Bishops want new EU Constitution to mention God

THE 5% of Europe’s citizens who are atheist must not be allowed to block a reference to God in the new EU Constitution, Catholic Bishops warned yesterday.

The Bishops from the EU members and several from countries applying for EU membership say including God in the new Constitution would help make the Union more democratic and bring it closer to its citizens.

They called on lay people and the clergy in each member state to lobby their national representatives on the Convention on the future of Europe to ensure it acknowledges God.

Bishop Josef Homeyer told a press conference during their meeting in Brussels yesterday it is important not just to God but to people that God is included in the constitution.

A recent survey carried out by the Catholic University of Louvain found the vast majority of EU citizens were believers.

A third of those questioned said they believed in a personal God, a third acknowledged the existence of a higher power or supreme being, 20% were agnostic or did not know and only 5% described themselves as non-believers or atheists.

“We ask if the 5% have a right to block a reference to God in a Constitution,” said Bishop Homeyer from Germany. “In a pluralist and secular society,” he said, a constitutional reference to God “provides a firewall against totalitarianism.”