Catholic theology, organization, politics and sense of community guaranteed thatCatholics would collectively support the idea of European unity. Catholic universalism,which had once provided ideological support for a world-wide papal monarchy, now provided the theological underpinning for a new vision of a united humanity free fromthe violent divisions of nationalism (which Catholics had always seen as a Protestant heresy anyway). The Holy See, which had backed the failed League of Nations, came outstrongly in favor of a federated international system. Before the war ended Pius XII called for the “formation of an organ for the maintenance of peace, of an organ investedby common consent with supreme power, to whose office it would also pertain tosmother in its germinal state any threat of isolated or collective aggression.”52But while the pope’s call for international cooperation was genuine, his special concern was for the unity of Europe. Pius XII was, in his own words, “instinctively drawn” to the “practicalrealization of European unity” and repeatedly backed the idea of European unity andthe political efforts to achieve it. He first called for a “European Union” on 2 June 1948 in the afterglow of the Hague Conference, which was attended by a papal representative. On Armistice Day of the same year the Pontiff stressed the urgency of the situation:
