The Schuman Declaration was a proposal made by the French foreign minister Robert Schuman for France and West Germany to share production of coal and steel under a single authority. That authority was later called the European Coal and Steel Community. From this date, May 9 the European Union (the EU) takes its founding date and celebrates Europe Day.
Since trade and economic issues aren't the most exciting topics so early in the morning, I'd like to focus on Venerable Robert Schuman and the Catholic Christian background of his vision for the EU.
Robert Schuman was born in Luxembourg on June 29, 1886. His father was a German citizen because he had been born in Alsace-Lorraine during one of those times it was held by Germany, but his mother was a native of Luxembourg, and Robert grew up speaking Luxembourgish, a Western German language. When Alsace-Lorraine was returned the French after World War I Schuman became a French citizen. (Then it back to German control under the Nazis and returned to France at the end of WWII, where it has stayed since.)
Schuman was a devout Catholic and a student of Saint Thomas Aquinas; he never married and lived an almost monastic life in practicing his faith. In many ways he was inspired by the Middle Ages as this address from 1949 demonstrates:
*Arranged in a circlet, a dozen stars represent the constellation of Corona and are seen as a crown in paintings of the Virgin Mary as Stella Maris. The circle of twelve stars also signifies royalty and implicitly structures of government (as in a Round Table). The flag's designer, Arsène Heitz, has acknowledged that Revelation 12:1 ["And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars"] inspired him. He stated that the idea for the stars came to him from the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Rue du Bac in Paris and the Miraculous Medal.
Robert Schuman was born in Luxembourg on June 29, 1886. His father was a German citizen because he had been born in Alsace-Lorraine during one of those times it was held by Germany, but his mother was a native of Luxembourg, and Robert grew up speaking Luxembourgish, a Western German language. When Alsace-Lorraine was returned the French after World War I Schuman became a French citizen. (Then it back to German control under the Nazis and returned to France at the end of WWII, where it has stayed since.)
Schuman was a devout Catholic and a student of Saint Thomas Aquinas; he never married and lived an almost monastic life in practicing his faith. In many ways he was inspired by the Middle Ages as this address from 1949 demonstrates:
We are carrying out a great experiment, the fulfillment of the same recurrent dream that for ten centuries has revisited the peoples of Europe: creating between them an organization putting an end to war and guaranteeing an eternal peace. The Roman church of the Middle Ages failed finally in its attempts that were inspired by humane and human preoccupations.
Another idea, that of a world empire constituted under the auspices of German emperors was less disinterested; it already relied on the unacceptable pretensions of a ‘Führertum’ (domination by dictatorship) whose 'charms' we have all experienced.
Audacious minds, such as Dante, Erasmus, Abbé de St-Pierre [priest and author of a plan for "perpetual peace" in the 18th century], Rousseau, Kant and [Pierre Joseph] Proudhon ["the father of anarchism"], had created in the abstract the framework for systems that were both ingenious and generous. The title of one of these systems became the synonym of all that is impractical: Utopia, itself a work of genius, written by Thomas More, the Chancellor of Henry VIII, King of England. . . .
We are still at the start of things. We would do well to bridle our impatience. If not, we are likely to make the doubters more distrustful and what is more serious, endanger not only the experiment but also the whole idea of a united Europe.
Schuman knew an abstract Utopia wouldn't work for a united, peaceful Europe; it couldn't be forced by a Fuhrer or planned by a philosopher, so he began the development of a European Union with trade agreements and cooperation between two former enemies, France and (West) Germany.
As Catholic World Report announced on June 19, 2021:
Pope Francis has declared venerable the French statesman Robert Schuman, known as a key “founding father” of the European Union.
After a June 19 meeting with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the pope advanced the sainthood causes of Schuman and six others.
“Schuman dedicated his life to serving the common good, seeking peace and reconciliation with Germany to create a community of European states,” Fr. Bernard Ardura, an official in charge of proposed French canonizations, told AFP.
Schuman’s efforts were “the work of a Christian, which serves as an example,” said Fr. Ardura, even if the statesman “remained very discreet about his personal life and his faith.”
Last year, the bishop of Metz asked Catholics to pray a novena for peace through Venerable Schuman's intercession:
Archbishop Philippe Ballot of Metz has urged Catholics in his northeastern French diocese to make a prayer novena for world peace through the intercession of the Venerable Robert Schuman (1886-1963), one of the founders of post-World War II Europe and a candidate for sainthood.
The archbishop and the Saint Benedict Institute [Institut Saint Benoit], an association in his diocese that is leading the cause for Schuman's canonization, set the nine days of prayer from February 16 to 24.
In announcing the initiative, Archbishop Ballot noted the many armed conflicts currently raging in the world and asked people to pray for an end to three in particular -- those between Russia and Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Armenia, and Hamas and Israel. He said the novena for Schuman's intercession should encourage all believers to become "guardians of a brotherhood that is possible".
Recalling the late European statesmen as a "faithful architect of peace who conducted his secular activities as an apostolate", the novena includes different texts to meditate upon each day and a final prayer that implores God for peace through Schuman's intercession.
Although Venerable Robert Schuman's vision for a united Europe was inspired by his Catholic faith--even the flag of the European Union has Marian imagery*--when the EU's Constitution was being drafted, Pope Saint John Paul II had to urge the framers to remember the Judaeo-Christian roots of Europe:
Multiple are the cultural roots that have contributed to reinforce the values just mentioned: from the spirit of Greece to that of Roman law and virtue; from the contributions of the Latin, Celtic, Germanic, Slav and Hungarian-Finnish peoples, to those of the Jewish culture and the Islamic world. These different factors found in the Jewish-Christian tradition the power that harmonized, consolidated and promoted them. By acknowledging this historical fact in the process leading to a new institutional order, Europe cannot deny its Christian heritage, since a great part of its achievements in the fields of law, art, literature and philosophy have been influenced by the evangelical message. Not giving in to a temptation to be nostalgic or to be content mechanically to repeat past models, but being open to the new challenges emerging, Europe will need to draw inspiration with creative fidelity from the Christian roots that have defined European history.
Historical memory demands it; but also and above all, it is essential to its mission. Europe is called today to be a teacher of true progress, to spread a globalization of solidarity without marginalization, to take part in building a just and lasting peace within it and in the world, to bring together different cultural traditions to give life to a humanism in which the respect for rights, solidarity and creativity will allow every man and woman to fulfil his/her noblest aspirations.
But the EU Constitution did not include any mention of Judaeo-Christian heritage in its final form in 2004; it also did not pass the required approval in individual national voting. The EU later adopted the Treaty of Lisbon instead as the document for the functioning of the EU, including how a member state exits (Brexit) the treaty.
If you read French, there's more information about the Cause for the Beatification and Canonization of Venerable Robert Schuman at the Institut Saint Benoit.
Venerable Robert Schuman, pray for us!
Pope Saint John Paul II, pray for us!
Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, pray for us!
Image Credit (Public Domain): Robert Schuman as the Deputy for Moselle in France in 1929.
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