The E.U. and What Crisis Forgot

Today is the anniversary of the signing of the Maastricht Treaty which gave birth to the European Union as we know it today. However, before there was the European Union, there was the European Community, an economic bloc whose senior member was the European Coal and Steel Community. The statesmen who put this seemingly innocent organization together are regarded as the "Founding Fathers" of the European Union, though one would be inclined to believe that they would be horrified by what their child has grown into. That assumption comes from the fact that we are often told, such as in a recent article in the Catholic periodical Crisis Magazine, that these men were all devout and sincere Catholics while the European Union of today seems not only indifferent to Christianity but positively hostile to it. The article in question, "How the EU Betrayed Its Christian Founding Principles" points to the devout Catholic piety of these founders, French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman, French diplomat Jean Bonet, German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and Italian Prime Minister Alcide de Gasperi, how they were inspired by Christian morality, forgiveness, reconciliation, subsidiarity and the old Frankish empire of Charlemagne and how the modern EU falls so very short in all of those areas. The article stresses that these values need to be restored if the EU is to survive.

Frankly, I do not concur as I see the reformation of the EU as impossible and its survival as undesirable. These men may indeed have been very devout Catholics, I cannot say, but I cannot help but be somewhat skeptical. It is true, as the article states, that all but Adenauer are currently at varying points along the path to sainthood in the Catholic Church and Pope Francis has recently "fast-tracked" the cause for the canonization of the first Prime Minister of the Italian Republic Alcide de Gasperi but that is not enough to convince me. As stated before, the Catholic Church has also placed every single deceased pope since the Second Vatican Council on the path to sainthood (one having already achieved it via the innovative "fast-track" process) but considering that this same period has coincided with a rapid decline for Catholicism, I feel justified in my skepticism of the motives behind this sudden flurry of papal saints just as I do the drive to declare the Founding Fathers of the EU to be saints. Looking at either the Catholic Church or the European Union, if all of these canonizations are beyond reproach, one can only conclude that saintly leaders may not make the best leaders. Perhaps the old saying that, "great men are rarely good men" is more true than we would like to believe?

In any event, to focus on Schuman, Bonet and de Gasperi, if their goal was to remake the empire of Charlemagne they, and Crisis Magazine, seem to be forgetting the other key ingredient to that recipe alongside the shared faith of Christendom which was the Emperor. Monarchy is what they have forgotten and partly why I am skeptical of how intelligent, accomplished, devoutly Catholic men thought that they could do without it. For most of Christian history it was taken for granted that having an emperor was as essential as having a pope. It was the emperor who called most of the early councils of the Church, it was the emperor who was expected to defend and advance the faith that the Pope taught and was the combination of throne and altar that was the foundation of Christendom and the basis of what European unity there was in those days. It is simply impossible for me to look at these great statesmen as being too pristine in their piety considering that they were all republicans. If they truly wanted to restore Christendom, why were Schuman and Bonet not working for the restoration of the Kingdom of France, Adenauer for the restoration of the German Empire and why was Alcide de Gasperi not absolutely loyal to his own monarch, King Umberto II?

To me, this is the central, forgotten, element. These men started out with the economic integration of western Europe, based on republican regimes that looked to ensure the peace of Europe, not by forgiveness and reconciliation but by ensuring that all would be economically bound together that any conflict would be impossibly ruinous for all. No, it does not seem to me at all to be an effort to recreate the Europe of the Ages of Faith but rather an effort to gain the benefits of peace and unity by political and economic means rather than sincere faith and shared moral values. The only shared values of the West German, French and Italian republics were their shared glorification of the mob and lip-service to liberal idealism which has no moral foundation, no religious core and can never have as it is based on nothing but pride and vanity. Today, we see the results all too clearly. The mob is so easily manipulated and led astray that today the leaders of the EU can all but ignore them. They feel no connection to their people at all as they feel just as responsible (if not more) for the welfare of people from other countries than they do for their own.

The article in question notes those moral failings of the EU members which have occurred when supposedly "conservative" governments were in power, which is true and it is no wonder. They have a conservatism built on sand, they are playing a rigged game and even in monarchies like Britain or Spain they have adopted the leftist-republican mentality. These parties are shamed into doing what anyone with common sense knows to be wrong but they do it because they are playing on the leftist field, by leftist standards and so they are constantly having to give in so that they may avoid being condemned as "evil" (racist, intolerant, bigoted etc) by the leftist measure of right and wrong. That is also why, if things continue as they are, only those who are truly evil and don't care who knows it and are comfortable with the title will be left standing as the only alternative. We must refuse to play by their rules, we must stop submitting to their double-standards, stop being cowed by their name-calling and stand and fight for our own before we have nothing left to fight for.
Vivat imperator in aeternum!