At the beginning was the Idea, the grand plan for peace of the Founding Fathers of Europe - actually building this area so often dreamed about of reconciled nations, joined together by consensus with due consideration for their own peoples and the Christian values that unite them. But the road to achieving this Idea was not always smooth and trouble-free. The Church offered her support to the building of Europe as it took its very first steps. In 1950 Pope Pius XII welcomed the Schuman Declaration with enthusiasm and in 1957 he hailed the signature of the Treaties of Rome as "the most important and significant event in the modern history of the Eternal City."