DUBLIN, Ireland—On Oct. 19 Ireland will go to the polls for the second time in a little more than a year to vote on a treaty that, if passed, will help to determine the future shape of the European Union.

NEWS ANALYSIS

Called the Nice Treaty after the French city in which it was negotiated in 2000 by the heads of government of the EU, the vote will be closely followed throughout Europe—including by Pope John Paul II, who has taken a great interest in the development of the European Union.

The treaty was already presented to Irish voters in June 2001. To the great shock of the government, the main opposition parties, most of the media, employer groups, trade unions, plus the bishops, all of whom supported the treaty, the electorate rejected it by a 54%-46% margin.

It was the first time ever that Irish voters had rejected an EU treaty. This caused shock waves to reverberate throughout the European Union as well, because previously Ireland had shown itself to be the most pro-EU of European countries and because the rejection of a single EU member nation prevents the treaty from coming into force.

Every other member-state of the EU has already ratified it, although Ireland is the only country where the matter has been put to the people.

The shock waves also spread into Eastern Europe where 11 countries, along with the staunchly Catholic Mediterranean island nation of Malta, are queued up to join the European Union by 2004.

These countries—or at least their governments—fervently hope that Ireland says Yes to Nice this time because if not, their hopes of entering the EU in two years might be dashed. An Irish rejection could set back enlargement of the EU by several years.

This is because the treaty was specifically designed to ensure that the EU continues to work efficiently when its membership goes from the current 15 states to the projected 27 and then almost certainly higher in the future.

The treaty would also widen the policy-making authority of the EU in a number of areas, such as free movement of citizens, judicial cooperation and industrial policy, allowing changes on the basis of only a “qualified majority” of EU member states instead of by unanimous consent.

Anti-Religious Trend

But despite the best efforts of the political establishment to ensure the treaty wins approval from Irish voters this time, there is no guarantee it will. One reason is that a growing number of Irish Catholics, including pro-life advocate Dana Rosemary Scallon (who is a member of the European Parliament) are concerned the EU is moving in an increasingly anti-Christian—indeed, anti-religious—direction. They have a considerable body of supporting evidence.

For example, earlier this year the European Parliament voted in favor of a resolution called Women and Fundamentalism. This feminist-inspired document stretched the definition of fundamentalism to cover everything from the Taliban to those who oppose abortion or women priests. It told churches to steer clear of public life but then called on Christians to support abortion and on religious organizations to allow women access to their highest levels—code for “women priests.”

European Parliamentarians who voted for the resolution seemed unable to see any irony in telling the religiously motivated to keep their beliefs to themselves while at the same time seeking to impose their feminist and egalitarian beliefs on all religions.

Also this year, the parliament voted in favor of another document called the Van Lancker report. Among other things, this called on all member-states of the EU, as well as all candidate countries, to legalize abortion.

While neither this resolution nor Women and Fundamentalism have legal force and strictly speaking have nothing to do with the Nice treaty, to critics they illustrate militantly secularist tendencies at work in the EU. And they make many Catholics less inclined to vote for anything related to the union.

Catholic Voices

However, while many of the laity are increasingly skeptical of the EU, most bishops—and probably most priests—are thoroughly in favor. In addition, COMECE, the Church commission representing the views of the bishops of EU countries on European matters, is also thoroughly pro-EU.

Then there is the Pope himself. He has already expressed strong support for the euro, the new currency of the EU that is knitting its member countries much closer together.

The Holy Father has also expressed the constant wish that Europe be allowed to “breathe with two lungs,” meaning the lungs of Eastern and Western Europe. Many observers interpret this to mean the Pope favors the EU's enlargement.

This interpretation was strengthened by remarks he made in August when in his native Poland, one of the nations seeking EU membership. Before returning to Rome he expressed the hope that his country “find its due place in the structures of the European community.”

To judge from his writings on this matter it appears the Pope supports the EU because he sees it as a vehicle for peace and as a way of spreading the economic benefits of the EU to the less-well-off nations of Eastern Europe.

However, the Pope also warned Poland not to lose its identity in the aforementioned structures, so he is aware of existing tendencies within the EU and is concerned about them.

And in December 2000, John Paul criticized the anti-religious tone of the new European Charter of Fundamental Rights. The nonbinding charter was approved by EU leaders earlier that month, at the same summit where they endorsed the Treaty of Nice.

In a message to a symposium marking the 1,200th anniversary of Charlemagne's crowning, John Paul expressed his “disappointment over the fact that the charter's text does not include a reference to God, who is … the supreme source of human dignity and its fundamental rights.”

Said the Pope, “It must not be forgotten that it was the denial of God and his commandments that created the tyranny of idols in the last century, expressed in the glorification of a race, class, state, nation, party, instead of the living and true God. Indeed, in light of the misfortunes poured on the 20th century, it can be understood that the rights of God and man are either affirmed together or they fall together.”

So far, though, such concerns have not made the Pope turn against the EU. Whether they are enough to make the Catholic faithful of Ireland turn against it will be answered, in part at least, on Oct. 19.

David Quinn is editor

of the Irish Catholic.

War in Ivory Coast Near Basilica

REUTER/FIDES NEWS, Sept. 29—Even as U.S. and French troops attempted to evacuate hundreds of foreign nationals from the civil war-torn nation of Ivory Coast, regional leaders met to attempt to resolve the crisis in that country, which began with an unsuccessful army coup on Sept. 19.

Rebel units still control much of the northern and central regions of Ivory Coast. Meanwhile, fighting has come within 30 miles of Yamoussoukro, site of Our Lady of Peace, a grand basilica modeled on St. Peter's in Rome.

“We have already evacuated about 300 people and there are about 20 to go,” said a French military spokesman.

An Italian missionary told Fides News, “Every day our parish sees the arrival of as many as 200 people fleeing violence. The local Church appears to be the only institution able to offer some sort of assistance to these poor people. We organized their transport here and now we hope to send them on to Abidjan to be reunited with their families. However, our resources are limited and food supplies will last only a few days.áThis catastrophe is beyond the means of a few missionaries. I call on international bodies to intervene.”

Peace Concert Held at Former Nazi Rocket Lab

ASSOCIATED PRESS, Sept. 28—Late last month the town of Peenemuende, Germany, was the site of an international peace concert, organized to emphasize solidarity among once-hostile European nations and the importance of international peace.

The Baltic town was chosen because it was once the site of the Third Reich's V-1 and V-2 missile programs, which rained death down indiscriminately on British civilians late in World War II. Thousands of slave laborers died in the production of these missiles. Ironically, the research done at Peenemuende helped make possible many achievements of the U.S. space program.

Leading musicians included Mstislav Rostropovich, a cellist born in the former Soviet Union. He led a performance of Benjamin Britten's sobering “War Requiem,” written after World War I, combining the text of the Mass for the Dead with the pacifist verse of Wilfred Owen, who himself died late in that war.

According to Associated Press, noted guests included former Soviet ruler Mikhail Gorbachev, German President Johannes Rau and the American and British ambassadors to Germany.

U.N. Pressure Legalizes Abortion in Nepal

ASSOCIATED PRESS, Oct. 1—The small, traditional Asian monarchy of Nepal legalized abortion last week, permitting it for 12 weeks on demand, 18 weeks in cases charging rape or incest and “at any time if pregnancy posed a danger to the health of the woman or if tests showed the pregnancy would result in the birth of a disabled child.”

This makes Nepalese law as permissive as American statutes and more liberal than those in much of Europe.

CWNews.com reported that in 2001, the U.N. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights pressured Nepal's impoverished, aid-dependent government “to reinforce reproductive and sexual-health programs, in particular in rural areas, and to allow abortion when pregnancies are life-threatening or a result of rape or incest.”