Europe needs a "spiritual key currency besides the euro," the
Vatican's ecumenism chief said in a major address at a conference on the
vision of a United States of Europe.At the three-day event run by the Diocese of Graz-Seckau and the south-east Austrian state of Styria, Swiss-born Cardinal Kurt Koch said the secular state needed the Churches and religious communities to protect fundamental values.
"Should Europe - faced with the present economic crisis - continue to see itself solely - or at least mainly, as an economic union, that could be ruinous for European identity," Koch said.
He quoted "the wise words of the unforgettable Cardinal Franz König who said, ‘Europe can only survive if it is aware of its spiritual roots. A Europe without a spiritual order will become a pawn in the power game.'"