Faith in Britain

A wall-poster during the Peking massacre read 'Learn From Romania'. Europeans should now try to learn from each other. History is a great teacher.

Nationalism and Marxism have both brought Europe to the edge of destruction.

Both are contradictions of what Europe is, both spiritually and politically.

Supranational political, economic and legal institutions based on democracy are the only sure defence against recidivist nationalism and one-party ideology. This is not a super-nation Europe; on the contrary, we must strive to restore Europe's individual regions so that each region's identifying character and importance are strengthened through this diversity. A Europe without frontiers and without barriers will be especially reliant on non-state cultural and religious institutions and forces to bring the Europe of the future to wholeness and life.

In the Christian Europe of the Middle Ages European institutions such as the religious orders were effective because they were European and not nationalistic.

Anselm came from Aosta in Italy, was an abbot in Brittany and became Archbishop of Canterbury; Albert the Great originated from Germany, taught in Paris and Cologne as well as serving as Bishop of Regensburg; Thomas Aquinas taught in Naples and Paris while Duns Scotus taught in England, France and Germany. Scholarship, the arts, science, the safeguarding of human rights, conscience, the quality of life and common security, are all areas of life where national considerations need not be uppermost in our minds.

The Brezhnev doctrine led to the strangulation of free expression and common movement in Eastern Europe. It followed a well-worn path: the brutal quashing of freedom in Hungary in 1956 and in Czechoslovakia in 1969, and Poland in 1981.

That was the kind of Europe Brezhnev had in mind when he coined the phrase, 'a common European home'.

The Europe of the future must be one where diversity is cherished and where mutual co-operation and interdependence are recognised, where the rights of small nations are upheld and respected. It must also be a place where the inner strength and inner freedom of the human personality is elevated.

In meeting these challenges the same forces that forged the European Community and ended the tyranny of the socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe will mould the future. The question then remains for Britain: 'Where does this leave our politics and our nation?'