Yesterday, the world headline announced the new Pope Leo XIV. Just 75 years ago, on May 10, 1950, the headline, just 75 years ago, announced a new bold plan for peace. “France surprises the nation.” “Senseiational decision.” “Schumann Bomb.”
It was a plan inspired by the teachings of Pope Leo XIII, famous for his environmental Leram Novarum in 1891, which clarified modern Catholic social education and addressed the challenges of the social upheaval of the Industrial Revolution.
That’s why May 9th is recognized as European Day.
The plan was announced at a press conference 75 years ago by French Foreign Minister Robert Schumann, and shaped the lives of all Europeans both inside and outside the European Union. That’s why May 9 is recognized as European Day. This reminds us of this critical moment in post-war European history. From that day onwards, there were plans for European integration that directly connected to today’s European Union.
This name choice of Pope Leo XIV potentially demonstrates his intention to follow the legacy of his same name, addressing the challenges of today’s social upheavals of digital and political revolutions. The Church’s role is to become “a beacon that illuminates the dark nights of this world,” the Pope said in his first speech. Just a few weeks ago, in response to a nationalist and exclusive statement by the US vice president, Robert Prevast of the time shared the article with the title “JD Vance is wrong. Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.”
War “is not only simply unthinkable, it becomes virtually impossible.
Sixty-five years ago, Schumann’s plan was an equally clear statement of neighbours’ equality, inclusion, reconciliation, solidarity and love. Please read at a certain level
It proposed pooling coal and iron production (critical industry for military power) under shared supranational authority, linking the states with interdependence and mutual accountability. The guns were silent five years ago, but in Europe, actual peace had not yet been established.
Stalin’s blockade of Berlin, and the Allied reaction to the Berlin airlift within two years, was a prelude to the continuing Cold War. They were still in turbulent times. Europe was still suffering from severe cases of post-traumatic stress disorder. A scattered family, bombed cities, lives destroyed, and a broken future seemed an insurmountable obstacle to true peace.
I need a soul
What does it take to heal such a broken city, country, or continent? What was Schumann’s three-minute speech that began the healing process?
The plan proposed economic cooperation, but Schumann later warns that the project must be more than just economic and technical. I needed a soul.
It is deeply moral, spiritual, and even spiritual, rooted in the values of the mind.
Read on a deeper level He did not imagine Europe as a “Christian Club,” but he argued that its humanist and democratic culture was not possible without Christian roots.
First, the declaration embodied the spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation. In history, no winner has ever been in this announcement to treat a fallen enemy as equals, just like West Germany.
Without using religious jargon, Schumann injected the declaration with the value necessary for the reconstruction of post-war Europe. The core values of the Schumann Declaration are as follows:
Peace through cooperation, not rule. It’s not competition, it’s solidarity between nations. Supranational governance as a new form of international order, limiting offensive nationalism. Democracy and the rule of law are the cornerstones for building trust between nations.
Two sources of inspiration
Schumann’s personal spirituality had two sources.
From his youth he was in school for Leo XIII’s social education. So are his two colleagues in Germany, Konrad Adenauer and Alcide de Gasperi of Italy.
Everyone is created with the creator’s image.
Based on Issai Dei’s notion that everyone is created in the image of the Creator, this teaching defended the notion that not only seeks to make our nation wonderful, but also seeks the common interest of all.
The second source of Schumann’s spirituality was the Moral Reclamation (MRA) movement led by Lutheran evangelist Frank Buchmann. This emphasized the centrality of forgiveness and reconciliation for true peace, and that the changed world began with the personal transformation of each and every one of us.
This week, news of the new Pope came as participants from the first parliamentary prayer dinner gathered in Warsaw, including 37 MPs from almost all parties. This was one of the clusters of events around the European Forum that will be closing today (10th May 2025) as we continue to investigate the Bible’s response to today’s challenges.
The quest for peace, solidarity values, common goodness, equality, mutual accountability and collaboration, rooted in the great commandments for loving God and our neighbors, is as relevant and essential as we did 75 years ago.
Originally published by Word every week. It was reissued with permission.
Jeff Fountain and his wife Romkie are initiators of the Schumann European Studies Center. They moved to Amsterdam in December 2017, where they lived in the Dutch countryside for over 40 years before working at the Ywam Heidebeek Training Centre. Romkje was the founder of Ywam in the Netherlands and chaired the national committee until 2013. Jeff was Director of YWAM Europe for 20 years until 2009. Jeff chaired the annual hopes for Europe’s roundtables until 2015, while Romkie was recently chairman of the leadership network women. Jeff is the author of Living of Hope, deeply rooted titles and other titles, and writes Weekly Word, a weekly column on issues relating to Europe.
The weekly word is the initiative of the Schumann Center for European Studies. Jeff Fountain is a New Zealander with a Dutch passport and is currently the director of the European Studies Centre (www.schumancentre.eu) and lives in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Jeff earned a history degree from Auckland University (1972), worked as a journalist at the New Zealand Herald (1972-3), and worked as a travel director for the Third Student Christian Fellowship (TSCF) (1973). He has lived in the Netherlands since 1975 and traveled and spoke to almost every European country. For 20 years after the collapse of communism, he was a missionary youth who was the European Director of International and Denominational Mission Organizations. He chaired the international international sectarian movement, the European hope that organized two Pan-European Parliaments in Budapest in 2002 and 2011.
