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The Vatican and Europe: Political Theology and

Ecclesiology in Papal Statements from Pius XII to
Benedict XVI

Anthony O'Mahony

To cite this article: Anthony O'Mahony (2009) The Vatican and Europe: Political Theology and
Ecclesiology in Papal Statements from Pius XII to Benedict XVI, International Journal for the
Study of the Christian Church, 9:3, 177-194, DOI: 10.1080/14742250903201320

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International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church
Vol. 9, No. 3, August 2009, 177–194

The Vatican and Europe: Political Theology and Ecclesiology in Papal

Statements from Pius XII to Benedict XVI
Anthony O’Mahony

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

The ‘Idea of Europe’ is an extension and achievement of the ecumenical goal of

Christianity.1 The Church of Rome in historical terms has always had a privileged
relationship with Europe – the Pope is Bishop of Rome, Metropolitan of the Roman
ecclesiastical province and Primate of Italy.2 The ties that bind the Holy See to
Europe are deeply rooted in the history and identity of Western Christianity3 – for
centuries the Catholic Church was essentially a European church, at least until
1492.4 The Holy See had always thought of Europe as a whole. However, during the
nineteenth century the Catholic Church ‘reflected and progressively modified its
discourse’ confronted with the emergence of national identities often marked by
secularity.5 Papal thought is of recent date regarding a united Europe and is closely

1
See in particular the historical evidence presented by Hay, Europe.
2
A. 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’’’.
3
Bedouelle, ‘L’Europe et ses racines chrétiennes’.
4
See 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 chre´tiennes and Strate´gie missionnaire.
5
Riccardi, ‘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’.

ISSN 1474-225X print/ISSN 1747-0234 online

Ó 2009 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/14742250903201320
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178 A. O’Mahony

allied to pontifical diplomacy and teaching aimed at ‘building and preserving

peace’ during periods of conflict and war.6 Neither Benedict XV (1914–1922) nor
Pius XI (1922–1939) provided a positive political vision of a united Europe. It was
only after the Second World War that a distinctive Catholic vision of Europe
appeared under Pius XII (1939–1958).7 Since the Second World War, often
described as ‘a civil war’,8 the problem of Europe and return to its Christian roots
has been central to the concerns of the Holy See. Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI
and John Paul II were strongly conditioned by international political and historical
events and, in this way, linked to different perspectives.9 In addition, each one’s
European policy can be described in a different way, given the aims and
perspectives which are anchored in different historical moments: Pius XII’s mainly
anti-communist policy; John XXIII’s policy of openness to the world; Paul VI’s
policy of dialogue in a wider European context; John Paul II’s policy of reshaping
the continent. There are more than 160 addresses or passages from Pius XII, John
XXIII and Paul VI dedicated to the theme of Europe, and almost as many from
John Paul II.10 We must reserve a very particular reflection for the thought of
Benedict XVI, whose pontificate has only recently begun, but whose thought on
Europe is already known, mainly thanks to his numerous writings, which were
published before his election as Pontiff and deeply reflect the crisis of identity and
values which is affecting Europe.11
Europe represented a ‘problem’ for each pope, a problem that made it the
object of different attention and responses, both in terms of each pope’s cultural
and political ideas and in terms of the international situation. But each pope
considered Europe to be the fundamental pivot of the institutional structure of
the Catholic Church, and its culture to be the basic fabric for developing
Christian theological thought. It is also for this reason that they all showed their
concern about the phenomenon of secularisation, which is well advanced and very
evident, and which has made it necessary to speak of a new evangelisation of the
continent.12 This is the reference to the Christian civilisation from which Europe
was born, the claim that Europe’s unity is rooted in her Christian soul, the
profound conviction that Christianity shaped European civilisation and culture
and, therefore, that they should affirm the ideal of a fundamentally Christian

6
Chelini-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
frontie`res de la paix; Jankowiak, ‘Arbitrage’.
7
Chenaux, Pie XII and Une Europe Vaticane?, 23–44.
8
Nolte, La Guerre civile europe´enne.
9
A 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.
10
Spezzobottiani, ‘Il magistero europeistico’.
11
Ratzinger, ‘Europe in the Crisis of Cultures’. See also the analysis offered by Boeve, ‘Europe
in Crisis’.
12
Ian 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.
 International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 179

Europe which is able to pass on its values, which the Holy See considers to be
universal.13
This deep desire at the centre of papal thought on Europe was embedded early in
the post-war discourse of Pius XII. In an address given in French on 15 March 1953,
the Pope explained what ‘the European spirit’ was. He mentioned the contribution of
Christianity, and, acknowledging the debt of Europe to the Roman Empire and its
Greco-Latin civilisation, he added,
Christianity has shaped the peoples’ deepest soul: despite their very marked differences,
it has drawn out of them the distinctive characteristics of the free person, the absolute
subject in rights, and responsible before God not only for his own individual destiny but
also for the fate of the society to which he is committed.14

It was therefore the restoration of Christian values that Pius XII presented in his
teaching during these years of the Cold War, as the foundation of European
culture.
Beyond economic and political aims, a united Europe must give itself the mission to
affirm and defend spiritual values which, in other times, were the foundation and
support of its existence . . . we mean authentic Christian faith as a basis of its civilization
and culture.15

This language must not only be taken in the context of the ‘defence of the West’,
which was so characteristic of the post-war years when the two blocs confronted
one another, or a nostalgia for a ‘Christian civilisation’, but a wish to reconstruct
Europe from its fundamental spiritual source as its singular determining
identity.16
In Pius XII we find present the anxiety and concern for Europe’s future which
was undermined by the consequences of a war that had created barriers between
nations, between the victors and the vanquished. Pius XII was sensitive to the
spirit of a united Europe. This, however, was an objective whose outlines were
still quite uncertain and whose horizons were still not defined. The Catholic
Church’s attitude to Europe was therefore formed in modern times in quite
difficult conditions, outside any grand design. Pius XII, and then John XXIII and
Paul VI, did not have a defined and understood ‘political’ project for the Europe
of the future; they had to take note of the fact that, in the modern period, unlike
the past, the development of such a political project could only be a prerogative
of states. It is also true that their teaching and their taking of positions slowly
but certainly demonstrated a vision of the interests which the Church felt should
be emphasised, bringing them together with those which were considered to be
interests of a general nature like peace and freedom for people, thus tracing a
political direction which other actors in the international community could not
fail to take into account.17

13
See the fundamental study, to which I am greatly indebted, by Barberini, ‘La politique
européenne de l’Église Catholique’.
14
Bedouelle, ‘Une certaine idée de l’Europe’, 141.
15
Barberini, ‘La politique européenne de l’Église Catholique’, 190.
16
Bedouelle, ‘Une certaine idée de l’Europe’, 141.
17
Barberini, ‘La politique européenne de l’Église Catholique’, 190.
180 A. O’Mahony

The Holy See and the ‘Idea of Europe’

During the turbulent events of the nineteenth century,18 and in particular during the
twentieth century, the Holy See found itself acknowledged as a sort of international
magisterium19 which was the more surprising since its properly doctrinal magisterium
seemed to count fewer adherents.20 We can say that the Vatican’s modern role as
arbitrator, especially Benedict XV’s peace overtures during the First World War,
originated during this period especially in relation to Europe21 – this was eventually
translated into a global role.22 The papacy has been intimately involved in Europe’s
often tragic history: through its political action and its diplomacy, but also through
its religious role. By gestures or reflexes which have often been wrongly interpreted,
and which were not exempt from contradiction, it has defended what might be called
a certain ‘idea of Europe’.23 After the first collapse of the Napoleonic regime, Pius
VII, whose resistance to the French emperor had been much appreciated by the
conquerors, did not remain dependent upon the powers which were, at first glance,
not favourable to him: Protestant Britain and Prussia, Orthodox Russia and
Catholic (but Josephist) Austria. However, Cardinal Consalvi,24 whose diplomatic
talent was unanimously appreciated and respected, realised with relief in Paris,
London, and then at the Congress of Vienna, which he visited one after the other,
that the new Europe would not build itself without returning the Papal States to the
Pope, if not totally, at least in major part, and with the acceptance in principle of the
temporal sovereignty of the papacy.25
By refusing to excommunicate Napoleon during the 100 days, as much as by
refusing to deal with him, Pius VII and Consalvi aimed to preserve the Church’s
independence. What role would the Pope wish to play in a Europe which was
restored on the principle of the marriage between throne and altar which consecrated
the Holy Alliance? Pius VII would no more agree to enter the vaguely ecumenical
system of unmediated or undefined theocracy, which was represented by Russian
Tsar Nicholas I’s dream of unification,26 any more than he had agreed to join the
Church to Napoleon’s Europe. It was not only ‘enlightened’ and sentimental
religiosity that held him back, but also the conviction that a Christian Europe was
something more than coexistence within an ‘ecumenism’ which was poorly defined
by sovereigns imbued with Gallicanism and Josephism. At the time of the
revolutions in 1830, in fact, the international order maintained by Metternich
would find the Holy See to be a sometimes awkward and hesitant defender, but,

18
Elements 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 Re´volution 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).
19
The papacy experienced a renewal under Leo XIII. See the studies in Levillain and Ticchi, Le
pontificat de Le´on XIII; Viaene (ed.), The Papacy and the New World Order.
20
However the nineteenth century saw the emergence of a strong lay political constituency in
Europe. See Lamberts, The Black International.
21
Pollard, Benedict XV and ‘The Papacy in Two World Wars’.
22
For example, the Holy See’s role between the emerging ‘Catholic’ states of Latin America.
See Ticchi, ‘L’Amérique centrale’; Apollis, ‘La mediation internationale’.
23
Bedouelle, ‘Une certaine idée de l’Europe’, 132.
24
Robinson, Cardinal Consalvi.
25
See the classic studies by Rinerman, Austria and the Papacy in the Age of Metternich.
26
Lefevre, ‘S. Sede e Russia’; Bandikian and Poignel, Le Saint-Sı¨ege et la Russie.
 International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 181

above all, one that wished to protect the principle of legitimacy. Gregory XVI, a
pope who so wanted to promote the global mission of the church, watched with
anxiety as a new Europe took shape in the name of stifled, but passionate,
nationalities.27
Lacking in enthusiasm for the exuberance of the Irish nationalist movement,
which Daniel O’Connell nonetheless anchored in a truly European vision, and in the
comparative quest for Catholic emancipation within other unfriendly states, such as
Switzerland and the Netherlands, and initially anxious about the ‘unionism’ between
Catholics and liberals which gave birth to the kingdom of Belgium,28 Gregory XVI
did not understand the importance of nationalisms, which he judged by the yardstick
of the threat which the anticlerical Italian nationalist movement posed to the
Church’s temporal rule.29 In fact, it was only once it was freed, despite itself, from
the mortgage of the Papal States, that the Holy See could clarify its position on
Europe.30
During the bloody years from 1914 to 1918, the papacy was not in a good
position to be heard. Its influence on opinion was slender on account of its isolation
from the Italian government over the Roman Question and from the French
government since the 1905 separation of Church and state. This can partly help us to
understand why Pope Benedict XV, elected in 1914, had such difficulty making
himself heard by all parties in the European, and then global, battle which placed
two-thirds of European Catholics in opposition to one another.31 This is what also
explains the clause of the London treaty of 26 April 1915 that excluded the Holy See
from future peace negotiations, while Italy joined the Entente. The Holy See would
be excluded from the drawing up of a new Europe, and there would be no new
Consalvi at the new Congress of Vienna.32
It is certain that the vision of Europe which underlay the papal plan kept an
essential place for the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, conceived as a supranational
state, and a Catholic one at that, still able to contain the flow of rivalries and
independence.33 This vision of Europe was still not based on the exclusivity of the
nation-state. After the First World War, Benedict XV refined the idea of Europe
which the Holy See would defend from now on. Faced with the collapse of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire and its dismembering into numerous nation-states, from
the encyclical Maximum illud in 1919, he accepted this mosaic of nationalities, but
continued to warn against nationalism. The interwar period would show how wise
this vision of Europe was,34 encapsulated in Pius XI’s vehement rejection, too often

27
Bedouelle, ‘Une certaine idée de l’Europe’, 133; Atkin and Tallett, ‘Catholicism Restored:
1815–50’ in Priests, Prelates & People, 85–128.
28
Viaene, Belgium and the Holy See.
29
See 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’.
30
Scoot, The Roman Question.
31
Latour, ‘La Voix de Benoı̂t’.
32
Bedouelle, ‘Une certaine idée de l’Europe’, 136–7.
33
For 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’.
34
Bedouelle, ‘Une certaine idée de l’Europe’, 138–9.
182 A. O’Mahony

forgotten, of the nationalist, expansionist and neo-pagan Europe which was offered
by the fascist dictatorships.35

Europe in the thought of Pius XII after the Second World War
The years 1815, 1919 and 1945 are determining dates for the geographical,
ideological and economic configuration of Europe. We have seen how the Holy See,
in the same line of thinking that aimed to preserve the Church’s independence and to
demonstrate its suspicion of exacerbated nationalism, could develop its discourse.
The crisis of the Second World War renewed the relationship between the Catholic
Church and Europe, and the concept of Europe appeared clearly in Pope Pius XII’s
thought. The magisterium that Pius XII exercised throughout his long pontificate
(1939–1958) is very rich, particularly in the period following the Second World
War.36 A re-examination of this teaching emphasises the many concerns that
inspired it, and the difficulties that Pope Pacelli had to confront. Andrea Riccardi
has described this well:
From the heart of Europe, from Rome, came a teaching of Christian civilization
that was indispensable for conceiving a future of peace. The proposal for a return to a
union with the magisterium of the Church of Rome was accompanied by acts as
symbolic as Pius XII’s proclaiming St. Benedict of Nursia37 as Father of Europe’ in
1947.38

From Pius XII onwards popes have emphasised the theme of Europe’s Christian
roots, ‘as a remembrance of the past and a project for the future’. In a radio
broadcast of 9 May 1945, the day after the armistice, Pius XII spoke of ‘a new and
better Europe’, founded on ‘respect for human dignity, on the sacred principle of
equality of rights for all people, for all states, large and small, weak and strong’. In
the huge problems of European reconstruction, truth and love had to replace lies and
bitterness.39
Pius XII progressively clarified his thoughts on Europe. In 1948, on 2 June and
on 11 November, the Pope developed the theme of a possible European Union. On

35
It 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 mardite´). 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’.
36
See P.C. Kent’s major biography, The Lonely Cold War of Pope Pius XII.
37
For two readings in line with Pius XII, see Hastings, ‘The Contribution of St. Benedict to
European Civilization’; Derrick, The Rule of Peace.
38
A. 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.
39
Quoted 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’).
 International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 183

these occasions, he clarified his thinking, ‘while stopping himself from implicating
the Church in purely temporal interests’.40 Europe would be founded on a moral
principle, or would not be, and it would rediscover a unity that had ‘its soul’ in the
Christian faith. Pius XII and his Catholic contemporaries, de Gasperi, Adenauer,
Robert Schuman,41 in fact tried to build a ‘Christian democratic’ Europe,42 as a
rampart against the threat of communism, but also as a concrete and relative
attempt to build a just order in Europe.43 Pius XII certainly made the distinction
between free and oppressed European peoples his own and he seemed to support the
idea of a renewed Christianitas.44 This was a new Europe built around a free Western
Europe, founded on democracy, seeking institutional forms for union and
collaboration on Christian foundations. It was a logic, however, which sought to
oppose, not only at the moral and religious level, but also at the level of international
politics, the Marxism–Leninism which had become a dominant political system. In
those years, we should not forget, religion was persecuted and the Catholic Church
in particular,45 especially its Eastern Catholic branches.46
Pius XII’s ideological opposition to communism was strong, and the dangers
which it represented were his greatest concerns. His denunciation of communist
atheism and the Stalinist attempt radically to subvert the social order were prophetic
if not inflexible. Confronted by the pressing communist threat, Pius XII felt that one
could and should try to protect those countries which were not yet dominated by
communism from danger. In Pius XII, European policy and anti-communist policy
were definitively knitted together. In addition, the political line from the Pope and
the Vatican Secretariat of State was to denounce the persecutions of the Church and
not to deal with communist régimes. Against the voice of Pius XII and the Holy See
a torrent of propaganda emanated from Moscow and Prague, supported by the
communist parties which were either affiliated, as in Italy, or forming themselves, as
in other countries.47 The position of Christianity in the culture and political future of
Europe was a central tenet of East–West conflict and not only in Europe48 but
globally.49
The international situation especially during the tensions of the 1950s did not
facilitate the adoption of new thinking for the future of Europe, for example the

40
Bedouelle, ‘Une certaine idée de l’Europe’, 141.
41
Fimister, Robert Schuman.
42
Kaiser, Christian Democracy.
43
The 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’).
44
Peri, ‘Christianitas’.
45
Coppa, ‘Pope Pius XII and the Cold War’, Barberini, ‘La politique européenne de l’Église
Catholique’, 191.
46
Lacko, ‘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’.
47
J.F. Pollard, ‘The Vatican, Italy and the Cold War’ and Riccardi, Il Vaticano e Mosca.
48
J.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’’’).
49
Trán Thi Lién, ‘The Catholic Question in North Vietnam’.
184 A. O’Mahony

formation of the two military alliances, NATO and the Warsaw Pact, the Korean
war, and the repression and besieging of Berlin, Poland and Budapest from 1953, the
Suez crisis in 1956, military conflict in Vietnam from 1950, the war between Israel
and the Arab states from 1947. These events hardened opposition between East and
West, and also affected the Catholic Church. They shaped the context for Vatican
thinking on the condition of Europe. Despite the international tension, there was, in
Pius XII’s teaching governance, in addition to a decided anti-communist attitude, a
desire and a strong pressure for the establishment of democracy and systems that
respected the dignity of the person, and for effective peace, themes which were
particularly developed in the Pope’s Christmas messages.50 Also found in his
teaching, however, is the conviction that it was necessary to move forward with a
plan for the unity of a Europe able to represent a community of free people, and a
reference point for oppressed people. For Pius XII, this meant a united Europe,
founded on Christianity and influenced by the magisterium of the Catholic Church.51
Pius XII’s deeds, alongside a universal tendency, were influenced in particular by
his interest and promotion of the missionary movement. He was also interested in
the emerging countries in other continents and encouraged the establishment of local
hierarchies in Africa and Asia.52 His actions were also strongly marked by a concern
for Europe and the West in general. Pius XII gave all his support to the construction
of the European Community. The union of European peoples was expressed in his
prediction that Europe – the point at which the universal and European tendency
came together in his thought, and which had been ‘the home of chronic agitation’ –
might in the future become a rampart of peace and the providential agent to promote
a general détente in the world.53 Pius XII saw a historic mission for Christian
Europe.54

John XXIII and Europe

Roncalli’s brief papacy (1958–1963) took a different route from the one followed by
Pius XII and was marked by a period of new opportunities due to a greater openness
in international relations. This allowed him greater opportunities in the Eastern part
of Europe.55 This is to be seen firstly in the participation by some 70 bishops from
the countries of Eastern Europe in the Second Vatican Council (although given that
the majority came from Poland and Yugoslavia, this is to be considered a limited
presence), and the presence at the Council of two observers from the Russian
Orthodox Church (a political decision taken by the Soviet authorities). Khrushchev
sent greetings to John XXIII for his eightieth birthday; the Pope immediately
responded with his characteristic politeness. Khrushchev’s gesture seems to have
been dictated by his great respect for the call that John XXIII addressed to the world
on 10 September 1961, in which he emphasised the dangers which threatened peace.
This greatly struck the Soviet leaders who perhaps no longer viewed the Catholic
Church as clearly allied to the West, as in the past. We should also note John
50
Moro, ‘The Catholic Church, Italian Catholics and Peace Movements’.
51
Barberini, ‘La politique européenne de l’Église Catholique’, 192.
52
Christine de Montclos, ‘La Papauté et l’émergence du Tiers Monde’.
53
Address to the Cardinals, AAS 40 (1948), 253 quoted in Barberini, ‘La politique européenne
de l’Église Catholique’, 194.
54
J.M.Mayeur, ‘Pie XII et l’Europe’.
55
Riccardi, ‘La diplomatie pontificale en Europe orientale’.
 International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 185

XXIII’s call to heads of state, particularly to US President Kennedy and the Soviet
leader Khrushchev on 25 October 1962 to resolve the Cuban crisis; the liberation of
the elderly Ukrainian Greek Catholic Metropolitan Slipyj, who had been condemned
to forced labour in Siberia, at the direct intervention of the two Russian observers
and on Khrushchev’s personal decision; and the meeting between the Pope and the
editor of Izvestia, Adjubei, Khrushchev’s son-in-law, a meeting which had been
requested and which the Pope felt he should not reject.56 John XXIII often
positioned himself as a peaceful mediator between the Western and Eastern blocs
rather than as a natural ally of the United States or Western Europe.57 Unlike his
successor Paul VI, John XXIII was less close personally to the Christian Democratic
politicians and their political-religious vision for Europe.

Paul VI and Europe

Montini developed the theme of openness inaugurated by John XXIII during his
pontificate (1962–1978) and showed that he knew how to grasp the ‘signs of the
times’. Paul VI’s teaching and his political-diplomatic work are broad and rich, and
they opened new horizons for the presence of the Holy See in the international
community.58 He dedicated several dozen interventions to the theme of Europe,
many of which deal with the community institutions.59 Paul VI’s ideas on Europe,
already demonstrated during his episcopacy in Milan, must first of all be interpreted
in the light of the ongoing support for the construction of community institutions.60
In a different context, and like Pius XII, Paul VI combined a European and a global
vision. From the historical perspective papal ventures outside Rome after the Great
Western Schism (1378–1417) right down to the twentieth century were infrequent.
Paul VI’s decision to travel abroad was revolutionary and transformative,
contributing to his reputation as the first modern pope particularly through his
pilgrimage to Jerusalem in January 1964. Paul VI shared his predecessors’, especially
Pius XII’s, deep conviction on the matter of the Christian inspiration of European
culture. The policy of dialogue, including a dialogue with atheists, Marxists and non-
believers, was one which he strongly desired, and, confirmed by the teaching of
Vatican II, was a very effective tool for broadening the horizon before the Church
and giving her the possibility of first initiating contacts and then concluding
agreements with communist-run states. The policy of dialogue, which was precisely
the opposite of the opposition previously followed by the Church, however justified
it was, was joined to Ostpolitik.61
Paul VI considered it was necessary to dialogue with socialist states in order to
intervene as much as possible on behalf of the churches of Central and Eastern
Europe, and to fund their most urgent needs and maintain the organisation of their

56
Barberini, ‘La politique européenne de l’Église Catholique’, 194–7.
57
Chelini-Pont, ‘Papal Thought on Europe and the European Union’, 137; Chenaux, De la
Chre´tiente´ á l’Europe.
58
J.M. Durand, ‘De l’ONU à l’OIT’.
59
Montini 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’.
60
Christine de Montclos-Alix, ‘Le Saint-Siège et l’Europe’; Christine de Montclos, ‘Le Saint-
Siège et la construction de l’Europe’.
61
Hummel, Vatikanische Ostpolitik unter Johannes XXIII und Paul VI.
186 A. O’Mahony

dioceses.62 He had convinced himself that, with the prospect that atheistic
communism would be maintained for a long time in that part of Europe, a solution
had to be found so that the churches of the East would not continue to be isolated.
From the start of his papacy in 1963, it would be more than 25 years before the
beginning of the fall of régimes based on communism – a whole generation. This was
not expected. Paul VI’s policy was supported by an ecclesial principle, the principle
of sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum – the maintaining of the communion of faith and
discipline by all churches with the Church of Rome and, therefore, with the Pope.63
The Vatican’s policy of Ostpolitik was not always understood by European and
Western opinion.64 However, it is clear that, without decreasing interest for the
European community and Western Europe, Paul VI’s political-diplomatic activity
was addressed to the whole continent. In the middle of his doubts, perplexity and
critics, Paul VI, despite everything, showed courage by taking a totally new path.
This placed him in direct contact with the other part of Europe, which still sent out
uncertain signals, but which were positively decoded as going in the direction of
peaceful coexistence and then détente.
The Holy See participated fully in the Conference for Security and Cooperation
in Europe and contributed significantly to the Helsinki process that attempted to
bring about peace and security in Europe.65 The Europe envisaged by Helsinki
corresponded to the aspirations of the Holy See marking the end of the geopolitical
divisions inherited from the Second World War.66 It can be said that the Pope did
everything he could, first of all to overcome the Cold War, and then to affirm
peaceful coexistence, and then general détente. In the central years of his papacy,
Paul VI embodied the requirement to widen the international political horizon. In
addition to indicating the Church’s interest in the construction of the European
community, the Holy See took its place, emphasising its moral authority and
encouraging the initiative that it felt was in Europe’s interest, but also, because of
what it represented, the interest of the whole family of nations.
In conclusion, the characteristics of Paul VI’s European policy seem, on the one
hand, to be dictated by seeking dialogue and rapprochement between peoples,
adopting a less rigid and quite flexible policy which had lost the crudity of
opposition. On the other hand, he was a persistent advocate of the importance of
Western Europe, as confirmed by all his many interventions to encourage and
support the construction of the European community.67

John Paul II and Europe

The British scholar Michael Sutton argues correctly that it cannot be gainsaid that
the pontificate of John Paul II has been the ‘decisive factor shaping the course of

62
For a considered view of that relationship, see Barberini, ‘Quale separazione tra stato
socialista e chiese’.
63
I am deeply indebted for this insight from Barberini, ‘La politique européenne de l’Église
Catholique’, 198.
64
Wenger, ‘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.
65
Barberini, ‘Sécurité et coopération en Europe d’après les principes d’Helsinki’.
66
Wenger, Mastny and Nuenlist, The Origins of the European Security System.
67
Chelini-Pont, ‘Papal Thought on Europe and the European Union’, 137–9.
 International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 187

political events in Europe in the last quarter of the twentieth century’.68 On the eve of
his election, Cardinal Wojtyla, Archbishop of Krakow, published a significant article
for the October 1978 edition of the Italian Catholic periodical Vita e Pensiero, ‘A
Border for Europe: Where?’69 This paper enables us to know what Karol Wojtyla
meant by Europe, European, European-ness, West and East. It was the fruit of long
reflection, born of a culture which was partially unknown to many in Western
Europe at that time. The article was a clear letter of introduction to his long
pontificate (1978–2005) on the theme of Europe.70 John Paul II was committed to
four basic aims: the protection of the autonomy of the Church;71 respect for human
dignity, especially religious liberty; religious engagement and reconciliation with
states, which translated into a significant rise in states (many non-Christian)
establishing full diplomatic relations with the Holy See;72 and a prophetic concern
for social, economic and political justice. For John Paul II, ‘The nuances of these
commitments, their translation into church policy, and their eventual infusion into
the global political consciousness attest to the pontiff’s Christian ideology and often,
militant evangelization for a higher order of politics during his papacy’.73
John Paul II’s ideas on Europe were born from a very different cultural
inheritance. His ideas, unlike those of his predecessors, the sons of the West, were
born of his experience as the son of the oppressed peoples of the European East,
who demanded the right to reappropriate for themselves a ‘presence’ (place) in the
meeting of nations which history could not deny them. The revival of the Slavic
people and of their Christianity was a key element in Pope Wojtyla’s political and
cultural project. This project anticipated the political and institutional changes of
1989 in a vision which was then almost utopian. It wished, in some way, to prepare
them; it definitively showed itself victorious in the history of international
relations.74 In addition to Benedict of Nursia, the first Slavic pope proclaimed
Cyril and Methodius, the two saints who evangelised the Slavs, as patron saints of
Europe in his encyclical Slavorum Apostoli (1985), written in a still-divided Europe.
The Pope outlined his ideas for a common European consciousness, despite the
diversity of the religious and cultural traditions of the continent.75 The unity of
Europe was also an ecumenical vision for John Paul II’s foundation of the unity of
the Church, East and West, as a precondition for the unity of Europe, which was
Christian by civilisation and history despite its recent traumas. Building on the
legacy of Paul VI, the Pope developed a strong relationship with the Orthodox
Patriarchate of Constantinople, recognising the importance of this See for the
Orthodox Churches of Eastern Europe and the dual responsibility and leadership
Rome and Constantinople had towards Christian Europe. With this relationship

68
Sutton, ‘John Paul II’s Idea of Europe’, 17.
69
Wojtyla, ‘Una frontiere per l’Europa: dove?’
70
J.M. Durand, ‘Giovanni Paolo II e l’Europa occidentale’.
71
Barberini, ‘Les rapports entre l’Église et les États’.
72
De Gandt, ‘L’extension des relations diplomatiques du Saint-Siège depuis 1900’.
73
Formicola, ‘The Political Legacy of Pope John Paul II’, 235.
74
Barberini, ‘La politique européenne de l’Église Catholique’, 202.
75
A. 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’.
188 A. O’Mahony

John Paul II also recognised the illegitimacy of communist rule in Russia and
Eastern Europe.76
In October 1978 in Vita e Pensiero the future pope set out his ideas in detail. The
division which had then existed for many decades between Western and Eastern
Europe, which had even divided a nation, Germany, into two ‘worlds’, had in a sense
eliminated the common way of thinking and speaking which was characteristic of
‘Mitteleuropa’. According to Wojtyla, Europe’s geographical border can be clearly
identified at the west, north, south, and also in the east, where the border runs along
the Ural Mountains. The ‘eastern variation’ of European-ness runs along the Ural
Mountains to the Caspian Sea, and along the Caucasus as far as the Black Sea.
Europe’s eastern border in a psychological and ethical sense ‘is above all the border of
the Gospel’s penetration. Then, it is the border of the invasions from Asia, which
aimed to enslave the European peoples’, who already demonstrated ‘a cultural and
political profile’. Language, culture and history enable the human and spiritual
borders between states to be drawn; the notion of ‘European’ is divergent and permits
variations in ideas, caused by the existence in the past of two religious-cultural
centres, Rome and Constantinople, the Greek influence, historical events which also
concerned the peoples of the north. However, what was definitively determining for
the understanding of ‘European’ was the reference to the ‘meaning of humanity and
human dignity drawn from the Gospel’.77 In Karol Wojtyla’s thought there is an
effort to remove the cultural, political and even military significance that the
expressions ‘Eastern Europe’ and ‘Western Europe’ had gradually assumed, with the
division of the continent into two worlds or blocs, particularly after the Second World
War. According to the Pope, they were to be related to their original meaning, which
is religious and cultural, born of an intrinsic correspondence between the European
civilisation and the civilisation brought by Christianity.
Michael Sutton, however, reminds us: ‘On the question of Europe’s religious
identity, John Paul II makes no pretence that it has been, or should be, exclusively
Christian’.78 Nevertheless, it is possible to identify some guiding principles which
John Paul II felt were valid for a reading of everything to do with Europe in the past
and future. Christianity is the source of unity for the peoples of Europe; the existing
link between Christianity and European culture. Europe is the fruit of the work of
two Christian traditions; the unity of Europe must respect its different nationalities,
but the dignity and freedom of the human person must be a principle of inspiration
for the unity of the European peoples.79 John Paul II’s reflection on Europe brings us
to reflect, too, on the question of religious pluralism. Is reviving the idea of
Christianity as the source of unity for the European continent a way of awakening
the Christian soul of Europe? Or is it a call, with a motivation which could be
political, to make Christianity take on a world leadership? This is a disputed
question. However, the Pope saw Christianity as global, as was the contemporary
reality of the Catholic Church, though it was impossible to think that Europe did not
have a special role in this synthesis. Much of the denominational identity of world
Christianity had originated in Europe and its ecclesial division had become global

76
Chelini-Pont, ‘Papal Thought on Europe and the European Union’, 137–42.
77
Barberini, ‘La politique européenne de l’Église Catholique’, 203. See also Schäfer, ‘The
Catholic Church and the Cold War’s End in Europe’.
78
Sutton, ‘John Paul II’s Idea of Europe’, 23.
79
Barberini, ‘La politique européenne de l’Église Catholique’, 204–7.
 International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 189

Christian reality as a result of the missionary movement. Would not the finding of
European unity on an understanding of the unity of Christianity have a global
dimension? As the Italian philosopher Gianni Vattimo argues:
In eliminating religious themes from the lay realm, Western societies have tried to solve
the problem of Christianity’s transformation from element of cohesion to element of
conflict. This transformation coincides with the beginning of European modernity itself,
the Protestant Reformation, and the wars of religion, and extends to our epoch.80

Bearing this in mind, John Paul II’s addresses, meetings, journeys, visits and
behaviour bear witness to his clear wish to rebuild in toto this unity broken a thousand
years ago, and to put an end to the rift created by the Reformation, a rift which also
led to a change in the European conscience, making it different in the different
Christian regions of the continent. John Paul II’s analysis, whilst characterised by
religious certitude, was never a demand for a Catholic soul of Europe. The analysis
and suggestions for the spiritual rebuilding of the continent came under the sign of
religious pluralism, of full religious freedom, of ecumenical commitment and
interreligious dialogue. In brief, today’s reality was present in the Pope’s eyes.81
The meeting of Europe as a single continent of peoples, in John Paul II’s mind, could
not come through Western Europe, for at least two reasons: because the equal dignity
of the two Christian traditions and cultures was revived; and because it defended the
respect for every nationality which constituted Europe’s history.

Benedict XVI and the Future of Europe

To end this survey of papal thought on Europe we turn to Benedict XVI who was
elected to the Office of Peter in 2005. Before his election, he dedicated many
interventions to the subject of Europe. All may be said to be marked by a sense of
deep uncertainty and many questions, as he sought to understand, with his refined
philosophical and theological culture, what were the questions with which Europe
must deal. The general vision which appears to guide his reflection is that ‘now, the
theme of Europe can only be dealt with in the context of the global challenges of our
times’.82 Europe has seen the myth of communism die, with a considerable part of
the continent moving towards founding solid democratic structures. The European
Union itself is in a state of profound transformation. Before his election Cardinal
Ratzinger thought it necessary to reflect on Europe’s cultural identity today, to
analyse the reasons for a crisis which certainly exists, to identify future objectives on
the basis of a future reshaping of the European continent and to give fresh impetus
to its religious culture and inclinations. He dealt with the theme of Europe’s cultural
crisis as a crisis of shared values and as a crisis of the idea of individual and social
life. He dealt with the theme of the rediscovery of Europe’s cultural roots by recalling
his own history, and he offered his reading of contemporary humanism without an
opposition between faith and reason. Some of these concerns are a further
articulation of John Paul II’s thought on the crisis and potential of Europe.
Benedict XVI considers that Europe is not a continent which can be grasped
totally in geographical terms. It is a cultural and historical concept, which must take

80
Vattimo, After Christianity, 94.
81
Barberini, ‘La politique européenne de l’Église Catholique’, 207–14.
82
Ibid., 214.
190 A. O’Mahony

account of the processes which have taken place down the centuries to give it its
historical and cultural identity, particularly during the time characterised by the
events which first divided and then opposed East and West, Western and Eastern
Christian churches. Benedict XVI is conscious that the future of Christianity in the
new emerging Europe will depend upon a rapprochement between Eastern and
Western churches. As the political and economic union of the continent marches
eastwards, this future depends on building bridges with the Ecumenical Patriarchate
of Constantinople, a key relationship in the religious leadership of Europe.
In the West of Europe Benedict XVI gives a certain importance to the point
when, particularly under the influence of the French Revolution, the spiritual
framework of Europe, without which it would not have been able to form itself, was
torn to pieces, that is, the state was considered in purely secular terms, based on its
citizens’ rationality and will.83 He is aware that the revival and presence of Islam in
Europe poses a great challenge to Christianity in Europe. Even the great religious
traditions of Asia seem to emphasise a Europe which denies its religious and moral
foundations.84 To find a response it is, according to Benedict XVI, necessary to look
into our present, and to have in our mind at the same time the historical and
religious roots of Europe. His reflections on Europe have a political character that is
very different from Wojtyla’s; they are governed by a rigorous philosophical and
theological analysis, giving importance to contemporary problems. We might think
that, after the strong political impetus sought by John Paul II, who was reading the
signs of the times, Benedict XVI’s teaching on Europe will consist of a more strictly
doctrinal recollection, so that Europe is able to recover its identity and the values
which in the past it was able to pass on to the world.85

Conclusion
From the above brief account, a certain continuity over the last two centuries
emerges, in the attitude of the Holy See at the various moments when Europe was
searching for a new configuration. The papacy never ceased to proclaim the need for
the independence of the spiritual domain, often too hastily confused in the
nineteenth century with the independent action of the Roman Catholic Church and
the polity of the Papal States. Under Pius IX there was spoliation and dispossession;
for the still poorly known Pope Benedict XV, there was the humiliation of being
misunderstood and even rejected in his clear efforts for peace; for Pius XI there was
the harrowing battle and permanent conflict of duty in Italy and Germany, and, for
Pius XII above all, the Second World War. In all these cases, the Roman Church
suffered, endured, mediated and adopted a more disinterested vision for Europe. It
even took an active part in concrete efforts for peace on the continent and the unity
of Europe according to its ‘Idea of Europe’, as witnessed by Paul VI, then John Paul
II, and now Benedict XVI.86 From 1939 to 1978, there were 137 pontifical
proclamations on Europe: Pius XII – 36; John XXIII – 7; Paul VI – 94; the
interventions of John Paul II were more numerous.87 It is unlikely that Benedict

83
Paskewich, ‘Liberalism Ex Nihilo’.
84
Unsworth, ‘The Vatican, Islam and Muslim-Christian Relations’; Wood and Unsworth,
‘Pope Benedict XVI, Interreligious Dialogue and Islam’.
85
Barberini, ‘La politique européenne de l’Église Catholique’, 214–7.
86
Bedouelle, ‘Une certaine idée de l’Europe’, 144.
87
Riccardi, ‘Europe’, 539.
 International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 191

XVI, a pope born in Germany during the great trauma of Europe, will be any less
willing to add to the Vatican’s ‘Idea of Europe’.

Notes on contributor
Anthony O’Mahony is based at Heythrop College, University of London. His main research
interests are in modern Church History, Theology and Politics; Christianity in the Middle East
and the encounter between Christianity, Judaism and Islam. His publications include
Christians in the Middle East: Studies in Modern History, Theology and Politics (2008) and,
with E. Loosley, Christian Responses to Islam: Muslim-Christian Relations in the Modern
World (2008).

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