Apostasy
Be very, very careful…
Tomorrow, the 25th of March 2007, is the Fiftieth Anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome – “treaties,” really, since there was more than one – which created the European Union and its percursor organizations. This is not a festivity that has got the public into the streets, but a certain amount of institutional fun is still being had.
Pope Benedict XVI, for instance, has seized the occasion to grumble once again about Europe’s ingratitude in failing to formally recognize its ideal debt to the Catholic Church – which, interestingly, has historically not favored the unification of Europe, the view apparently being that while it may be necessary to “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s,” you wouldn’t want his slice to get any bigger.
At any rate, “If, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, the governments of the Union wish to grow closer to their citizens, how could they exclude an essential element of the European identity like Christianity, with which the vast majority continues continues to identify itself?”, the Pope wonders rhetorically.
Just so that we get this right, and so that people in other places and other societies fully grab the flavor, it might be remembered that the Church of Rome holds that the terms “Christianity” and “Roman Catholicism” are completely synonymous.
In other words, there is no way at all to be a Christian outside of the Church. You may believe you have got around this by signing up as a Baptist or something, but, seen from Rome, you are wrong. Whatever you think, you are really just a bad Catholic, which is why the Church reserves the right to excommunicate you even if you never quite actually, ahm, joined its ranks. We go into this more fully (here), if you need further information about the odds of irredeemably going to Hell.
The Pontifex Max did not specify which parts of the the Catholic heritage he believes should be honored by EU institutions – it is always possible he was talking about the Inquisition, witch-hunts and Crusades, mass castrations, the repression of the Huguenots, the trial of Galileo, ingrained anti-semitism and misogynism, lots of hangings and a certain number of burnings at the stake – but he did underline that those countries and governments that do not immediately shape up in this respect may be committing “apostasy.”
In case you are not fully up on Canon Law, apostasy is “the renunciation of one’s religion, especially if the motive is deemed unworthy.” The Church may in certain limited circumstances still respond to apostasy by excommunicating the apostate. Both Judaism (Deuteronomy 13:6-10) and Islam (An-Nisa 4:89) demand the death penalty – though only the second enforces the prohibition with anything like real entusiasm.
Apostasy differs from heresy in that the latter refers to the rejection or corruption of specific doctrines, not to the complete abandonment of one’s faith. Heretics are still following a religion, if imperfectly, whereas apostates completely reject it, making them some very sorry bastards indeed. In other words, apostasy is something only certifiably evil people would commit – or governments, in the case at hand.
The present Italian Prime Minister, Romano Prodi, clarified his position in a vigorous response to the papal challenge: “I long favored, if in silence, introducing a reference to Christian roots into the European Constitution. I think though that, even if I didn’t succeed, the fact that the reference is not there doesn’t mean that the text fails to recognize them”.