French President Acknowledges Europe's Christian Heritage

Paris, Jan. 31, 2008 (CWNews.com) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy has spoke out in support of recognizing "the Christian roots of Europe."

At a meeting of his political party, the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire, Sarkozy said that leaders of the European Union were wrong to exclude an explicit reference to Christianity from the language of the proposed EU constitutional treaty. (The French voters rejected that treaty in a 2005 referendum.)

"We erred when we turned our back on the past, and in a certain sense turned our back on our roots, which are obvious," Sarkozy said. Echoing the argument that has been advanced by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, the French leader said that without a basis in Christian culture, the European Union will have no firm foundation.

"If we reject our past, we are not ready for our future," Sarkozy said.