Persecuted Christians

Persecuted Christians
(Filed: 20/11/2004)

Cardinal Ratzinger, the Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, is perhaps the only man alive of whom it might be said that he is more Catholic than the Pope. Even though his enemies caricature him as the most bigoted of grand inquisitors, he knows John Paul II like nobody else. Among the college of cardinals, he is one of the few likely successors who is the ailing pontiff's intellectual equal. His long interview in yesterday's La Repubblica is thus an authentic reflection of the consensus inside the Vatican. It makes for disturbing reading.

The cardinal sees Europe as a continent in the grip of a demographic and spiritual crisis. A falling birthrate is "altering the ethnic composition of Europe", as Muslim immigration transforms the ancient heartlands of Christendom. Churches are emptying as Christian culture is threatened by an "aggressive secularism, even an intolerant one". This new secularism is no longer neutral, but hostile to public manifestations of Christianity, which is being marginalised and privatised. "We must defend religious freedom against the imposition of an ideology that is being presented as if it were the only voice of rationality, whereas it is only the expression of a narrow rationalism."

The incident that occasioned such anguish is the case of Rocco Buttiglione, who was dropped from the European Commission merely for refusing to deny his Catholicism, in the private rather than the public sphere. For Cardinal Ratzinger, the implication is that anybody who defends Christian orthodoxy is now excluded from public life. He cites the example of a Protestant pastor in Sweden who was imprisoned for a month for preaching against homosexuality. Christianity has come full circle since the days of its persecution under the Roman Empire: an established Church no longer, it is now once again a persecuted band of the faithful.

If the Cardinal's grim diagnosis is accurate, then the logic of the Christian predicament points towards ecumenical unity. The Vatican has sometimes spoken as if non-Catholic churches were mere sects. Yet the fastest-growing forms of Christianity are the evangelical movements emanating from America. The Catholic Church cannot lead the "struggle" against secularism unless its leaders can acknowledge the sufferings and merits of their fellow Christians. If Cardinal Ratzinger became Pope, it is safe to assume that the reconversion of Europe would be his aim. But is this guardian of Vatican orthodoxy ready to consider compromise on matters of doctrine for the sake of a united Christian front against secularism and jihad? It is an enticing prospect.