I’m subscribed to Catholic World News’ daily headlines, b/c it’s a quick and enjoyable way to keep up on the news of the Church globally (information I’ve discovered through this channel has been the source of a number of posts here). Anyways, yesterday there were two stories listed one immediately after the other, which left me wondering if this was a sharp editorial decision or just an amusing coincidence:
Czech cardinal warns: Muslims are conquering Europe
Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, who has served as Archbishop of Prague since 1991, has warned in an interview that “if Europe doesn’t change its relation to its own roots, it will be Islamized.”Vatican cardinal decries fear of Muslims, says Saudi Arabia should permit churches
In an interview with L’Osservatore Romano, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who served as the Vatican’s foreign minister from 1990 to 2003 and was appointed president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue in 2007, has called upon all nations of the world to enshrine the right of religious freedom in their nation’s laws.
Frankly, I think they’re both right, even though they seem to be making opposite points. Europe is being overwhelmed by Islam precisely because she’s lost the Faith to a startling degree. That Faith, and only that Faith, is the solution to her existential crisis. If Europe were solidly Catholic, Islam wouldn’t be a scary proposition at all. Rather, welcoming the stranger, the traveller, and the immigrant would be an opportunity to share her own Faith. Conversely, if Saudi Arabia felt comfortable in its own faith, it should have nothing to worry about from the opening of churches.
Until and unless she rediscovers her Faith, however, Europe stands at a real risk of losing even her historic and legal ties to Judeo-Christianity. “Post-Christianity” is simply no match for an invigorated Islam. It still holds to the delusion that it can have all the virtues of a Christian society without the religious underpinning which makes all that possible.