The absence of mention of religion from the so-called Berlin Declaration, issued to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the EU, has, predictably, got right up Ratzinger's nose. He has been raging and storming around Europe, demanding that the EU return to its traditional (Catholic) values.
In a speech to European bishops, Ratzinger accused the EU of "apostasy" for refusing to mention Christianity in the Berlin Declaration. Asking how leaders could hope to get closer to their citizens if they denied such an essential part of European identity, the pope said: "Does not this unique form of apostasy of itself, even before God, lead it (Europe) to doubt its very identity?'"
Fifty years ago, the EU was founded with a treaty signed in Rome. The location was chosen for the signing ceremony because of its close identity with the Roman Catholic Church still, at that time, regarded by many as the lynchpin of Europe. Fifty years later, the Berlin Declaration gives the outward appearance of a European Union that has deliberately distanced itself from the Vatican and any particular religious allegiance.
As far as Ratzinger is concerned, to accuse European leaders of apostasy is the ultimate insult he could offer. He hopes it will grab the attention of those who matter in Europe, and frighten them into obedience. The Vatican still thinks it can mobilise the faithful to overturn governments that do not do its bidding. But recent events have shown that the faithful are less and less inclined to listen to the voice of the Vatican when it comes to lawmaking (or, indeed, personal morality).
Ratzinger's ambition is to sweep Europe back into Rome's fold, and he has many influential supporters within the EU who are determined to help him do it.
The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, who drafted the Berlin Declaration, promised the pope when he visited Bavaria last year that she would do her best to get Christianity into any revived European Constitution. Then, Hans-Gert Poettering, president of the European Parliament and, at the time, leader of its influential Catholic centre-right movement, also told the pope last year that his group was determined to see the spiritual dimension of the European project written into the European Constitution. At the time, Poettering described the European Constitution to the pope as "holy text."
Merkel and Poettering are two of the three EU gurus chosen to sign the Berlin Declaration. Jose Manuel Barroso, the secularist European Commission president, is the other.
Intriguingly, on the very eve of EU leaders gathering in Berlin to witness the signing of the seemingly irreligious Berlin Declaration, who do we find having an audience with the pope? None other than one of the prospective signatories to the Berlin Declaration, Hans-Gert Poettering. And what was Poettering doing in Rome while the other EU leaders gathered in Berlin? Issuing the pope an official invitation to personally address the European Parliament.
It may yet turn out that, far from being remembered for a Berlin Declaration with all of its religious teeth pulled, the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome may well be remembered as the occasion when the pope accepted an invitation to ride his crusading horse into the heart of the main legislating body of the European Union and batter it into submission over the Constitutional recognition of religion.
Is this the card that Merkel and Poettering have now played?
The Berlin Declaration is an open challenge to the supremacy of the religion of Rome in Europe. The pope has met that challenge head on, and the EU has responded with an open invitation for him to come to its parliament and fix the problem. This provides the pope with an open door to peddle his spiritual wares directly to the main legislating body of the European Union.
Angela Merkel has been careful to couch references to the need for a new start to the issue of declaring European values within the Berlin Declaration in verbiage such that it can be interpreted as a green light by those EU leaders seeking for religion to be bound up in the European Constitution. The deadline she has set to achieve this by is the year 2009. The current German presidency of the EU is determined to leave the next holder of the rotational presidency, Portugal, with a clear mandate to pursue agreement by all EU members to commit to the 2009 goal by the end of this year.
reposted from: NSS
my: highlights / emphasis / key points / comments
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