THE NEW CRUSADE

Major fights are shaping up. They begin with abortion and reproductive rights. EU positions on family planning have been traditionally progressive: in 2002, when George W. Bush cut aid for the United Nations Population Fund on the ground that it supported coercive abortions in China, the EU stepped in with 32 million euros. But conservative M.E.P.s have since stepped up campaigns to limit spending on sexual and reproductive health overseas. Two years ago, when the European Parliament was planning its new strategy, a conservative voting bloc managed to slash a proposed 20 million euros budget for overseas family- planning aid by nearly a third. Just last week, during debates for the 2005 budget, conservative members tried to block funding for groups overseas that perform abortions. "It used to be that we could ignore the ultraconservatives," says Belgian Socialist M.E.P. Anne Van Lancker. "They're not strong in numbers, but if they make alliances [with the more traditional lawmakers] they can become very powerful."

The most emotive issue is gay marriage. Dutch and Belgian homosexuals already have the right to marry, and many countries recognize civil unions. Even such traditional church allies as Spain are following suit. Earlier this month, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist government announced that it would legalize same-sex marriages and adoption by gay couples. Restrictions on divorce, abortion and stem-cell research will also be eased, along with rules making religious education mandatory. The bishop of Avila, Jesus Garcia Burillo, called the reforms "a violent cultural earthquake."

In the face of all this, Christian conservatives are rallying their troops. The Vatican has sent numerous delegations to Spain to try to block the gay-rights move. Last week, releasing its annual policy handbook, the Vatican reiterated its belief that "no power can abolish the natural right to marriage or modify its traits and purpose." Earlier this year the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community, an influential liaison group in Brussels, vowed to promote "family policies" that aim to make the EU "the most family-oriented region in the world by 2010."

Traditionalists are looking to the new East European countries such as Poland for help. The Vatican lobbied hard for its admission to the EU. Now Poland's Catholics are "hoping to push Christian values forward on the European agenda," says Father Boguslaw Trzeciak of the Catholic European Study and Information Center in Warsaw. The League of Polish Families, an ultraconservative Catholic party, came in second in Poland's first European Parliament elections and was lobbying vigorously to insert "God" into the preamble of the European Constitution. To protest the omission, new parliamentarian Witold Tomczak brought a pair of crucifixes to the European Parliament and demanded they be hung on the wall. They weren't, but the moment was emblematic. As Poland and other new members Europeanize, the question is whether they will also secularize. "What we will see over the next two years is a battle for the hearts and minds of the new delegates," notes Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free Choice, a liberal lobby group. "The Vatican and other conservative groups will be working very hard to influence them."

Other European newcomers have also emboldened Europe's Christians. After the French government banned Muslim girls from wearing headscarves in school this spring, the Archbishop of Paris backed their cause. The unapologetic stance of Europe's Muslims, one French parish priest told the newspaper Liberation last week, gave new hope to its Catholics: "When young people hear someone say, 'I am proud to be a Muslim,' they're less hesitant to say 'I am Christian'." In Britain, when Muslim groups lobbied for a "religion" category in the 2001 Census, a surprisingly high number of Britons ticked "Christian." "Islam has reactivated the public presence of the Christian churches," notes Jean-Paul Willaime, the Sorbonne-based author of "Europe and Religions." "It's part of a new religious configuration." For an increasingly multicultural Europe, the challenge these days is not that it lacks a soul--but that it has so many different ones.

WITH BARBIE NADEAU IN ROME, MIKE ELKIN IN MADRID, JOANNA KOWALSKA IN WARSAW AND MARIE VALLA IN LONDON

© 2004