The Vatican and Brexit

The Telegraph reports:

The Vatican wants Britain to stay in the European Union, the Pope's foreign secretary has declared.

Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States within the Holy See, suggested "Brexit" could weaken Europe.

In an interview with ITV, the English cleric who has a weekly meeting with Pope Francis, gave a clear signal of Rome's view of the best outcome of the forthcoming in/out referendum on continued EU membership.

"The Holy See respects the ultimate decision of the British people – that's for the British electorate to decide," he said.

"But I think we would see it as being something that is not going to make a stronger Europe."

The Vatican, led by the current Pope, has a acquired a bad habit of taking a stand on issues it should have nothing to do with, such as Brexit and global warming.

Is Pope Benedict a closet climate sceptic, after all?

Britain´s new ambassador to the Holy See, Nigel Baker, last week presented his credentials to Pope Benedict XVI. In his address to the Pope, ambassador Baker "highlighted areas of shared common values, in particular efforts to combat climate change, the elaboration of an international arms trade treaty and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals".

It is interesting to note that Pope Benedict, in his carefully prepared address to the ambassador, did not say a word about climate change, which was a priority item in the new ambassador´s speech. Maybe the Pope is not that convinced about human induced climate change, after all?

Read the Pope´s entire speech here

Is Pope Benedictus a closet euro-sceptic?

In September 2009 Pope Benedict spoke about liberty and Europe´s Christian heritage in Prague

TheVatican has during recent years rightly criticised the European Union for failing to recognise Europe´s Christian heritage (there is no mention of it e.g. in the EU´s constitutional treaties). Now Pope Benedict XVI has voiced some more general criticism of the EU, which is interesting:

 

In a conversation with reporters who accompanied him on a June 4 flight to Croatia, Pope Benedict XVI said that Croatia’s entry into the European Union should help to reinforce the sense of Europe’s Christian heritage.

“European identity is precisely an identity of the richness of diverse cultures, which converge in the Christian faith,” the Pope said. “It seems to me that it is one of the missions of the Croatians who enter in now: to make this visible and efficient.”

Answering a reporter’s question about the growing skepticism toward the European Union, the Pope said that attitude was understandable in light of “a central bureaucracy that may be too heavy, or of a rationalistic culture which does not take history sufficiently into account.” He said that Croatia, with its deep roots in Christian faith, might help to counterbalance “a certain abstract rationalism.”

Read the entire piece here

PS

The Pope is, of course, right:  The EU´s central bureacracy is much too heavy, and it is scandalous that the EU failed to recognise Europe´s Christian heritage in its constitutional treaties. On can only hope that Pope Benedict will return to these, and other, eurocritical themes in the near future. Anyway, welcome to the informal club of  eurocritical observers, Your Holiness!