaborated by the Convention reflect the French secular model?" he asked.

According to this Jewish constitutional lawyer, the lack of mention of European Christian roots is not a "demonstration of neutrality," but, rather, "a Jacobin attitude". The US professor stressed that the mention of Christianity is not an act of intolerance as "the Church proposes the truth of Christ; it does not impose it".

One of the staunchest supporters of EU enlargement, Pope John Paul II, has been making a continuing campaign in favour of a reference to Christianity in the constitution.

"The Christian roots are not a memory of religious exclusiveness, but a foundation of freedom because they make Europe a melting pot of different cultures and experiences," the Pope said in a message to the 17th International Meeting of Prayer for Peace, held earlier this month.

From "these ancient roots", the Holy Father wrote, "the European peoples have obtained the impulse that drove them to touch the limits of the earth and to reach the depth of man, of his intangible dignity, of the fundamental equality of all, of the universal right to justice and peace".

While enlargement goes forward, Europe "is called to find this energy again by recovering its awareness of its deepest roots", the Pope said. "It is not healthy to forget them. To simply presuppose them is not enough to inflame souls. To silence them withers hearts."

He continued: "Europe will be that much stronger for the present and future of the world the more it drinks from the sources of its religious and cultural traditions."

The World Council of Churches, which represents many Christian denominations but not the Catholic Church, has also called for the EU Constitution to include recognition of the role of Christianity in the history and culture of Europe.

"The central role of Christianity... ought to be reflected in the preamble of the draft European Constitution," the WCC said, adding: "Christianity has influenced European history, and the contribution and responsibility of the churches and religious communities, including Judaism and Islam, must be recognised."

This does not mean that Catholic and Protestant positions on Europe are identical.

The Rev. Keith Clements, a British Baptist minister and general secretary of the Conference of European Churches, has criticised the post-synodal document "The Church in Europe". He was a "fraternal delegate" at the 1999 Synod of Bishops for Europe, to which the apostolic exhortation was the Pope's response. Rev. Clements said he spoke for Finnish Orthodox and German Protestant representatives who had attended the synod with him.

In a letter to the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Walter Kasper, Rev. Clements said the papal document "raises certain questions in our minds. We must confess that it is with some surprise and disappointment that nowhere in the exhortation is reference made to any specific event, programme or organisation featured in the recent ecumenical journey in Europe.

"We fear the result of this text will be a perception that our ecumenical organisations and their work fall outside the interest of the Vatican, in contrast to the very positive relations that are experienced regionally and nationally in so many parts of Europe."

Meanwhile the debate continues.