Faith in Britain

Martens, the Belgian Prime Minister, described this approach as 'treasurership' which differs from conservative attitudes because 'the treasurer is more than the financial calculator'.

The CDA's Minister for Justice, Hirsch Ballin, defined the objective of Christian Democracy as 'the creation of a responsible society' while Professor van Dijk of Tilburg University said that 'responsibility refers to values and intentions ... a responsible society is one where morally and socially orientated citizenship and managership will have to be experienced profoundly and actively by persons, groups and organisations at both local/regional and European and even global levels.'

Clearly the move from a planned economy in Eastern Europe and the excesses of market economics in the West provide an opportunity for Europe to create a socially and ecologically responsible market economy. Christian Democrats seem to understand the need to reinforce the mediating and intermediary institutions which exist in the vacuum between the individual and the State. These institutions have become so weak that they are often incapable of fulfilling their designated responsibilities within a responsible society.

Three Christian Democrats who attended the Dutch Symposium said that the absence of such mediating structures was one of the greatest challenges for the emerging democracies. Mr Antall, the Hungarian Prime Minister, said that for forty years families, voluntary organisations and private ownership had been destroyed or undermined; Mr Charnogursky, the Slovakian Deputy Prime Minister, and Mr Mrsic, the Croatian Minister for Foreign Affairs, both agreed and said that economic reforms were worthless unless accompanied by social, cultural and political reforms.

To understand why Christian Democrats cannot easily be classified as 'Left', 'Right', or 'Centre' in Anglo-Saxon terms, and to understand why they embrace particular positions requires both an understanding of the biblical and the social teaching which have shaped their attitudes. For instance, the Catholic critique of capitalism has been developing far beyond the present Christian Democrat position. From Mater et Magistra (1961) andPacem in Terris (1963), on through the documents of the Second Vatican Council12 - the period of aggiornamento, John XXIII's equivalent of perestroika and glasnost - to Populorum Progressio (1967) and John Paul'sLaborem Exercens (1981), the Catholic Church has been responding to the impulses from the mainly South American base communities and the need to show a preferential commitment to the poor and oppressed. This understanding of the need to share power is perhaps beginning now to affect the thinking of Europe's Christian Democrats, as once Rerum Novarum shaped the outlook of an earlier generation. Similarly, the Christian think-tank of the CDA, the Dutch Scientific Institute, with its Protestant Reformed Church outlook has kept its party's thinking informed by Gospel values. The