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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JULY
15, 1983
PAGE 10
Under the old Holy Roman Empire, wrote Dr. Habsburg in this book, the con
tinent was held together by the "twin disciplines" of "Christian_ morality
and supra-national commonwealth"--in other words, church and state, as rep
resented in the persons of the pope and the emperor. This structure broke
down and culminated in what he terms "the triumphant period of godlessness"
in the nineteenth century.
Now, however, scientists, he maintains, are
corning increasingly to believe in the existence of a personal Creator God:
"We are in a turning development towards a very great religious age."
This religious upsurge, he believes, will have a great impact upon society
and politics.
As he said, near the conclusion of his address in the
Ambassador Auditorium: "The religious foundation of a society is the only
real and lasting foundation [a] society may have. This is the basic fact
which even some people who individually are nonreligious would have to
admit if they read objectively history, the rise and the fall of empires and
of societies. And so the last answer to the future of your country, as to
the future of my continent of Europe, will be whether we are able to return
truly and fully again to the roots of our greatness. Because let us not
forget
-U
we take ChrTst1anity out-ofthe European, or at that of the
American development, there is nothing left. The soul is gone. And without
the soul, the economically and politically most potent body is condemned to
die•
II
By referring to the "roots of our greatness" Dr. Habsburg seems to be echo
ing recent pleas by Pope John Paul II, most notably his appeal in Spain last
year for Europeans to "revive your roots." Interestingly, both men have a
specific focus on Eastern Europe--the Pope because he is a Pole, Dr.
Habsburg since Hungary and Czechoslovakia were once part of the Austro-·
Hungarian Empire {he speaks fluent Hungarian, Czech and five other
languages as well).
Yet each man arrives at the same conclusion from his own perspective� the
pope a religious one, Dr. Habsburg a secular one, from the point of view of
the political scientist that he is (he holds a doctorate in the subject from
the University of Louvain in Belgium). To him, religion is obviously the
essential "glue," to hold a politically-united Europe together.
(Dr.
Habsburg did not comment freely on the pope's recent activities, but did
mention that he met, not long ago, with John Paul II for 45 minutes.)
Unity: Sooner Than Expected
As far as Dr. Habsburg is concerned, the process of European unification is
already irreversible. He said in London that "we are well beyond the point
of no return...we have not yet arrived at the other shore, but we can't go
back." He implied in Pasadena that he may not be around to see its culmi
nation, but predicted confidently (in Los Angeles) that "we are condemned
to success and we will succeed."
After Cr. Habsburg finished his address in the Auditorium, Mr. Armstrong
had some concluding comments. He looked at the European unity time-frame
differently. European unity, he said, may come "perhaps more suddenly than
the architects of the coming Europe themselves even realize."
Dr. Herman Hoeh also had a fitting comment on another occasion, regarding
Dr. Habsburg, who is certainly a, if not the, leading architect of the
Europe of the future: "An architect does not always know to what purpose
others might put his building."
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau