King Charles’s address to Congress in Washington was a masterpiece of British humor and rhetoric. It received applause and consensus from both parties because he addressed Congress as a whole. At the same time, it was a carefully crafted diplomatic attempt to mend fences between the two sides of the Atlantic, with religion at its core.
Our traditions are our history, and our history is a story of begetting — that is why it weighs on our shoulders as something that concerns us in the first person, even when it has become the history of another nation. In short, this was the theme around which the king of England’s speech to the American Congress was built: “This citadel of democracy created to represent the voice of all American people to advance the sacred rights and freedoms.”
Recalling that the history between the “United Kingdom and the United States is, at its heart, a story of reconciliation, renewal, and a remarkable partnership”, King Charles led the Congress in an exercise of memory that the America of today seems to accept only from that “mother country” from which it emancipated itself 250 years ago with the Declaration of Independence. The Founding Fathers “carried with them, and carried forward, the great inheritance of the British Enlightenment — as well as the ideals which had an even deeper history in English Common Law and the Magna Carta.”
Respect for constitutional law, or “the certainty of stable and accessible rules, and an independent judiciary resolving disputes and delivering impartial justice, created the conditions for centuries of unmatched economic growth in our two countries.” This constitutionalism is interwoven with an open and cosmopolitan vision of Christian faith in King Charles’s speech, in which he recalled having devoted a large part of his life to interfaith relationships and greater understanding. Through this Christian faith – he said – “I am inspired by the profound respect that develops as people of different faiths grow in their understanding of each other.”
In contrast to the current Christian nationalism of the United States, King Charles offered the openness of a Commonwealth of religions working together “to stem the beating of plowshares into swords…”. The Easter season is not a time for one group to triumph over another, but a time to embody the boundless “ordo amoris” uniting the two nations in the “duty to foster compassion, to promote peace, to deepen mutual understanding, and to value all people, of all faiths, and of none.”
In this speech, King Charles echoes many themes proposed by Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV: an alliance between religions; commitment to just and lasting peace; safeguarding the environment; our responsibility to future generations; and acknowledging the sacred value of democratic system. Such proximity between the two Christian heads of state, who are also heads of their respective confessional churches, could represents a common ground for the possible shared development of diplomatic engagement by the Holy See and the United Kingdom. It also represents an opportunity for the European Union, which is called upon to emerge from what seems to be a secularist cul-de-sac and to reconsider religions and churches as indispensable partners in building a more just world order that corresponds to the dignity of every human being.
Il discorso del re - SettimanaNews