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Push for `Christianity' to be in EU constitution

Italy will push for Christianity to be mentioned in a EU constitution when EU leaders meet to negotiate the new charter in October, Deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini said on Wednesday.

Fini, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said he hoped the leaders would stick closely to a draft constitution drawn up by a Convention of European lawmakers but that they would insert the Christianity reference which the forum omitted.

"The Italian government has been quite clear right from the outset of the Convention and we have not changed our opinion. We feel that it is necessary to include this reference," Fini told a news conference after addressing the European Parliament.

The Convention headed by former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing chose to avoid mentioning Christianity in its blueprint for the bloc's first constitution, referring instead to Europe's "cultural, religious and humanist inheritance."

Pope John Paul has crusaded for a more explicit reference to be included, but it is opposed by secular countries such as France, which have a constitutional separation of church and state. Some states fear it would be a slight to other religions, such as Judaism and Islam, and to atheists.

Predominantly Roman Catholic Spain, Portugal and Poland, set to join the bloc next May, have also said they support mentioning Christianity or God.

Fini, a member of Italy's right-wing National Alliance party, said it would be "hypocritical not to have the political courage" to state in the constitution that Europe's respect for human rights stems from its Judeo-Christian roots.

Italy will chair an intergovernmental conference, starting in Rome on October 4, that aims to finalize the constitution.

Fini said he feared a deadlock if countries tried to make many other changes to the draft, as the final document had to be accepted unanimously.
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