CATHOLIC CHURCH ASKS VOTERS TO SUPPORT DRAFT CONSTITUTION
The Times, London - Saturday, 1 May, 2004
Ruth Gledhill
Religion Correspondent
The Roman Catholic Church has come out in support of the European Constitution, calling for it to recognise the role of Judaism, Islam and Christianity in shaping European culture.
The Catholic bishops of England and Wales said yesterday that the enlarged community of 455 million people needed democratic and accountable institutions as well as a "moral vision".
They said, "A constitutional treaty that helps to secure these and enjoys popular legitimacy is vital if enlargement is to be a success."
Their guidance was interpreted as clear backing for the "yes" campaign, although the bishops insisted their interevention was non-political.
The bishops urged all Catholics to use their vote in the coming European and local elections and will expect Catholics equally to make full use of the coming opportunity to vote in a referendum on the consitution.
The bishops backed the constitution in a statement issued by their international affairs department after their annual spring meeting at Ushaw College, Durham.
Fr Frank Turner, the Jesuit priest with responsibility for international affairs for the conference, said, "It is not a directly political statement trying to arbitrate the various political disputes between and within the parties. That is not the function of the bishops.
"The statement is trying to appeal at a deeper level about the way the Catholic Church and the bishops here see the challenges of this enlargement". He said enlargement "goes some way towards ending the division and the alienation of Europe and bringing what the Pope has called the 'two lungs of Europe' back into unity'.
Fr Turner, Assistant General Secretary to the conference, continued: "The bishops' conferences of the EU have been involved in a great deal of adocacy around the constitution"
Last year, religious leaders lost the fight to include reference to Europe's Christian, Jewish and Islamic heritage instead to Europe's shared heritage of "humanism, equality of persons, freedom and respect for reason".
Fr Truner said, "It would be the belief of the bishops that a constitution is better than no constitution."
He said a constitution would help set the rules around factors such as funding mecheanisms, and whether any particular decision needed unanimity or a qualified majority vote.
Fr Turner said: "It will be very unhelpful if these kinds of things are not clear".
He said Britain could get by without a written consitution because of its heritage, but it was different where a large number of countries were coming together for the first time. Of the new members the Catholic Church is well-established in all but Cyprus and Estonia. In Poland, more than nine tenths of the 38 million inhabitants are church members and more than half attend Mass regularly. In slovakia, more than two thirds of the population are church members. But in the Czech Republic, only one quarter of the population are church members and the number is declining.
In the statement,The European Common Good, the bishops called for wealthier EU states to create a "culture of acceptance" for migrants from poorer countries.
"Willingness to welcome migrants and asylum-seekers and their gifts remains an essential element of any civilised polity," they said.
With regard to the coming local and European elections, the bishops urged Catholics to look for "political leadership that is committed to healing divisions and creating truly inclusive community".
Readers of this posting might like to contrast this with another report elsewhere in the same day's newpaper:
American bishops who would deny Holy Communion to pro-abortion Roman Catholic politicians are turning the Eucharist into a "political battleground", according to the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin. The Most Reverend Diarmuid Martin said politicians must "make a conscientious decision" themselves over whether to receive Communion, as it is "very difficult" for priests to decide on "the state of the individual soul".
The Catholic Church - father of all humanisms - has no difficulty commenting at length on a political issue but clearly has no difficulty avoiding giving 'pastoral' care on a matter relating to those advocating the practice of a grave and abhorent sin!