Madam, - The debate about the omission of God from the draft EU Constitution actually serves to highlight the importance of God in Europe.
God is more than a mere word. It is a universal, catholic Being accepted, revered, and believed in by billions of people on this planet. Since the origin of man there has been an awareness and adoration of God throughout both the civilised and uncivilised world.
The proposal deliberately to omit any invocation of God from the proposed constitution of the EU is really to enshrine atheism as the accepted point of departure for EU thinking. Curiously, atheism is every bit as much an attitude to God as theism.
European culture and history are inextricably linked with a belief in God. Think of our greetings, our literature, churches, law courts, schools, history, and the names we give our children - all these are underwritten by the acceptance of some ultimate mystery that many call "God".
It is an illusion to think that by not mentioning "God" in the constitution you introduce a new harmony among peoples.
All the states in the expanded EU subscribe to a belief in God in the broad theological sense of the word. To deny the influence and importance of these beliefs is to belittle the personal beliefs of Europe's citizens - not an auspicious start for a European constitution. - Yours, etc.,
PATRICIA SPILLANE, Ballyedmonduff, Sandyford, Co Dublin.