Swiss canton of Wallis retains the Name of God in its constitution

After a debate of more than 40 minutes, the Constituent Assembly of Wallis decided that the mention of the statement “In the Name of the Almighty God” should be kept in the new cantonal Constitution. It should be finished sometime next year. That is reported by Evangeliques.info.

Marius Dumoulin, the President of the Commission, says that Switzerland is a Christian nation and that moving towards modernity does not mean that everything from the past has to be denied. He says the Assembly took the decision in “a calm spirit.”

The debate on the reference to God started in March 2020 after a socialist adviser expressed his wish to remove the phrase to make the Constitution more secular.

The citizens of Wallis voted for a total revision of the cantonal Constitution in 2018. Since then, the Constituent Assembly has had four years to submit a draft constitution. Because of Covid, this period was extended by six months, Cath.ch writes. The Assembly now has to submit its draft on June 18, 2023, at the latest.