EU president’s praise for Catholic teaching welcomed as bishops urge citizens to vote in elections to stop "nationalist threat"

  • Thread starter Thread starter Vouthon
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
V

Vouthon

Guest
A call from European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker for the EU to rediscover its Catholic roots is an invitation for politicians to bring Catholic values to bear in their work, Bishop Noel Treanor of Down and Connor has said.

Addressing the spring assembly of COMECE – the European bishops’ conference – Mr Juncker spoke effusively about the importance of Catholic social teaching, upon which the European project was founded in the aftermath of World War Two.

“I am a fervent advocate of the social doctrine of the Church. It is one of the most noble teachings of our Church,” Mr Juncker said on March 14. “I would like us to rediscover the values and guiding principles of the social teaching of the Church.”

Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Bishop Treanor explained that Mr Juncker had been looking back on the achievements and challenges that have marked the European project over the last five years, looking ahead to the future.

“He began by emphasising that this European project is inclusive, it doesn’t exclude anybody,” Dr Treanor said. “He quoted Pope John Paul II, saying it has two lungs – east and west – and went on to talk about the European Union being a peace-building project.

Mr Juncker then observed how the European project draws its energy from a number of sources – “and especially from Christianity and Christian values, rooted, as he says, or mediated in reason”.

The president’s emphasis on Catholic social teaching makes perfect sense, Dr Treanor said, given the challenges posed by today’s changing world.

He described Mr Juncker‘s call as “a recognition of the contribution of Christian tradition to shaping public policy and at the same time an invitation to continue making this (name removed by moderator)ut.”
Click to expand...
Clergymen from Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg called upon citizens to vote in next month’s European elections – claiming that turning their backs on Europe was “not a solution”.

The bishops also emphasised in their letter that the founders of Europe shared common values and “almost all were guided by Christian convictions”, saying: “Our vocation as Christians is therefore to engage with Europe for the common good.”

The letter also stated how Europe must ensure more social justice and support for people “who have got into difficulties in the face of financial liberalism, which despises people”.

Hollerich said that while it is justified to criticise the EU, “not seeing the positive aspect of the European Union would be folly”.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, Guy Verhofstadt hinted he would fight to create a European “Empire” if he was elected as the new European Commission President, to counteract China, Russia and US “domination” in the future.

Speaking at a Politico’s debate in Maastricht, the Belgian MEP claimed the future will see the world dominated by “empires” and pledged to create a “stronger European Union” to counteract them.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
https://www.agensir.it/quotidiano/2...the-dark-days-will-pass-a-new-dawn-will-rise/
“The European Union" – the bishops wrote – "is faced with…challenges it has to address: but we believe it has all necessary resources to tackle them. We wish to reiterate our trust in Europe and our hope that it may blaze new trails to respond to the dangers threatening it”. In their letter, the bishops recall the ideals that have inspired the founding fathers in the construction of Europe and suggest some fundamental principles for the present time which Europe is called upon to follow to address the challenges ahead: solidarity, the fight against new forms of terrorism, respect for human life, respect for the environment, the issue of migration, work, and the European identity.

And they concluded: “We, Catholic bishops, call on our fellow citizens to vote in the European elections, in a spirit of service of the common good of all our European brothers and sisters. In the face of difficulties, some people would like to oppose the European Union and withdraw into independent nations. We believe that solidarity and collaboration between nations is the most fruitful response we can give to the current European problems. Full of hope and trust in this community of destiny, we believe that the dark days will pass and a new dawn will rise, provided we are all aware of our responsibility and make our own contribution”.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Wow! Sounds like clergy in Europe have no problem getting directly political.

I do think the day will come when they’ll look back on the days of “nationalism” and “populism” with nostalgia. But at present it seems Europeans associate those terms with European Fascism of 70 years ago. It really does surprise me that Europeans trust themselves and their peoples so little.
Maybe it shouldn’t.
 
Last edited:
Ridgerunner said:
Wow! Sounds like clergy in Europe have no problem getting directly political.
Click to expand...
At least one can’t doubt where the sympathies of the European Bishops’ Conference lie ahead of the European Parliament elections at the end of this month (May 23rd - 26th). Isn’t honesty with the flock preferable? The Vatican hasn’t exactly been restrained in its support either, to say the least, over the years.

Support for European integration has not, generally, been viewed as an “ordinary” political question by the Catholic Church in Europe. It is above ‘party’ politics.

The EU is not a “left/right” issue it must be remembered - (indeed, President Juncker the current head of the Union’s executive, represents the centre-right EPP or ‘Christian Democrats’ who are presently the largest party in the European Parliament), although it is very much a “political mainstream vs far-right nationalist populist and far-left communist” issue, as the EU’s critics almost all hail from the extreme fringes of both right and left.
 
Last edited:
Ridgerunner said:
I do think the day will come when they’ll look back on the days of “nationalism” and “populism” with nostalgia.
Click to expand...
I suspect those days are already in the past. According to the latest cross-continental polling:


The “eurosceptic parties”, by and large, no longer back EU-exit but “stay and reform” is the new mantra (since they are frightened to lose votes by pursuing secession as a realistic policy in the new climate):

Among today’s far-right populist parties, leaders such as Marine Le Pen, of France’s National Rally, and Matteo Salvini, of Italy’s League, keen to consolidate right-wing support domestically and be taken more seriously internationally, have changed their tune when it comes to the EU. Instead of talking about referendums on EU membership or ditching Europe’s common currency, they advocate for a “Europe of nations” and more pragmatic change “from within.”
Click to expand...
They’ve all got “the message” from popular opinion in their countries.

Practically no one wants to leave now as official party policy, apart from Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party in the UK and a tiny fringe movement of Dexiters in Germany who represent less than 00.1% of their population.

As for the UK, the latest Yougov polling confirms the trend of the last year and its not encouraging for Brexiteers:

 
Last edited:
Vouthon said:
political mainstream vs far-right nationalist populist
Click to expand...
Clearly “nationalism” and “populism” mean different things in Europe than they do in the U.S. Historically, “populism” in the U.S. has been mildly to the left, though it has shifted to the center-right as the left has gone globalist. It’s most vibrant manifestation was referred to as “prairie populism” because it was strongest in the north central farming states. It was opposed to big business and predatory lending. A slightly more leftish version is manifested in the “American Literary Naturalism” genre typified by authors like Hamlin Garland, Upton Sinclair, Frank Norris, Steven Crane. Politically, it manifested itself in the “free silver” movement, the Grange movement and others.
 
Last edited:
I’m aware of there being a somewhat distinctive ‘tradition’ of populism in the U.S. - represented by Huey Long in the 1930s. My perception is that its 19th century roots were agrarian.

In Europe, “populism” is decidedly a negative thing for the vast majority of voters in the majority centre-right and left, which is associated with far-right nationalism/fascism and far-left Marxist movements - all of which have traditionally been “eurosceptics” or “anti-EU’ers” (for obvious reasons, given that the EU is a bit of barrier to neo-fascist, nationalist autarky or a Marxist-style planned economy, if that happens to be your thing).

Within continental Europe, no “mainstream” party is anti-EU or supports secession from it. This was the case in Britain prior to Brexit as well, when both leading parties (the Tories and Labour) were officially pro-EU but with small extremist pro-Brexit fringes.
 
Last edited:
Huey Long was just a crook and a narrow regionalist. His appeal was in central and northern Louisiana. He was not popular among the “100,000 Frenchmen” in New Orleans. A more representative historic character of American populism would be William Jennings Bryan.

At one time, and not too long ago, the Democrat Party in America would have been the torch bearer for “populism”. Now, it would be the Republican party. Populists in America fundamentally appeal to the middle classes, though the term itself isn’t commonly used. It’s not a “racial” thing as Europeans seem to think of it. Barack Obama halfheartedly issued a “populist” appeal, but Trump is much more convincing.
 
Last edited:
Juncker is for Catholicism.now? How about when EU works hard to ban all adds against abortion, how about the ESTRELLA.project, to reeducate young children regarding their LGBTQ tollerance and to make them question their sexual identity (at what age? 7??) Juncker is just a clown like most politicians using whatever needed argument to sustain his agenda.
 
Good points @(name removed by moderator)

In England, and throughout much of continental Europe, ‘nationalism’ has become a by-word for far-right populism ever since WW2, as is signified by your wife’s understanding of the term as used in Russia (which approximates with it’s conventional semantic usage).

This is the sense in which it is employed in magisterial documents, hence why a bishop even in Ireland will speak in this ‘ecclesiastical’ language.

In Scotland, Ireland and Wales, however, ‘nationalism’ for their respective nations doesn’t carry these unsavoury connotations (although British nationalism is associated in these countries with racism and fascism, as in England itself).

A Scottish ‘nationalist’ is typically a centre-left supporter of Scotland’s independence from the UK within the EU, for instance; whilst an Irish nationalist in the Republic would be equally moderate and pro-EU. In these countries, the original Romantic 19th century “liberal” definition of nationalism has been retained, by and large, without any hints or undercurrents of xenophobia.

But these are rather peculiar celtic usages that are not replicated elsewhere in the continent.

In countries like Germany and France, for instance, ‘patriotism’ is the good term for positive affiliation with one’s country, whereas ‘nationalist’ is the dirty, unsavoury term.

Given its usage in Scotland and Ireland, I always qualify nationalist with “far-right nationalist” or some such term but over in the continent, and indeed within the church which speaks in the language of the wider continent in it’s magisterial texts, the term “nationalist” is simply used as something bad in itself without any qualifiers.
 
Last edited:
Mary888 said:
Juncker is for Catholicism.now?
Click to expand...
He’s a practising Catholic who led a party in Luxembourg called the “Christian Social People’s Party” and belongs to the Christian Democrat bloc, the EPP, in the European Parliment. Has he ever not been “for” it?

I guess you would rather hear him bash and condemn Catholic Social Doctrine and the Church rather than commend them.
 
Last edited:
What’s wrong with it? Do enlighten me because I don’t have a clue what bothers you about it.

My understanding is that it’s about legal accessibility:

The primary business objective of the Estrella project is to develop and validate an open, standards-based platform allowing public administrations to develop and deploy comprehensive legal knowledge management solutions, without becoming dependent on proprietary products of particular vendors.
Click to expand...
What’s objectionable from a Catholic moral perspective about that?

It’s about helping citizens to have better access to platforms that can inform them about EU legislation and how it works.

Pretty standard and inoffensive to me.
 
Last edited:
I hope he is not using his faith for his political convenience. There are many of politicians who claim to follow Catholic doctrine when it suits them.
 
Last edited:
josie_L said:
I would hope he not use his faith for his convenience politically.
Click to expand...
Is there any evidence he has done this? I think questioning his faith is bad form, personally.

Interesting articles as always, @Vouthon! Being agnostic myself I admit I don’t tend to look out for Catholic perspectives on the EU. I appreciate the perspectives your articles provide.
 
I can most certainly question it, he’s a politician after all.
 
Last edited:
josie_L said:
I can most certainly question it, he’s a politician after all.
Click to expand...
Well, here’s one article I found after about 2 seconds of searching:

“I am a fervent advocate of the social doctrine of the Church. It is one of the most noble teachings of our Church,” Mr Juncker said on March 14. “All of this is part of a doctrine that Europe does not apply often enough. I would like us to rediscover the values and guiding principles of the social teaching of the Church.”
Click to expand...
So given the fact that he has spoken for his beliefs before, I do find it unfair you are questioning his faith on the basis of him being a politician. I recommend doing some searches on him, so you don’t simply disregard his faith as something to be used and not something he seems to wholeheartedly believe in.
 
And it’s been my experience that when a Catholic politician speaks of social doctrines they rarely if ever refer to or advocate other doctrines of the Church vis a vis abortion, gay marriage, contracepting, communism . . .etc.

So sue me for being somewhat sceptical and cynical of politicians who raise the issue of Catholic teachings when it’s opportune!!
 
Last edited:
josie_L said:
And it’s been my experience that when a Catholic politician speaks of social doctrines they rarely if ever refer to or advocate other doctrines of the Church vis a vis abortion, gay marriage, contracepting, communism . . .etc.

So sue me for being a somewhat sceptical and cynical!!
Click to expand...
It’s fine to be sceptical, and I understand why you would be. But I do recommend you search him so you can find out rather than just question it.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top