Excerpt:
Chancellor Angela Merkel has told Germany's Ecumenical Church Congress (Kirchentag) in Munich that Christianity is a main foundation of the country's values system. This is not a surprising statement in Germany, especially for the leader of a party called the Christian Democratic Union. But it's not one that's heard much in some other European countries, either because of a strict separation of church and state (like France with its laïcité) or some multicultural model (as in Britain) that plays down the majority religious heritage of European societies.
One concern about stressing the historical contribution of Christianity to European values is that this could amount to slighting other faiths, especially Islam. But Kirchentag comments by Merkel and her interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, point in a different direction.