Disappointment as EU Forgets Christian Heritage

The Bishop of Chelmsford, the Rt Rev John Gladwin, has expressed his disappointment after celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the EU failed to include a reference to Europe's Christian heritage.

European leaders gathered at the Berlin Philharmonic on Sunday as Germany, current EU presidency holders, led the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome.

To mark the 50th anniversary, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, issued the "Berlin Declaration", a statement highlighting European values such as democracy and outlining a vision for the future which includes fighting climate change. It contains, however, no reference to God or to Europe's Christian roots.

Speaking in the House of Lords during a debate on the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the UK, Bishop Gladwin said: "I was sorry to see in the 50th anniversary celebrations of the European Community that we were not able to celebrate the roots in our Christian tradition of our contemporary inheritance."

Bishop Gladwin said that a concern for the rights of the oppressed and the excluded has been "deep in the heart of serious Christian thought" for centuries.

"Religious belief gives to us an under-girding of our culture and the law on human rights and procedure, with an understanding of the moral and spiritual worth of the person and of human society," he said.

Touching on the recently passed Sexual Orientation Regulations, meanwhile, Bishop Gladwin warned against the creation of a "hierarchy of rights".

"We must not set liberty of conscience and the rights of the individual in opposition to each other," he said.

"Guarding the liberty of the person's conscience and a right for them to live their life according to it is, in the light of some important themes in Christian theology, a fulfilment of our duty; it is not in conflict with it.

"I am not required to agree with my neighbour; I am required to defend their liberty of conscience and they are required to defend mine."

Pope Benedict came down hard on the EU at the weekend for excluding any reference to God and the Christian heritage of Europe in the Berlin Declaration to mark the 50th anniversary of its founding treaty on Sunday.

In a hard-hitting speech to European bishops, the Pope accused Europe of abandoning God and the Christian faith - the dominant faith across the continent.

"If on the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome the governments of the union want to get closer to their citizens, how can they exclude an element as essential to the identity of Europe as Christianity, in which the vast majority of its people continue to identify," he said in a Reuters report.

"Does not this unique form of apostasy of itself, even before God, lead it (Europe) to doubt its very identity?

"A community that builds itself without respecting the true dignity of the human being, forgetting that each person is created in the image of God, ends up doing good for no one," he said.