Europe the major political blocs will be the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats. The smaller Liberal, Socialist, Conservative and Green groups will need to define those areas of their programmes which they hold in common with the two larger blocks and learn to work with them if they wish to see their ideas implemented (as already happens at domestic parliamentary level in all European democracies other than our own).
Question: How Christian are Europe's Christian Democrats? Answer: They are 'earthen vessels' with the same capacity to get it wrong as the rest of us. They are not exactly the incarnation of the Communion of Saints. But their programme is clearly based on Christian principles - which is more than can be said for any British party - and their achievements since the Second World War (e.g. their primary role in the establishment of the European Community) have been considerable. Their emphasis on families as the basic communities, on the sanctity of human life, on social justice, subsidiarity, 'personalism' and 'communitarianism' will all find an audience amongst British Christians, and many beyond the Christian community. In the 1989 European Elections in the eleven other member States, where they contested elections, one in five Europeans voted for them. The fault line in British politics will increasingly be drawn between belief and unbelief, utilitarianism and faith, rather than between left and right. British Muslims are increasingly looking for political expression of their beliefs for much the same reasons.
Question: Is there a British sister organisation? Answer: There is now.
The Epiphany Group
In January 1989 I brought together a small group of people who had two things in common: their faith and an interest in politics. We met at Prinknash Abbey in Gloucestershire and spent three days discussing the condition of our country and its politics. It was not that we believed ourselves to be an especially wise group of men and women, although we did have a variety of gifts, but as the meeting was held over the feast of the Epiphany we accepted the suggestion of Father Paul