欧州憲法条約と神の記載

文化的遺産としてのキリスト教

抄録

The religious issues involved in the European integration, will provide us, beyond the realm of religion itself, with an opportunity to examine the issues inherent to the cultural unification project in Europe, namely, to reconsider what, in fact, will support the emergence of real European citizens.
Such being the case, an essential part of the Convention of the Constitution Committee was to talk about how to make reference of God in the Treaty, and to let people recognize the tradition and the role of Church which are both indispensable and contributories for the spiritual and social lives among Europeans.
The religious lives in Europe, however, are more secularized than in America, and got fallen merely as a ceremonial service in the daily life nowadays.
The assertion that God should be referred to in the Constitution, as a token of a cultural inheritance of Europe, got encountered with and doomed not to be realized by the strong insistence, arisen mainly by France, that the integration must be free from God under the principle of secularization i. e. laïcité.
The constitution is, as it were, a legal embodiment of public opinion, which, in turn, serves as a guideline for the interpretation of the constitution itself, that is to say, that the basic principle to work out the draft treaty of a constitution is how to incorporate the identity, so-called common consciousness of values among citizens, therein.
In this sense, it will be quite natural to put the draft to the vote by all European citizens who are supposed to subdue, but the reality is to put it this time only for a limited number of nationals.
It is to be understood that they prefer establishing the Constitution Treaty as early as possible so that they can achieve decision making efficiently in order to cope with the keen economic competition in the world, but they should never be so hasty in installing the fundamental law of the Union especially when they are now in a new step toward the completion of political unification.
The religion is the source of political ethics. The ethics and the morality are the essentials of a religion where Christianity is included. While we fear that excessive requests of national interests are expected, a prudent retrospection into Christianity is hopefully required in this place. It is Christianity, i. e., Catholicism itself, which occupies the pivotal position of numerous universal cultures in this area, and which has been casting their influence decisively on the thoughts of the European citizens in the society and in politics up to the present time.
The potentials, which the religion conceives even where the secularization expands, seem to be still vibrant in the view of values and in the rhythm of their lives.
In Europe where the independent sovereign states gather together, the Constitution Treaty remains after all as a treaty, and it can't become the Constitution itself.
Even though the increase of the member countries, as time goes on, will require them more rapidity and efficiency of decision-making, they should not be hasty in installing constitution as long as they could not duly articulate the philosophy thereof, but rather they should persevere continuing accumulating treaties, ie, acquis communautaire, be it so impatient, when the sovereignty remains in the hands of member countries.