Religious Aspects of Politics

Abstract

Today's rapid social and economic changes will negatively affect the EU if it continues to be unresponsive. The lack of political commitment endangers our system of universal values, pluralism and open-mindedness. Freedom of religion is under threat and cultural diversity needs legal protection. Meanwhile, religious institutions can play a role in mitigating the crisis by offering solidarity and reinforcing human dignity. It is important that politics provide answers for the future regarding democracy, values, the social market economy, and sustainable and inclusive growth. As the party of values, the European People's Party (EPP) should play a central role in ensuring solidarity, freedom of religion, pluralism and universal values.

Introduction

The Christian-Judaic roots of Europe are the basis of the EPP vision of society. The values we recognise are human dignity, freedom, responsibility, equality, justice, legality, solidarity and subsidiarity. Pope Benedict XVI (2012) recently spoke about the economic and financial crisis in Europe:

The crisis can and must be an incentive to reflect on human existence and on the importance of its ethical dimension, even before we consider the mechanisms governing economic life: not only in an effort to stem private losses or to shore up national economies, but to give ourselves new rules which ensure that all can lead a dignified life and develop their abilities for the benefit of the community as a whole.

Respect for pluralism is essential

The EU represents a geographical area occupied by peoples with different origins, cultures and religions. In this context, the model of pluralism is a benchmark for all Member States. Pluralism is not something we can consider established; it is a process that demands ongoing work and common effort by Member States. In a society in which we face the doctrine of political correctness, it is important to strengthen the centrality of the individual with all the various nuances this implies. The role of government is fundamental in assuring the full participation of everyone in public life. It is necessary, therefore, to make a serious commitment to modify, as soon as possible, the rules that discriminate against Christians, but also against other religions.

We must stay on top of this evolving crisis through initiatives such as working groups or permanent agencies that keep us up to date on developments. The significant number of discrimination cases recorded by the Religious Liberty Observatory in Rome, which tracks intolerance and discrimination against Christians in Europe, demonstrates that politics can no longer hesitate to confront this challenge. The EU cannot continue to betray the ideals that allowed the birth and the growth of the project called United Europe, a project born thanks to the common Christian ideals of the founding fathers. Trying to eliminate this consciousness from our institutions means destroying a priceless legacy and condemning Europe to political decline.

The economic crisis has many negative consequences for our society: economic consequences, including a general impoverishment of people; social consequences, including a drop in employment; and political consequences, including instability and difficulty in knowing which form of government is best able to tackle one of the most difficult periods of European history.

Religious institutions could turn this crisis into an opportunity. The EPP must take up the challenge of including within European and national governments a religious dimension in terms of solidarity, protection and love for the individual person.

To defeat fundamentalism and relativism, to confirm the centrality and secular character of institutions in the construction of democracy and in the political dialogue, to recognise the public dimension of religion and to measure our values against the religious convictions of our peoples–-these are our objectives to help the EU assure peace and development.

Political responsibility for the system of values

The current crisis of the European integration process is directly connected to our continent's loss of identity. This can be explained empirically by examining the crucial points of the European story and showing the significance of its Christian roots, a significance that is weakening and in the process undermining the vision of a European political process that has given us more than 50 years of peace, progress and rights. Today, European integration represents one of the main challenges facing our society. Despite the setbacks, the EU has the discretion to take decisions that will affect important–-even strategic–-areas such as ethics, the market, diplomacy, monetary policy and so on. The crisis of the European project results from a mistaken approach to integration and a political position that does not want to start from the question ‘What is Europe?’, the emblematic question that underlies the foundations of European integration. Pope Benedict XVI reminds us that the current, significant threats to human coexistence come from fundamentalism, or from seeing God as a pretext for the projection of power; and from relativism, the view that all opinions are equally true.

The decline of the political project we call the EU can be traced back to these factors. The relation between reason and politics has essentially moved away from a real notion of truth. Compromise, rightly presented as essential to political life, is now thought to be an end in itself. For this reason, I have chosen to focus on the main policies of the EU, using as a common thread the founding fathers’ intuitions and the promotion of human dignity which arises out of the Christian experience.

The standstill in which Europe finds itself should lead to deep reflection. There are issues that go beyond the ability to agree on matters such as a budget; the ‘old continent’ is losing its historical vision of itself. Since the Kohl era, Europe has been ruled by politicians who have had neither the courage to create a viable tomorrow nor the strength to preserve what the founding fathers created just 50 years ago.

It is an open question what remains today of the founding fathers’ vision of Europe as the continent leans towards a cultural and political homogeneity. Their original intuition produced a constructive process which created Europe's economic fortune by providing 50 years of peace and progress, the longest such period in Europe since the legendary Romulus and Remus fought over the boundaries of Rome.

These 65 years have had a deep effect on economic growth and prosperity and on the free movement of ideas, leading gradually to a concept of Europe as a land longed for by anyone living in oppressive conditions. The real drama of the European political project–-originally intended to overturn the tragic atmosphere of the late 1940s–-now consists in not being able to explain its founding principle. That principle lives on as a sort of silent assumption, which makes it very difficult to deliver our political responsibility towards new generations.

The foundations of the EU

Europe has never before experienced such deep changes–-cultural, economic and social–-in such a short time. The lack of a coherent political response provides incentives for the growth of populism in a moment when the democratic, pluralist, tolerant values of European societies are being questioned. In this context, it is the duty of the major political families in Europe to react against the rise of extremism by reaffirming the EU's identity, based on universal and humanistic values which result from European history and traditions. The EPP could make a contribution by reinforcing those values as conceived by our founding fathers.

The Italian statesman Alcide De Gasperi loved repeating that Europe is a civilisation which is moving forward. It was a Europe that, a few years after the Second World War, was already divided by an Iron Curtain. Even in those circumstances, De Gasperi had full confidence in the power of civilisation and of solidarity and in the idea that order would trump disorder.

This was the message of the founding fathers and it is still valid. Faced with the current challenges, the founding fathers would tell us not to retrench but to carry on with an open, creative and visionary spirit.

Christian Democratic values result from an interconnected system of principles based on human dignity, freedom, peace, justice and solidarity. Within this system, the individual and human dignity represent the key values which strengthen other values. These principles are under constant threat. Addressing the current situation, therefore, is a political responsibility and one that should be felt particularly by those who remain inspired by the moral purpose pursued by the fathers of the EU. Moreover, reasserting strong universal values could also benefit intercultural dialogue and the EU's behaviour as a global partner.

The future of Europe: diverse and open-minded

The experience of Christianity is never ideological, because it does not hold with the idea of human perfection. There are those who would reassure people that a perfect human being is feasible, but only those with a determined political position can be part of that category.

The world after 9/11 demands rigorous thought and action to sustain globalisation and defy terrorism. What is needed is a citizen with a strong and plural identity, a democratic and open person. We must start a political project that is able to face the fundamental topic of competitiveness in Europe, uniting competitiveness and solidarity, in a system where solidarity and social welfare are factors in competitiveness, and competitiveness is the foundation of a generous welfare society. These elements must be joined, particularly in Italy, so that we do not abandon the values of the liberal and Christian civilisation, in the name of a cultural relativism that risks becoming nihilism.

Europe's only chance is to take up the needs of the individual and reinvigorate the thousand-year story which supports European culture. The richness of Europe lies in the diversities of its cultures, and its defence and promotion of them, including the one that for longest time has made Europe the shining light of civilisation: the Christian culture.

Conclusion

It is time to start coming up with responses to insecurity, immigration and globalisation that are based on the democratic values shared by European societies. These strategies must also stress the economic, social and political advantages of an open society. Moreover, in this time of crisis, it is crucial to promote the social market economy and support for a sustainable and inclusive growth to respond to citizens’ fears about and hopes for the future.

The political crisis is closely related to the loss of Christian roots on our continent. Robert Schuman used to say, ‘Europe will not be made all at once’. The EU is not a monolithic block but the result of many people's labours. Europe must renew itself from time to time. It can start again from the values on which it was created, from the positive results achieved until now and with a good measure of realism. I offer a hypothesis to those who want to continue betting on the political project called United Europe; a hypothesis in line with the ideals that gave rise to it, a hypothesis that can be followed without resigning oneself to a sort of union of socialist and politically correct European republics.