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"Religious Intolerance and Discrimination"

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EUROPE: Vatican finds "gaps" in European constitution draft

EUROPE: EU group to put God in His place

EUROPE: No place for religion in EU constitution

10 February 2003

Editor-in-chief: Willy Fautré

Website: http://www.hrwf.net

Email: info@hrwf.net

Our website has been updated. All the news we distributed in 2003 + other news are now available online.

EUROPE

Vatican finds "gaps" in European constitution draft

Response to first draft presented in Brussels

Zenit.org (07.02.2003)/ HRWF Int. (10.02.2003) - Website http://ww.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The first official draft of the future European Constitution, presented yesterday in Brussels by former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing, makes no mention of Europe's religious roots nor the juridical status of churches.

Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants and members of other religious communities have asked the European Convention to include in Article 2 of what should be the future "Magna Carta" of Europe, which articulates "the Union's values," a reference to God and to the Christian values that forged Europe.

In the first draft, the article states: "The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, liberty, democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights, values which are common to the member states. Its aim is a society at peace, through the practice of tolerance, justice and solidarity."

In a press statement today, following a meeting between German foreign affairs minister Joschka Fischer and Pope John Paul II, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls requested that the document be improved.

"The Holy See has noted that the values and elements already introduced in the plan -- relating to the first three titles of the treaty -- are fundamental for the life of the Union," the Vatican Press Office statement acknowledges.

During Foreign Minister Fischer's meeting with the Pope and key officials, including Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican Secretary of State, and Archbishop Jean Louis Tauran, Vatican Secretary for Relations with States, "surprise was expressed, because the juridical status of churches and religious communities has been disregarded. Lastly, the desire was expressed that the present plan be improved and the gaps filled," Navarro-Valls continued.

"We are very disappointed, not by what is written, but by what is not written," the secretary-general of the Council of European Catholic Episcopal Conferences, Monsignor Aldo Giordano, said.

The document was presented to the 105 members of the European Convention, to be discussed by the assembly. Debate on amendments will take place either at the end of February, or on March 17 and 18.

Giscard d'Estaing would like to present a unanimous proposal from the European Convention by the end of the spring, which will have to be approved by the inter-governmental conference charged with writing the future constitutional treaty. This Feb. 6 draft of the European Constitution, which will only have consultative value, can be read at the official web page of the European Convention.

EUROPE

EU group to put God in His place

by Ian Black 

The Guardian (06.02.2003) / HRWF Int. (10.02.2003) - Website http://ww.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - It makes a change from the normal Brussels diet of farm subsidies, eurozone deficit rules and waste directives. But talks about God and His place in the scheme of things, federal or otherwise, are not easy.

Thus it was, in the profoundly unspiritual setting of the European Union's bunker-like council of ministers building, that 13 worthy Europeans yesterday began what promised to be a heated debate about whether divinity of any kind merits a mention in the union's future constitution.

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, president of the convention on the future of Europe, was in the chair to discuss article 2 of the draft treaty relating to the values and beliefs of an EU of 25 members.

No theologians were involved, but the 13-strong praesidium of the convention includes former prime ministers from Italy, Belgium and Ireland, as well as Gisela Stuart, MP for Birmingham Edgbaston, who are all well qualified to debate this divisive issue.

Views about God's place in Europe's constitution matter greatly to countries with strong religious traditions but doubting governments are mindful of the continent's 10 million Muslims and other religious minorities. They want to keep the Lord out of the European project, favouring a form of words referring to universal values.

Religious and secular groups have made submissions to the 105-member convention, but some of the latter have pointed out that in Europe's bitterest struggles, those who claim God is on their side have not always been on the side of the angels.

"Many of our values were forged against the church," observed the Spanish socialist Josep Borrell Fontelles, "and when it comes to democracy, the rights of man and equality, God is only a recent convert."

Even the Pope has become involved, calling for a "clear reference to God and the Christian faith".

Unusually for Brussels, compromise seems unlikely. "Putting God into the constitution is simply in the 'too difficult to agree category'," one diplomat said. "Therefore there will probably be nothing."

No place for religion in EU constitution

The absence of God does not mean an absence of good

By Elfriede Harth*

The Economist / HRWF Int. (10.02.2003) - Website http://ww.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The European Union is a historically unique enterprise by sovereign states to peacefully sit down and negotiate the terms of political, economical and social interaction and cooperation.

This is done in the name of fundamental universal values: peace, human dignity, freedom, equality, solidarity, plurality, subsidiarity and democracy. Are these values Christian or otherwise religious? What sense does it make to speak about 'Christian peace' or 'Christian subsidiarity', or else Muslim or Buddhist human dignity? Why mention God in the EU constitution currently being drafted? This will be the first constitution adopted on European soil in the 21st century. The God of the Bible has given us Ten Commandments, and one of these prescribes that the name of God is holy and to be used with the utmost discretion. So many wars have been launched 'in the name of God'.

The last wars on the European continent at the end of the 20th century were essentially still religious wars. Because I am a Roman Catholic, I cannot stress enough that I would feel profoundly betrayed if the EU constitution included a reference to specific religious values that would be taken as a signal that the current values of the European countries and communities are an outgrowth of Christian or religious roots. In many ways, the policies and values exemplified in modern law and practice in Europe are a clear departure from the rigid inequities and injustices that are still practised in the name of religion, especially in the areas of gender, sexuality and reproduction. I would be appalled if the EU constitution would reflect or adopt 'Roman Catholic human dignity' as the Vatican denies practically all human rights within its jurisdiction: gender equality, freedom to get married and have a family for its clergy, election of its leaders, and freedom of speech for its theologians.

What value has human dignity for a violator of the Convention of the Right of the Child, like the Holy See, which has covered up for decades the sexual abuse of minors by members of its clergy? And why does the Holy See refuse to sign the European Convention on Human Rights? What do women gain from having religion mentioned in the constitution? Which religion in the world has to this date taken a lead in the promotion of women's equality and emancipation, in the promotion of women's rights?

The source of legitimacy of a democracy is the sovereignty of the people. There are many other possible political regimes, based on other sources of legitimacy. Because we are a democracy, we are free to choose between democracy and another political regime, if the general consensus should be that another was more perfect or less imperfect. But if we decide that the EU should be a democracy, all other sources of legitimacy have to be excluded. To mention God in the constitution would be to discard democracy as our political regime.

To abstain from mentioning God in our constitution does not mean that we faithful need to give up our belief that God is the source of everything: after all, democracy guarantees freedom of religion. But in order to ensure this freedom we must omit references to religion in general and Christianity in particular in the EU constitution.

If God's name is not mentioned, all 'constitutional' abuse of it will be avoided. And after all, persons of goodwill do not need God to be mentioned to do good - with or without a constitution.

* Elfriede Harth is the European representative of Catholics for a Free Choice. She lives in Versailles, France.