Headlines the world over yesterday announced the new pope, Leo XIV. Headlines exactly 75 years ago today, May 10, 1950, announced a new audacious plan for peace: "France takes the nations by surprise". "Sensational decision". "Schuman bomb".
It was a plan inspired by the teachings of Pope Leo XIII, renowned for his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, articulating modern Catholic social teaching and addressing the challenges of the social upheavals of the Industrial Revolution.
That is why May 9 is recognized as Europe Day.
The plan announced at a press conference 75 years ago by the French Foreign Minister, Robert Schuman, has shaped the lives of all Europeans, inside and outside of the European Union. That is why May 9 is recognized as Europe Day, a reminder of this defining moment in post-war European history. For from that day onward, a plan was on the table for European integration which led directly to today’s European Union.
Pope Leo XIV's choice of this name potentially signals an intention to follow in the legacy of his namesake, addressing the challenges of the social upheavals of today’s digital and political revolutions. The Church’s role is to be a "beacon illuminating the dark nights of this world", the pope said in his first address. Just a few weeks ago, responding to nationalistic and exclusionary statements by the American vice-president, the then-Cardinal Robert Prevost shared an article with the title: "JD Vance is wrong. Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others."
War would become "not merely unthinkable but materially impossible.
75 years ago, Schuman’s plan was a similarly clear statement of equality, inclusion, reconciliation, solidarity and love for neighbor. Read on one level, it was a bold but simple plan to bind former enemies—particularly France and Germany—so closely together economically that war would become "not merely unthinkable but materially impossible".
It proposed pooling coal and steel production—critical industries for military power—under a shared, supranational authority, bringing the nations together in interdependence and mutual accountability. Although the guns had fallen silent five years earlier, real peace had not yet been established in Europe.
Stalin’s blockade of Berlin, and the Allied response of the Berlin airlift less than two years before was a prelude to the Cold War to follow. Those were still turbulent times. Europe was still suffering a severe case of post-traumatic stress disorder. Scattered families, bombed cities, disrupted lives and broken futures seemed insurmountable obstacles to true peace.
We need a soul
What would it take to heal a city, a nation, a continent from such brokenness? What was it in Schuman’s three-minute speech that started the healing process?
While the plan proposed economic cooperation, Schuman would later warn that the project had to be more than just economic and technological; it needed a soul.
Deeply moral, even spiritual, rooted in values of the heart.
Read on a deeper level, the Schuman Declaration is deeply moral, even spiritual, rooted in values of the heart. He did not envision Europe as a ‘Christian club’ but insisted that its humanist, democratic culture was impossible without its Christian roots.
Firstly, the declaration embodied a spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation. Never before in history had a victor treated the fallen foe as an equal, as did France to western Germany with this announcement.
Without using religious jargon, Schuman infused the declaration with values the needed for the rebuilding of post-war Europe. The core values of the Schuman Declaration were:
- Peace through cooperation, not domination.
- Solidarity among nations, rather than competition.
- Supranational governance as a new form of international order, limiting aggressive nationalism.
- Democracy and rule of law as cornerstones for building trust between states.
Two sources of inspiration
Schuman’s personal spirituality had two sources.
From his youth he was schooled in the social teaching of Leo XIII—as were his two colleagues Konrad Adenauer in Germany and Alcide de Gasperi in Italy.
Every person is created in the Creator’s image.
Building on the concept of imago Dei, that every person is created in the Creator’s image, this teaching championed the solidarity of the human race and thus the concept of seeking the common good of all—not just seeking to make our own nation great.
A second source of Schuman’s spirituality was the Moral Re-Armament (MRA) movement led by the Lutheran evangelist, Frank Buchman. This stressed the centrality of forgiveness and reconciliation for true peace, and that a changed world began with personal change in each one of us.
The news of the new pope came this week as participants of the first Parliamentary Prayer Dinner gathered in Warsaw, including 37 parliamentarians from almost every party. This was one of a cluster of events around the State of Europe Forum which finishes today (May 10 2025) as we continue exploring biblical responses to today’s challenges.
Rooted in the Great Commandment to love God and neighbor, the values of peace, solidarity, seeking the common good, equality, mutual accountability and collaboration are as relevant and essential today as they were 75 years ago.
Originally published by Weekly Word. Republished with permission.
Jeff Fountain and his wife Romkje are the initiators of the Schuman Centre for European Studies. They moved to Amsterdam in December 2017 after living in the Dutch countryside for over 40 years engaged with the YWAM Heidebeek training center. Romkje was founder of YWAM The Netherlands and chaired the national board until 2013. Jeff was YWAM Europe director for 20 years, until 2009. Jeff chaired the annual Hope for Europe Round Table until 2015, while Romkje chaired the Women in Leadership network until recently. Jeff is author of Living as People of Hope, Deeply Rooted and other titles, and also writes weekly word, a weekly column on issues relating to Europe.
Weekly Word is an initiative of The Schuman Centre for European Studies. Jeff Fountain is a New Zealander holding a Dutch passport, is currently the director of the Schuman Centre for European Studies (www.schumancentre.eu), and lives in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Jeff graduated with a history degree from the University of Auckland (1972) and worked as a journalist on the New Zealand Herald (1972-3), and as travelling secretary for Tertiary Student Christian Fellowship (TSCF) (1973). He has lived in the Netherlands since 1975, and has travelled and spoken in almost every European country. For twenty years following the fall of communism, he was the European director for the international and interdenominational mission organisation, Youth With A Mission. He was chairman of the international, trans-denominational movement, Hope for Europe, for which he organised two pan-European congresses in Budapest in 2002 and 2011. In 2010, he established the Schuman Centre for European Studies (www.schumancentre.eu) to promote biblical perspectives on Europe’s past, present and future, to encourage effective engagement in issues facing Europe today.
