A United Europe
In 1933, Pacelli met the President of “Pan-Europe” Count Coudenhove-Kalergi, giving his support to the idea of a European federation. He embraced the initiative of Winston Churchill for a “Congress of Europe” in 1948, and sent a Papal delegate to the Hague meeting. The European Economic Community was founded in Rome in 1957, the last year of Pius XII's papacy. As Europe recovered, Pius had encouraged European unification attempts and the foundation of the EU. He addressed the heads of State and governments from Italy, France, Germany, and the Benelux countries at this historic occasion. On June 13, 1957 he demanded a united Europe, aware of its foundations, with common institutions, a common foreign policy, and a strong European parliament to control the institutions and the council of ministers.
Read more about this topic: Pope Pius XII Foreign Relations After World War II
Famous quotes containing the words united and/or europe:
“Some time ago a publisher told me that there are four kinds of books that seldom, if ever, lose money in the United States—first, murder stories; secondly, novels in which the heroine is forcibly overcome by the hero; thirdly, volumes on spiritualism, occultism and other such claptrap, and fourthly, books on Lincoln.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“In Europe the object is to make the most of their land, labour being abundant: here it is to make the most of our labour, land being abundant.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)