The role of Catholics if Britain joins Europe

By GEORGE BULL Editor of The Director TWO British pilgrims set off for Europe recently — not Catholics, but, one hopes, arresting the special attention of English Catholics, as they assess the opportuneness of the Government's bid to join the European Economic Community. As the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary conclude their rounds of the Common Market capitals, it should be possible to predict British membership with some confidence or, at least, to know whether the whole project, at this stage, is simply a nonstarter.
I once heard an otherwise amiable French journalist predict that President de Gaulle would only allow Britain to enter the Common Market "on its knees..." This is not Mr. Wilson's posture at the moment; and it is not surprising that in this atmosphere of uncertainty and mistrust, most people are sceptical about the chances of the present approach: the price the French are asking is too high; the British Government's reservations are too many.
The rock on which the current British attempt to enter the Common Market could founder is still, without doubt, its relationship with the United States. The French President, it was suggested, would ask for some kind of evidence that Britain is wholly committed to Europe, and this could be given either in the form of support for French proposals for international monetary changes or support for French proposals on defence. Yet if there is anything to which the Wilson Government is committed, it is broad agreement on basic world issues with the United States Government.
Nonetheless this does not mean, as many assume, that if the current talks fail to lead straight on to serious negotiations for British entry, the whole enterprise will flop. Quite possibly, failing complete Anglo-French agreement, fresh ways will be found to extend British collaboration with the Eve in preparation for the time when Britain is considered fully ready for membership. Is there anywhere else for the United Kingdom to turn?
Whatever happens this year, therefore, we shall be living in a society actively preparing for eventual membership of a larger economic and political community.
SOME years ago, when the question of British membership of the Common Market was first raised, one of the objections heard was that this would mean joining a predominantly Catholic group. with traditions and culture sharply opposed to those of Protestant England.
For various reasons this argument is little heard nowadays. All the same, the British application for membership of the Common Market, when it comes, is of special concern to British Catholics, not because there is any truth in the fears expressed about "Catholic Europe" but because it will present them with the strongest challenge yet to widen their social and religious horizons.
Most discussion about possible British entry into the EEC is couched in terms of what the country could get out of it, the chief emphasis being put on the expanded market for its industrial products. The political implications are deliberately played down; it is often argued, for example, that the possibilities of success are to some extent enhanced by the fact that London and Paris share the same dislike of supranationalism.
On the other hand, there are many supporters of British membership—especially in the Labour Party—who believe that once Britain is tucked in with the others, then the British flair for democratic organisation will come into play and that eventually British parliamentarians will provide a fresh stimulus to the growth of federalism in Europe.
It is undeniable that among the motives of the so-called "friendly five" for wanting Britain inside the EEC is a genuine belief that the British presence would help keep future political development in Europe on sane and healthy lines: this is not sentimental flattery; it is the judgement of hard-headed and experienced people, like the Dutch. Too little attention has been paid in Britain so far to what the United Kingdom can contribute to Europe as well as what it can gain—and not only in the context of technology.
This aspect of the British approach to Europe raises two questions for English Catholics, who may find themselves, sooner than they suppose, belonging to a community which, however slow and even painful its growth may seem, is breaking down the barriers between one country and another.
First, whether they have anything to offer as Catholic citizens, as a minority body on the whole happily assimilated into English life, to wider political and social organisation in Europe. Second, whether simply as Catholics they have anything to offer the other European churches with which for many reasons their contacts will in future grow more intense. porate responsibility by the bishops for the Church as a whole and for dioceses other than their own. The Decree on the Bishops states that the bishops are "linked one to the other and should show concern for all the churches..."
Bishops, of course, are busy men, and at present meetings even between the cardinals who spearheaded the majority's progress during the Council are infrequent. But they have now had a deep experience in international co-operation and they have been given a brief for concerning themselves with each other's affairs which could be vastly extended in regional and continental areas, well beyond the summit meetings of the new Synod of Bishops.
The possibilities here, too, are surely relevant to the still insular Church in England in the context of lay initiatives. In a recent speech, Cardinal pc enan commented on the aradox that the bishops had gone to Rome partly to complete the unfinished work of Vatican I (and define their own role more carefully) but instead of taking more power for themselves had decided to share it with the laity and the rest of the clergy.
The logic of this is that the lay Catholic as well as the bishops should "show concern" for alt the churches. But there is a lot of catching up to do. Just as the Council threw into relief the extent to which in so many countries the secular authority, responsibilities and even maturity of the ordinary Catholic layman had developed far more sturdily and securely than his position in the Church, so the development of internationalism in the secular field is running far ahead of the growth of such corporate activity inside the Church.
HE possible entry of Britain into the Common Market should sharpen the awareness of English Catholics of the part they can play in working for international understanding and in developing closer ties between national churches, and those in Europe for a start. But does English Catholicism have much to offer? and secular life which other governments and churches could usefully learn from us.
The English "flair for compromise" is at work inside the Church as well as in the relations between the Church and the State, not least in ensuring that the decisions of the Council are applied without the disruption and disturbance that have caused so much dismay to so many Catholics. Here, in future years, the reforming conservatism of the hierarchy may come to be seen as justified by its results. There is, one of the Council experts said to me recently, "a great need to bring the Church up to 1967 rather than to 2067. which is what some of the Continentals seem to be trying to do."
And in bringing the Church literally up to date, there is less chance of weakening what have been its distinctive elements of strength in England as compared with the Continent: the often clearer and more practical insights of English Catholics into such questions as reli gious liberty; the high Stan dards of practice and corn mitment among Englisi Catholics, largely it is true be cause of their minority posi tion; the generally under valued ease of relationship between priests and laymen the greater influence of tht secular, pastorally committed clergy.
In England over half of the bishops are parish priests O 1111111111111i111.111111111.111,11141111111111111,11 This Week now appears on P.3 and Norman St.
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