Posted Sunday, June 1, 2003; 14.38BST
The Pope may be one of the world's top lobbyists, but try as he might, he still hasn't managed to get the Heavenly Father a mention in the E.U. constitution. When Valéry Giscard d'Estaing unveiled his long-awaited preamble to the long-awaited draft, there were shout-outs to ancient Greek, Roman, and Enlightenment thinkers — but not to God or Christianity.
A document that wants to reflect a pluralist Europe and offend no one, the draft acknowledges a "spiritual impulse always present in [Europe's] heritage." But that ecumenical, almost New Age-y note did not satisfy Christian Democrats who had pushed for an explicit nod to God; or religious E.U. states, current and future, including Italy and Poland; or, of course, the Catholic Church. "Enlightenment wasn't born out of nowhere. It came out of Christianity," says Vatican diplomat Achille Cardinal Silvestrini. "They make a point of talking about roots. If you're going to do that, you have to talk about them all." Monsignor Noel Treanor, who represents the bishops' lobby in Brussels, says Giscard's revisionism should be revised once more "out of a sense of historical exactitude."
Europe's past may be a reason for God's inclusion, but its present suggests He may not belong. Even a Vatican official notes: "If you look at modern-day Europe, it's not a society based on Christianity." Still, "for many Europeans, the political values that inspire them to support the E.U. derive in part from their belief in God," says European Convention presidium member John Bruton. He wants a mention of God that doesn't exclude Muslims or Jews, but admits that "in many aspects of life — in religion and other things as well — Europeans have retreated into the private sphere."
At the convention, those who care about God's inclusion care publicly and deeply. But they're a minority. For most delegates, religion will not be atop the agenda as they negotiate changes to the draft. There are so many other contentious points that the debate on God "didn't excite much passion on the convention floor," says delegate and Irish M.E.P. John Cushnahan, who feels that God doesn't belong in the document. "This was much ado about nothing, a cause célèbre among the media and the Vatican." Perhaps. But with consensus as absent as the Almighty, the delegates could use some divine intervention to get their act — and their constitution — together.
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