4 March 2003
NEWS
International press welcomes Archbishop Christodoulos' letter to Valery Giscard D' Estaing concerning a reference to religion in the future EU Constitution
International press has welcome Archbishop Christodoulos' letter to the President of the European Convention Mr. Valery Giscard D' Estaing concerning the question of including a reference to religion in the future EU Constitution.
The prestigious bulletin " AGENCE EUROPE" ( the most important reference to EU subjects in Brussels ) commented on this issue by stressing that ”Archbishop Christodoulos addressed a letter to Mr. Valery Giscard D' Estaing in which he sets out the wishes of the Greek Orthodox Church on the subject of the place that religion should hold in the new constitutional treaty" .
It also cites that " Archbishop Christodoulos stressed the Christian roots of the EU's spiritual and cultural traditions".
Meanwhile, some Eurodeputies (mainly Italians belonging to the ex-Commissioner's E. Bonino party called "Lista Bonino") have addressed a letter to the President of the French Republic Mr. Chirac asking to support their initiative not to include any reference whatsoever to religion in the new EU Treaty. The rather lukewarm reception of their initiative by the French President (" I have noted your proposal with interest" writes Mr. Chirac in his letter) has created criticism among them as regards the scope of their campaign and the way it is being undertaken.
[Costas Kydoniatis from Brussel for Ecclesia Report]
Giscard d' Estaing in favour of a reference to the Union' religious heritage.
The Chairman of the European Convention Mr. Giscard d' Estaing is to propose that the preamble to the
new European Constitution should include a reference to the Union's religious heritage as he announced on Friday 28.2.2003 when he summarized the last Convention discussions at a press meeting. Mr. Giscard d' Estaing said also that " the reference could either come under the Charter or be placed in the prospect of the identity that Europe draws from its two thousand year history" . In his view, the discussion on this subject was useful as the role of the Convention is not to shy away from discussion. He also stated that two consensus points have emerged. First, guarantees on church freedom as defined in the Treaty of Amsterdam should be taken up in the same terms in the second part of the
Constitution. Also, religious reference cannot be made in the article of the Constitution on EU values, as these values are so linked to the functioning of the EU that their transgression could lead to sanctions against a Member-State.
[Costas Kydoniatis from Brussels for Ecclesia Report]
ALERT!
Bethlehem Getting Its Own Wailing Wall
The Latin-rite patriarch of Jerusalem and the Custos of the Holy Land sent a message to the presidents of bishops' conferences worldwide with the lament that "a wall isolates Bethlehem."
The text, signed by Patriarch Michel Sabbah and Franciscan Father Giovanni Battistelli, is addressed to representatives of the episcopates, and makes the following appeal: "Please, do whatever you can: through your own government, with the Israeli Embassy in your country, with the Israeli government itself."
"The Israeli military authorities have taken the decision to separate the Palestinian Territories from Israel by a long wall passing through the whole country, " explains the message dated Feb. 24.
"Because of this Israeli decision, 60 Christian families, near Rachel's Tomb, at the entrance of Bethlehem, are being encircled, isolated and deprived of all services, and have only a small entry, through an 8-meter-high wall, that will also isolate the city of Bethlehem from Jerusalem and the other territories," the message continues.
"We address this urgent appeal also to all the Christians in the world," the Catholic leaders say. "Please do something, before it is too late, to leave Bethlehem a city where one can go, pray and live in peace; convince the Israeli authorities to stop this measure of building the wall at the entrance of the very holy city of Christmas, the city of Bethlehem!"
It concludes: "The inhabitants of Bethlehem and particularly the Christians, seeing themselves closed in, threatened by serious hardship to the point where some of them may feel constrained to leave the country, appeal to you! This is an SOS cry!"
The Great Schism
New on Myriobiblos Online Library: The Schism of the Roman Church, by the late Prof. of the Univ. of Athens John Karmiris. Although more than 50 years old, still is a highly important essay on history of Church, based on Orthodox and Catholic sources, and on an enormous bibliography.
See it on
Italian MEP raises in Brussels the issue of the genocide against Christians
Mr. Antonio Tajani (Italian Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the " European Peoples' Party") tabled a very important parliamentary question to the European Commission concerning the genocide against the Christians worldwide. The full text of Mr. Tajani's question reads as follows:
" Subject: World-wide genocide of Christians The United Nations and several human rights organisations have recently sounded the alarm over the increase in persecutions of Christians world-wide: in 2000, 165.000 were killed and 200.000 persecuted. Europe, which still bears unhealed scars from the shame of the Holocaust, has a duty to take action to guarantee the right to freedom of religion. What initiatives does the Commission intend to take to safeguard and guarantee freedom of religion - to which everyone has a right - in Europe and the rest of the world?
How does the Commission plan to act to stem these cases of intolerance and religious discrimination and to protect laymen and missionaries at work, as they daily put their lives at risk?"
The written answer given by Commissioner Mr. Patten (by the way, he was the last British Governor of Hong-Kong...) was not really satisfactory. It should be stressed here that Mr. Patten has been heavily criticised in the past for his positions on the situation of the Greek population of southern Albania, as he seemed "satisfied" with its condition as well as the Albanian human rights record. Nevertheless, he changed his mind very recently after a visit undertaken by European Commission experts in Albania where major human rights violations were verified. The full text of the official answer to Mr. Tajani’s question reads as follows:
"Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission:
The Union condemns all forms of discrimination and intolerance based on religion or belief, a point which it underlined at the 57th United Nations (UN) Commission on Human Rights in Geneva this year. This stance was reflected, inter alia, in the support offered by Member States for the resolution introduced by Ireland on the Elimination of All Forms of Religious Intolerance and in the Union Statement on Civil and Political Rights, which condemned all forms of discrimination and intolerance based on religion or belief. The Union also calls on all Governments to ensure that their domestic legal systems provide effective guarantees for the exercise of the freedom of religion and belief to all without any discrimination. It supports the continuing efforts of the Special Rapporteur to examine incidents in all countries that are incompatible with the relevant international standards, in particular the Declaration on the Elimination of
All Forms of Intolerance Based on Religion or Belief. The Commission, which played an active role in Geneva, fully supports the importance attached to freedom of religion. Activities to promote and defend this freedom in third countries are eligible for support under the European initiative for Democracy and Human Rights. Article 10 of the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights also emphasises the importance of freedom of religion. The European Union raises and will continue to raise religious freedom in its various dialogues with third countries where this is appropriate."
[Costas Kydoniatis from Brussels for " Ecclesia Report”.]
FEATURE
God splits EU blueprint-drafters
An unholy row has broken out in the European Union over the role of religion in a future EU constitution.A year after it was set up to design a new institutional architecture for the 15-member bloc, the convention on the future of Europe is split down the middle over whether to include a reference to God in the EU blueprint. Former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who heads the 105-member European Convention, made no reference to God in a draft constitution unveiled earlier this month. Instead, the text simply declares: "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." The Vatican, which has lobbied hard for Europe's religious heritage to be recognized in the club's constitution, described the draft as "totally insufficient." And during an impassioned debate Thursday and Friday, many delegates to the Brussels-based convention echoed Pope John Paul II's recent plea for Euro pe to "open its doors once again to Christ."
Italian deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini said the European Union should be described as a "community that shares a Judeo-Christian heritage," while German deputy Erwin Teufel told the convention that European civilization was founded on three hills -- the Acropolis in ancient Greece, The Capitol in ancient Rome, and Golgotha in Jerusalem.
The European Parliament's center-right Christian Democrat group last week tabled an amendment, modeled on an article in the Polish constitution, which invokes the values "of those who believe in God as a source of truth, faith, justice, goodness and beauty." However, attempts by the pro-religious lobby to insert a reference to God in the EU's new treaty sparked a furious response from more secular members of the convention. British member of the European Parliament Linda McAvan said any explicit mention of Christianity would "offend those many millions of people of different faiths or no faith at all," while Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel thundered: "Europe is not mono-religious."
In a bid to bridge the divide between the two camps, Giscard d'Estaing told reporters Friday that a reference to religion should be included in the preamble to the constitution, rather than in the legally binding articles that follow. The 76-year-old chairman, who has frequently compared himself to U.S. founding father Benjamin Franklin, told reporters that the future constitutional treaty might borrow from the EU charter of fundamental rights, which refers to the bloc's "spiritual and moral heritage."
The former French leader warned the convention, which is made up of national and European parliamentarians and representatives of the EU's 15 governments, that it was in danger of missing a June deadline for presenting a draft treaty unless its stepped up its work. Extra sessions of the body have been slated for March to debate the 1,087 amendments that have been tabled on the first 16 articles of the draft constitution.
The prospect of a U.S.-led war against Baghdad also continues to weigh heavily on the minds of delegates, with Giscard d'Estaing claiming the crisis was in danger of "casting a shadow and a sense of fear over our work."
Splits within the European Union over how to disarm Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein have left the EU's foreign policy ambitions in such disarray that a new list of draft articles presented Friday makes no attempt to define them in legal terms.
The articles dealing with common foreign and security policy and common defense policy are simply left in brackets in the text, in what has become open acknowledgement of the EU's inability to adopt a united stance on matters quite literally of life and death. In a wry reference to existing pledges by states to work more closely on the global stage, Giscard d'Estaing said: "Even the best designed institutional texts and structures are not effective without the determination to use them."
[By Gareth Harding, UPI Chief European Correspondent published 2/28/2003]
