Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has cited the recent Iona Institute poll on marriage and the family to back claims that many Europeans, the Irish included still back traditional values.

Speaking last week in Dublin at the Forum for Europe on the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, Archbishop Martin argued that, on the contrary, much social scientific data suggested that many Europeans still regard marriage and faithfulness as important. “Recently published studies of the Iona Institute here in Ireland indicate similar convictions about the family,” he continued.

Studies such as this, he pointed out showed that “the old continent is not as secularised as it seems”. Estimates of the level of religious practice in the EU “should be determined by proper research rather than by the ideologies of either side”, he noted.

Commenting on the recent upsurge in religious pluralism in Europe, Archbishop Martin went on to say that religion “plays a large role in the personal life of most Europeans”. Referring to a statement of the European bishops regarding the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, he pointed out that, for many of the founders of the European project, “the Christian imprint on the European factor has been an indisputable fact”.

While expressing some regret at the fact that no reference to Europe’s heritage was included in the European Constitution, Archbishop Martin said that this was not due to some “pan-European plot against religion, but de facto the result of the rigid and immoveable objection principally of one or two European nations”.

Polling data by the Institute showed that a clear majority of Irish people still favour marriage over other family forms, and regard it as the best environment in which to raise children. (See homepage) The poll showed that 56 per cent of people agreed that the State support policies that encourage mothers and fathers to stay together, as opposed to 27 per cent of people who disagreed. The poll also showed that a majority of people (58 per cent) believe that marital breakdown is harmful to society, with 52 per cent people agreeing that it is better for the parents of a child are married.