The Vatican and Europe: Political Theology and Ecclesiology in Papal Statements from Pius XII to Benedict XVI

Abstract

The article examines the origins and evolution of the Vatican's political theology and ecclesiology for Europe from Pius XII (especially after the Second World War) and including the pontificates of John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI. It seeks to examine the continuities of the ‘Idea of Europe’ in papal thought against a background of changing political context – the end of the Second World War, the Cold War, the fall of the communist state system, the emergence of a united but diverse Europe after 1989. The political structures of the continent now include within its geographic sweep Western and Eastern Christian churches which, divided by tradition and modern history, find their relationship a key marker in the contemporary religious identity of Europe. This reality is a significant framework for Vatican thinking on Europe especially for John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

Keywords:

• Vatican and Europe
• Pius XII
• Paul VI
• John Paul II
• Benedict XVI
• ‘Idea of Europe’
• Vatican political thinking
• religious identity of Europe

Notes

¹See in particular the historical evidence presented by Hay, Europe.

²A. Riccardi, ‘Europe’, 538. In the modern period, the relationship between the Holy See, the Catholic Church and Italy has been very influential in politics, culture and society before and especially after Italian unification (see Pollard, Catholicism in Modern Italy). This influence was also noted in the Italian Republic's relations with Europe and the world, see J.-D. Durand, L'Église catholique dans la crise de l'Italie; Graziano, ‘The Rise and Fall of “Mediterranean Atlanticism”’.

³Bedouelle, ‘L'Europe et ses racines chrétiennes’.

⁴See in particular the fundamental work of Claude Prudhomme, a French historian of the Catholic missionary movement, which redefined in turn the relationship between the Holy See and global Christianity: Missions chrétiennes and Stratégie missionnaire.

⁵Riccardi, ‘Europe’, 539; The Catholic-liberal-secular-nationalist divide was central to European politics during this period; see further Kaiser, ‘Clericalism – That is Our Enemy!’; Steinfels, ‘The Failed Encounter’.

⁶Chelini-Pont, ‘Papal Thought on Europe and the European Union’. The Holy See had been establishing its role as arbiter in international relations for some time. See Ticchi, Aux frontières de la paix; Jankowiak, ‘Arbitrage’.

⁷Chenaux, Pie XII and Une Europe Vaticane?, 23–44.

⁸Nolte, La Guerre civile européenne.

⁹A survey of the papacy and global Catholicism in this period can be had from Henri Tincq, the leading commentator for religious affairs in Le Monde and Les catholiques. The role of the papacy during this period in Italian politics is examined by Romano, La foi et le pouvoir.

¹⁰Spezzobottiani, ‘Il magistero europeistico’.

¹¹Ratzinger, ‘Europe in the Crisis of Cultures’. See also the analysis offered by Boeve, ‘Europe in Crisis’.

¹²Ian Linden, ‘Secularization in Europe’, in Global Catholicism, 261–5 and Henri Tincq, ‘L'Europe guettée par l'apostasie’, in Les catholiques, 428–37. The notion that there is a sustained and significant ‘religious crisis’ in Europe which has profound consequences for the continent's political and cultural relations with especially the USA and the rest of the Christian world is receiving widespread comment from across the Atlantic (see Jenkins, God's Continent; Weigel, The Cube and the Cathedral). This trans-Atlantic debate gives a wider context to papal thought on Europe.

¹³See the fundamental study, to which I am greatly indebted, by Barberini, ‘La politique européenne de l'Église Catholique’.

¹⁴Bedouelle, ‘Une certaine idée de l'Europe’, 141.

¹⁵Barberini, ‘La politique européenne de l'Église Catholique’, 190.

¹⁶Bedouelle, ‘Une certaine idée de l'Europe’, 141.

¹⁷Barberini, ‘La politique européenne de l'Église Catholique’, 190.

¹⁸Elements of a political theology for Europe emerged in the late eighteenth century especially as a response to the revolutionary upheavals (see G. Pelletier, Rome et la Révolution française; Fiorani and Ricciolo, Chiesa romana; Frank J. Coppa, ‘The Papacy between Revolutionary upheaval and Restoration, 1789–1849’, in Politics and the Papacy in the Modern World).

¹⁹The papacy experienced a renewal under Leo XIII. See the studies in Levillain and Ticchi, Le pontificat de Léon XIII; Viaene (ed.), The Papacy and the New World Order.

²⁰However the nineteenth century saw the emergence of a strong lay political constituency in Europe. See Lamberts, The Black International.

²¹Pollard, Benedict XV and ‘The Papacy in Two World Wars’.

²²For example, the Holy See's role between the emerging ‘Catholic’ states of Latin America. See Ticchi, ‘L'Amérique centrale’; Apollis, ‘La mediation internationale’.

²³Bedouelle, ‘Une certaine idée de l'Europe’, 132.

²⁴Robinson, Cardinal Consalvi.

²⁵See the classic studies by Rinerman, Austria and the Papacy in the Age of Metternich.

²⁶Lefevre, ‘S. Sede e Russia’; Bandikian and Poignel, Le Saint-Sïege et la Russie.

²⁷Bedouelle, ‘Une certaine idée de l'Europe’, 133; Atkin and Tallett, ‘Catholicism Restored: 1815–50’ in Priests, Prelates & People, 85–128.

²⁸Viaene, Belgium and the Holy See.

²⁹See Coppa, ‘Papal Intransigence and Infallibility in an Age of Liberalism and Nationalism’ in The Modern Papacy since 1789, 100–16. However it was during this tense period that the canonical arrangement regarding the governance of the modern Holy See emerged. See Jankowiak, ‘Droit canonique’.

³⁰Scoot, The Roman Question.

³¹Latour, ‘La Voix de Benoît’.

³²Bedouelle, ‘Une certaine idée de l'Europe’, 136–7.

³³For relations between the Holy See and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, see Gottsmann, Konkordat oder Kultursprotektorat; Eszer and Sturti, ‘La monarchia austro-ungarica e la Santa Sede’.

³⁴Bedouelle, ‘Une certaine idée de l'Europe’, 138–9.

³⁵It was during this period that Pius XI developed a political theology in the face of the modern age which has not been sufficiently received by historians and theologians alike (see Bouthillon, La naissance de mardité). One recent scholar, Chelini-Pont, wrote, ‘This picture of Europe [as viewed from Rome], destroyed yet constantly on the brink of conflict, was the backdrop for the development of a “concrete” conception of peace, no longer focused on doctrines about the conditions for a just war. This active papal diplomacy in favour of building a European order of peace founded on the primacy of law and on moral values remains largely overlooked by historians. The actions and speeches of Benedict XV and Pius XI between the two world wars suggest a continuity in the internationalist and European orientation of the Catholic Church’ (‘Papal Thought on Europe and the European Union in the Twentieth Century’, 133). See further J.M. Durand, ‘Pie XI’.

³⁷For two readings in line with Pius XII, see Hastings, ‘The Contribution of St. Benedict to European Civilization’; Derrick, The Rule of Peace.

³⁸A. Riccardi, ‘Europe’, 539. Riccardi is a well-known Italian Church historian and founder of St. Egidio, who might be considered a central witness to the Catholic Church's ‘Idea of Europe’. See his Sant'Egidio, Rome et le Monde.

³⁶See P.C. Kent's major biography, The Lonely Cold War of Pope Pius XII.

³⁹Quoted in Bedouelle, ‘Une certaine idée de l'Europe’, 140. This speech should be set against what have been called the ‘war aims of the papacy’ (see Kent, ‘Towards the Reconstitution of Christian Europe’).

⁴⁰Bedouelle, ‘Une certaine idée de l'Europe’, 141.

⁴¹Fimister, Robert Schuman.

⁴²Kaiser, Christian Democracy.

⁴³The Holy See built in the immediate post-war years a close relationship with Christian democratic politicians and parties (see J.M. Durand, ‘Démocratie chrétienne’ and ‘Christliche Demokratie’).

⁴⁴Peri, ‘Christianitas’.

⁴⁵Coppa, ‘Pope Pius XII and the Cold War’, Barberini, ‘La politique européenne de l'Église Catholique’, 191.

⁴⁶Lacko, ‘The Forced Liquidation of the Union of Uzhorod’, which sets out the historical record of the suppression of the religious rights and identity of many millions of Eastern Catholics by the communist authorities, sometimes hand in hand with local Orthodox churches. The story is taken up by Lacko, during Pope Paul VI's era, in ‘The Re-establishment of the Greek Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia’.

⁴⁷J.F. Pollard, ‘The Vatican, Italy and the Cold War’ and Riccardi, Il Vaticano e Mosca.

⁴⁸J.M. Durand, ‘Giorgio La Pira – Jacques Maritain’; Edward, ‘“God Has Chosen Us”’. However the conflict was also intra-Christian, as some Protestants resented perceived Catholic ‘dominance’ in Cold War Western Europe (see Domenico, ‘“For the Cause of Christ Here in Italy”’).

⁴⁹Trán Thi Lién, ‘The Catholic Question in North Vietnam’.

⁵⁰Moro, ‘The Catholic Church, Italian Catholics and Peace Movements’.

⁵¹Barberini, ‘La politique européenne de l'Église Catholique’, 192.

⁵²Christine de Montclos, ‘La Papauté et l'émergence du Tiers Monde’.

⁵³Address to the Cardinals, AAS 40 (1948), 253 quoted in Barberini, ‘La politique européenne de l'Église Catholique’, 194.

⁵⁴J.M.Mayeur, ‘Pie XII et l'Europe’.

⁵⁵Riccardi, ‘La diplomatie pontificale en Europe orientale’.

⁵⁶Barberini, ‘La politique européenne de l'Église Catholique’, 194–7.

⁵⁷Chelini-Pont, ‘Papal Thought on Europe and the European Union’, 137; Chenaux, De la Chrétienté á l'Europe.

⁵⁸J.M. Durand, ‘De l'ONU à l'OIT’.

⁵⁹Montini developed his thinking on Europe and contacts with Christian Democrats early on in his career. See J.M. Durand, ‘Giovanni Battista Montini’; V. Peri, ‘Le radici italiane nella maturazione culturale di Giovanni Battista Montini’.

⁶⁰Christine de Montclos-Alix, ‘Le Saint-Siège et l'Europe’; Christine de Montclos, ‘Le Saint-Siège et la construction de l'Europe’.

⁶¹Hummel, Vatikanische Ostpolitik unter Johannes XXIII und Paul VI.

⁶²For a considered view of that relationship, see Barberini, ‘Quale separazione tra stato socialista e chiese’.

⁶³I am deeply indebted for this insight from Barberini, ‘La politique européenne de l'Église Catholique’, 198.

⁶⁴Wenger, ‘La politique orientale du Saint-Siège’. The historical record is in the process of being rewritten, see Barberini, La politica del dialogo; Barberini, L'ostpolitik della Santa Sede; Melloni and Scatena, Il Filo sottile.

⁶⁵Barberini, ‘Sécurité et coopération en Europe d'après les principes d'Helsinki’.

⁶⁶Wenger, Mastny and Nuenlist, The Origins of the European Security System.

⁶⁷Chelini-Pont, ‘Papal Thought on Europe and the European Union’, 137–9.

⁶⁸Sutton, ‘John Paul II's Idea of Europe’, 17.

⁶⁹Wojtyla, ‘Una frontiere per l'Europa: dove?’

⁷⁰J.M. Durand, ‘Giovanni Paolo II e l'Europa occidentale’.

⁷¹Barberini, ‘Les rapports entre l'Église et les États’.

⁷²De Gandt, ‘L'extension des relations diplomatiques du Saint-Siège depuis 1900’.

⁷³Formicola, ‘The Political Legacy of Pope John Paul II’, 235.

⁷⁴Barberini, ‘La politique européenne de l'Église Catholique’, 202.

⁷⁵A. Riccardi, ‘Europe’, 541. See also the studies of the Greek Catholic ecumenist and canon law scholar, Dimitri Salachas, now Byzantine Catholic Exarch in Athens, ‘Cirillo e Metodio proclamati compatroni d'Europa’ and ‘La risonanza nel Médio-Oriente della proclamazione dei Santi fratelli Cirillo e Metodio’.

⁷⁶Chelini-Pont, ‘Papal Thought on Europe and the European Union’, 137–42.

⁷⁷Barberini, ‘La politique européenne de l'Église Catholique’, 203. See also Schäfer, ‘The Catholic Church and the Cold War's End in Europe’.

⁸⁰Vattimo, After Christianity, 94.

⁷⁸Sutton, ‘John Paul II's Idea of Europe’, 23.

⁷⁹Barberini, ‘La politique européenne de l'Église Catholique’, 204–7.

⁸¹Barberini, ‘La politique européenne de l'Église Catholique’, 207–14.

⁸²Ibid., 214.

⁸³Paskewich, ‘Liberalism Ex Nihilo’.

⁸⁴Unsworth, ‘The Vatican, Islam and Muslim-Christian Relations’; Wood and Unsworth, ‘Pope Benedict XVI, Interreligious Dialogue and Islam’.

⁸⁵Barberini, ‘La politique européenne de l'Église Catholique’, 214–7.

⁸⁶Bedouelle, ‘Une certaine idée de l'Europe', 144.

⁸⁷Riccardi, ‘Europe’, 539.