2024-04-18 08:19:53
The Christian roots of Europe: the debate comes up regularly. Latest episode to date: a document published in December 2021 by the European Commission prohibited, among other things, the word “Christmas” in the name of a « communication inclusive ». The current head of the list LR François-Xavier Bellamy then denounces from the podium of the European Parliament “hatred of the roots that made Europe” ; Marine Le Pen castigates “these technocrats (Who) show their true face: that of the enemy of our identities, our roots, our traditions”.
The origins of this debate date back to the early 2000s, during the drafting of the European Constitution. At the time, the President of the Republic Jacques Chirac and the Prime Minister Lionel Jospin refused the inclusion in the draft preamble of a reference to “Christian roots” of Europe, despite pressure from Poland, Italy and Germany. After much controversy, they won their case in 2004. Their conception of secularism reduced religion to a strictly personal matter: the preamble mentioned instead “the cultural, religious and humanist heritage of Europe”.
An exclusivist reference and an instrumentalization of religion?
The debate on the Christian roots of Europe actually poses two questions: one, historical; the other, political. If the answer to the first is obvious – from the crucial role of the Church in the history of Europe from the 4th century to the Christian inspiration of the European project after the Second World War – the second is more subject to debates.
Three main arguments are put forward against the reference to Christian roots. Some refuse this mention in the name of secularism. Since public authorities no longer exercise religious powers, introducing a Christian reference into a Constitution is, according to them, anachronistic.
Others see it as an exclusivist reference which would oppose the French universalist tradition. Then European Commissioner, Pierre Moscovici assured in May 2016: “I don’t believe in the Christian roots of Europe. » “Wanting to reduce Europe to these “roots” alone is to obscure part of its identity and exclude part of the Europeans”he explained.
Finally, others see it as a political exploitation of religion by populist currents, in reaction to the emergence of Islam in Europe. This is notably the thesis of the Islamologist Olivier Roy: “The very people who want to promote Christian roots absolutely do not preach a return to faith”but paradoxically “accelerate dechristianization”, he explained in our columns in 2019.
Assume a civilizational heritage?
The non-recognition of “Christian roots” however, gives rise to opposing arguments. Faced with the decision of Lionel Jospin and Jacques Chirac to remove the expression “religious heritage” in the European Charter of Fundamental Rights of 2000, René Rémond denounced a “culture of contempt” with regard to Christianity. More generally, on the right, we see a negation of our founding values and a renunciation of our identity (Laurent Wauquiez in 2014 for example).
For the philosopher Rémi Brague, if we must distinguish Christians, those who believe in Christ, from “Christianists”, those who defend Christianity as a civilization, proclaiming where we come from is imperative to facilitate the integration of new populations . Instead of “roots”, however, he prefers “sources”, which further suggests the need to appropriate the heritage through an active attitude.
Likewise, for the philosopher Pierre Manent, recognizing our Christian heritage is necessary to “produce something common from ourselves”while the danger comes from “confusion of Christianity into humanitarianism” rather than its populist instrumentalization. Nevertheless, reaffirm our “Christian roots” is according to him insufficient to build a political project: what do we want to do with these roots?
A call from the papacy to return to our roots
To this question, Pope John Paul II provided a clear answer in 2003 in The Church in Europe : “Christian roots are for Europe the main guarantee of its future. Could a tree without roots live and grow? » He was in fact only perpetuating a constant of Vatican diplomacy since Pius XII and using a key term – “roots” – which he had already used at Santiago de Compostela in 1982.
Pope Francis also launched his own dig, a few weeks before the European elections in May 2019: “They didn’t want to cite Christian roots, but God took revenge! » According to him, it is because it has refused to accept its Christian heritage that Europe is experiencing a profound crisis of its identity.
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