McAleese: May God bless EU
President Mary McAleese said today Ireland was open to an inclusion of God and Christianity in the European Union constitution now being finalised.
McAleese said Ireland would support a mention of God in the preamble to the 465-article constitution, which is expected to be finalised by mid-December at an EU leaders summit in Brussels.
“The Government has indicated that it would welcome such an inclusion if consensus can be reached on suitable language,” McAleese told members of the European Parliament, in Strasbourg.
“A number of questions remain to be fully debated and finally resolved including the issue of a reference to God.”
Her appeal came after visiting Pope John Paul at the Vatican two weeks ago, where the pontiff made a personal appeal asking her to push for the inclusion in the charter.
The pope said Ireland had an “essential role” to play in affirming its Christian identity in an enlarged European Union.
McAleese said she hoped the new constitution would “inject a fresh excitement” into the EU, “transforming its unfortunate bureaucratic image, re-energising its relationship with European citizens, making them feel like insiders and not spectators.”
In her address to the 626-member assembly, McAleese also stressed that the EU had to “bring Europe closer to its citizens” as it grows from 15 to 25 member states next May.
Ireland will be responsible for ensuring the expansion takes place without a hitch as it takes over the EU presidency from Italy on January 1.
The Vatican has lobbied hard for specific mention of Europe’s Christian heritage in the charter, which the 105-member constitutional convention failed to include in its draft now being reviewed by national governments.
Poland, Italy and Spain are pushing for the constitution to refer to God and Judeo-Christian values as a vital part of European heritage – something opposed by strictly secular France.
Members of the European Parliament’s conservative People’s Party presented a petition of 400,000 signatures to Italian European Affairs Minister Rocco Buttiglione yesterday, supporting the call for “explicit recognition” of Christianity in the constitution.
Germany, Austria, Portugal, Slovakia and the Netherlands also say they have no problems in giving greater prominence in the charter text to God.
The preamble to the draft of the constitution contains a very vague reference to Christianity’s past. It merely says Europe draws “inspiration from the cultural, religious and humanist inheritance ... still present in its heritage.”
