January 16, 2005
Having Second Thoughts
Dec 2004 (CWR)
…the political body that has emerged from this drive, the European Union whose 25 member-states signed the new constitution in Rome on October 29, does not match all the hopes and plans of Robert Schuman and John Paul II. The Pontiff himself led a long, vigorous, but ultimately fruitless campaign to include some recognition of the continent’s Christian patrimony in the preamble to the EU constitution. The most powerful figures in today’s European Union are not prepared to recognize the historic debt that their continent owes to the Christian faith. Indeed, they seem loath to appoint an avowedly Christian politician to a leadership post in the new Union.