Just as the Catholic Church wooed the Irish to a yes vote on entering the European Monetary Exchange, it has now leaned on Lithuanians to ensure their vote against any continuing linkage with the Russian sphere of influence, instead opting for attachment to a uniting Europe.
The London-based Daily Telegraph reported, “Heeding the call of Catholic priests, Lithuanians voted overwhelmingly yesterday to turn their backs on the old Soviet sphere and join the European Union in May 2004” (May 12). The result was a whopping 90 percent-plus response in support of EU entry.
The first Baltic nation to break away from the old Soviet Union in 1990, Lithuania had previously expressed misgivings about the prospect of losing sovereignty by joining the EU. That is a well-founded fear. In an effective demonstration of the power of old Rome, however, the Lithuanians were exhorted from the pulpits of churches across the nation the Sunday morning before they voted to support EU membership.
Such merging of political lobbying and Catholic religion is not new. It has been part of the European mix since Charlemagne. Yet once again we see a demonstration of the power of the only effective influence that has a hope of binding together the admixture of iron and miry clay that comprises the EU mess of differing nations and cultures (Dan. 2:41).
It is the religious glue of the Catholic Church which is increasingly swinging the vote in favor of the endorsement of EU policies within that old and historically fractious entity called Europe.