God and the EU: now France clashes with bishops

Date: 06/11/03

BISHOPS from EU member states have clashed with France's ambassador to the Vatican over whether Europe's new constitutional treaty should include a reference to Christianity.

At a top-level meeting in Brussels last week, Catholic bishops from current and incoming member states renewed their call to the intergovernmental conference (IGC) for a reference to God in the constitution's preamble.

But Pierre Morel, French ambassador to the Holy See, defended France's fierce opposition to any such reference, describing its position as "not negative, but prudent".

He said France welcomed Article 51 of the treaty's current draft on the status of churches and religious organizations, which, he said, was a "major advance, without precedent or equivalent in French or European law".

Christian values had inspired the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights as well as the current draft, said Morel, but France had "several" reasons for not wanting to mention them explicitly, including differences in member states' traditions.

Morel, a former ambassador to Russia and China, claimed that some politicians' demands to mention Christianity "have political motives, such as to push back the growing secularization of Europe or to stop future enlargements of the Union to certain other countries".

But his comments were attacked by Cardinal Godfried Danneels, Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, who told the 30-31 October conference that a treaty reference to Christianity would be "positive" and would "in no way" diminish the contribution to Europe's traditions of other religions.

Both were speaking at the autumn plenary of COMECE, the Commission of the Bishops' Conference of the European Community, representing Catholic bishops across the EU.

At a meeting in Brussels in early November 2003, Catholic bishops from Member States and those countries due to join the European Union in 2004 renewed their call to the Intergovernmental Conference for a reference to God in the new European Constitution's preamble. However, France's ambassador to the Vatican is strongly opposed to any such reference.