'God' returns to Europe

In the past three, four years - perhaps even a bit more - one of the most controversial debates in Europe centred on the kind of mention that there should be to God and Christianity in the European Constitution. The debate came to an end when a Constitution without a reference to God was adopted. Then, as we all know, the Constitution itself almost came to an end after voters in France and The Netherlands rejected it in referenda.

Now the debate on Europe's Christian heritage as the basis of its common values has been reopened by the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, who made a plea for including "God" in a new EU treaty text after visiting the Pope in August.

Ms Merkel said: "I underlined my opinion that we need a European identity in the form of a constitutional treaty and I think it should be connected to Christianity and God, as Christianity has forged Europe in a decisive way."

Mgr Noël Treanor, secretary-general of COMECE (the association of European Bishops' Conferences) said that the European bishops are themselves set to discuss their stance on "God" in a new EU treaty, now that Ms Merkel has reopened the debate. The bishops also took their "first" initiative in this direction. They commissioned a report on the common values of the EU from a group of high-profile Catholic thinkers and politicians.

The group, which has already started meeting, included three members of the previous European Commission - Mario Monti, Franz Fischler and Loyola de Palacio - as well as Jacques Santer, the former Commission President, and Pat Cox, former president of the European Parliament.

This high-powered group is a sign both of the determination of the bishops to move ahead and a sign of the strong presence of Catholic politicians in European institutions. The setting up of the group is also aimed at influencing a political declaration on the values and ambitions of the European Union. The Union's leaders are planning to adopt such a declaration on March 25, 2007 - the EU's 50th anniversary.

The starting point for the group's deliberations was that the EU is perceived as concerned almost exclusively with economic issues, so that the values on which it was founded have been neglected or forgotten. These values, to do with peace, freedom, a rejection of extreme nationalism, solidarity, respect for diversity and subsidiarity (the idea that political decisions should be taken at the lowest possible level), all have connections to the Christian faith.

A Christian Outlook will follow the debate and report on it.