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THREAT TO EUROPEAN SECULARISM GROWS AS VATICAN'S STRATEGY COMES NEARER TO FRUITION

Courtesy of NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY, Newsline 12 September 2003

With a visit to Slovakia this week, the Pope is turning up the heat on the eight ex-Soviet states joining the EU next May. He is demanding that they weave his particular brand of ultra-conservative Catholicism into their lawmaking and institutions as part of his strategy to "re-evangelise" Europe. By stitching up these Eastern European countries, the Vatican sees its opportunity to be a major player in Europe.

While governments in the West have embraced a secular ethos – divorce and abortion are legal almost universally, and gay marriages are becoming more widely legalised - the legal character of central Europe's future EU members is still up for grabs.

With this in mind, the pope is expected to rally Slovaks and the rest of the region's Catholic faithful to defend their "authentic Christian" values - Vatican shorthand for upholding the traditional concepts of marriage and sexuality.

"It will be a spiritual wake-up call," beams Frantisek Miklosko, a member of parliament and presidential hopeful for the ruling coalition Christian Democrat party (KDH).

After surviving over 40 years under communism, the Catholic Church has emerged as a new dictatorship, placing itself squarely in the debate on key public policy issues in countries like Slovakia, Poland and Croatia.

In his native Poland last year, the pope warned against the "evils of unbridled Western-style secularism", and more recently, he urged Croatian believers to defend "God's authentic plan" for the family, a clear swipe at gay marriages and divorce. This message, which at times find support in public policy, adds to the weight that Christian values will bear in pan-European politics once the Union enlarges.

Political influence in these countries could also the Vatican in cases such as it present controversial call for the Union to specifically affirm its Christian roots in a proposed constitution, or the possible fate of Turkey, a secularist, but Muslim-dominated EU hopeful. "The pope has a very clear agenda of reinforcing support for traditional Catholic morality, expressed in law in countries like Slovakia before they move into the EU, because that is the way to preserve the Christian tradition in Europe," said Timothy Byrnes, a professor of political science at Colgate University. "The pope's European agenda ... is to reinsert

traditional Catholic morality into a unified Europe," said Byrnes.

Evidence of the Church's rising influence in Slovakia has been difficult to miss. It has teamed up with its small but vocal political ally, the KDH, to push for -conservative policies. The KDH's public support is less than 10 percent, but with the Church regularly addressing Slovakia's 70 percent Catholic majority, it wields powerful sway over the country's politicians, schools and police.

Over the past year, the party has managed to secure government funding for church-run schools and has a good chance of pushing through a treaty with the Vatican requiring religion classes for public-school pupils. It has also successfully blocked EU-required legislation preventing discrimination against homosexuals.

According to the last census in 2001, 84 percent of Slovakia's 5.4 million people believe in God, up 11 percent on the figure in 1991 after the collapse of communist rule .

Secularists among Slovakia's 5.4 million people protest that the Church is meddling too deeply in peoples' everyday lives and is ignoring its duty to remain separated from state affairs. "It's not acceptable, because of course, these are minority opinions ... When we discuss questions tied to the character of the state, there should really be a wider discussion," said Miroslav Kolar, an analyst at the independent IVO think-tank.

But the hottest flashpoint issue here is abortion. The KDH has appealed  to the Constitutional Court against rules that generally allow women to have abortions in the first three months of pregnancy. It has also blocked moves to enshrine into law a controversial government decree allowing abortions in the second three months in cases of seriousgenetic defects, which is normal in the law of most Western countries. The issue sparked open hostility during the summer between the KDH and its liberal ruling partners, almost causing the government's collapse. While the KDH has conducted its fights through the courts, the Church weighed has been making a bid for public sympathies during the pope's visit, with crude appeals to irrational emotions.

Join us to protest against the increasing influence of the Vatican in Europe at a rally in Paris on 6th December. Organised by Libre Pensee and the National Secular Society it has been launched with a joint

declaration. To register your interest in this event please write to enquiries@secularism.org.uk <mailto:enquiries@secularism.org.uk>  and we'll keep you informed.

READ:

HOW SLOVAKIA BECAME A FUNDAMENTALIST CATHOLIC STATE

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