Catholic Transcript Online

"Has Europe Lost Its Soul?" is the title of a recent talk (12 Dec.) given by Britain’s Chief Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, at the Pontifical Gregorian University. Not merely another speech, it is already viewed in religious circles as highly significant and dynamic; indeed, among the most arresting talks of our current world scene.

The Rabbi’s topic was one which Pope Benedict XVI and the Rabbi discussed during the Pontiff’s historic visit to Britain last September; the private conversation occurred at St. Mary’s University College, Twickenham. The speech at the Gregorian in mid-December chanced to take place when various political leaders of Europe were meeting in an effort to save the European Union.

In his introduction, the Rabbi briefly refers to Niall Ferguson’s recent book, Civilisation, detailing the argument that Christianity is the key by which the Western world gained pre-eminence over China. In other words, the crucial difference is not found in the number or power of weapons, or the very best political system, or even the most profitable economic plan. Rather, it is the culture itself. And at the heart of this culture has been religion; specifically, Judaeo-Christian doctrine and ethics.

When the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences was asked to explain how the Western World eventually eclipsed the Far East, Ferguson explained, the answer was found especially in Christianity, which provided the "moral foundation of social and cultural life," leading to the "emergence of capitalism and then the successful transition to democratic politics."

Similar argumentation in behalf of the same position, Lord Sacks noted, can be found in Harvard University’s economic historian David Landes’s The Wealth and Poverty of Nations. Whereas the Chinese introduced the wheelbarrow, compass, paper, printing, gunpowder, porcelain, weaving tools and blast furnaces (for iron), they nonetheless failed to structure a market economy, or a scientific "explosion," or an industrial revolution, or "sustained economic growth."

Thus, the Rabbi concluded, if Europe loses the Judaeo-Christian heritage that gave it its historic identity and its greatest achievements in literature, art, music, education, politics and economics, it will lose its identity and its greatness, perhaps even prior to this century’s close. When a civilization turns away from its faith, he added, it abandons its future. But when it seeks faith anew, it regains its future. For the sake of future generations, he pleaded, we – Jews and Christians, side by side – must reignite our faith and our "prophetic voice."

In the process of building his case for Christian and Jewish collaboration in saving Europe, Lord Sacks points to our "shared values." Besides the "deep biblical respect" for every person, reflecting the individual’s creation in the image of God, he says, personal dignity and freedom of choice are honored more than in any other economic system. Second, the Judaeo-Christian model honors the concept of respect for the right to private prosperity – opposed today in socialistic and communistic theories. Third, both the Jewish and Christian traditions defend the nobility of human labor.

Interestingly, the Rabbi here describes the creation of jobs, according to Judaism, as "the highest form of charity" because it is protective of human dignity. Labor, he argues, renders us "partners with God in the work of creation." And this process is facilitated by a market economy – all served, again, by the "religious ethic."

On the other hand, this same religious ethic has acted as a check with respect to the limits of capitalism. Indeed, the Rabbi sees in the Bible "an entire structure of welfare legislation; the corner of the field, the forgotten sheaves, and other parts of the harvest, left to the poor, together with the tithe on certain years, … debt cancelled and slaves set free; and the jubilee year in which ancestral land returned to its original owners."

The Rabbi’s discourse is, in brief, eloquent, moving and highly relevant. It opens up the way to an especially meaningful dialogue between the Holy Father and our Jewish colleagues. The bottom line, one could reaffirm, is that "the birth of the modern economy is inseparable from its Judaeo-Christian roots." If Europe has begun to lose its soul, Rabbi Sacks’s analysis needs to be addressed.

Writing in the Vatican journal, L’Osservatore Romano (12 Dec.), Lord Sacks explained: "A world in which material values are everything and spiritual values nothing, is neither a stable state nor a good society. Humanity was not created to serve markets. Markets were created to serve humankind."

Ancient, unwritten protocols for Christmas sermons suggest that preachers emphasize the joyful, childlike dimensions of this great Solemnity rather than the profoundly serious and penetrating aspects of the Incarnation, the key doctrine underlying Christmas, and one of the four fundamental truths of Christian faith. In a sense, Easter is a highly appropriate time for sermonizing on the latter – all of Holy Week, for that matter. Yet the Incarnation – the Son of God’s assumption of human nature through the consent of the Virgin Mary – remains a theme that somehow must be focused upon, year after year, at all the Christmas Masses.

When preaching or writing or even thinking about the Incarnation, one knows from the start that one cannot avoid stuttering; the Mystery is ineffable. Yet try we must.

Recall Pope John Paul II’s visit to the Grotto of the Nativity; he entered the Chamber of the Manger quite alone, barring television cameras, and even a trusted aide. He must be surrounded by absolute silence; the human being is but a creature, albeit the glory of all creation, in the presence of the infinite, almighty Creator. One thinks of Moses before the burning bush, where the very ground is eternally sanctified, and the most noble creature immediately feels the need to remove his or her sandals.

But the key existential lesson of the Incarnation requires special emphasis every Christmas. In other words, what does the Incarnation mean to us, for us? How can it make our lives more meaningful – more tolerable, in a most fundamental way?

This very question was recently addressed by Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa in Madrid’s leading newspaper El Pais. Discussing Pope Benedict XVI’s highly successful visit to Spain earlier this year, Vargas Llosa argued that to men and women still mesmerized by atheism as the only answer to key global problems relating to civilization and personal fulfillment, "the idea of definitive extinction will continue to be intolerable to the ordinary person, who will find in faith that hope of life after death which they have never been able to relinquish."

Thus, the existential message of the Incarnation, as expressed by a literary giant of our contemporary scene.

Vargas Llosa is saying for our 21st century what has been said thousands of times for centuries past – what has been said by sages, philosophers, psychologists and theologians from times immemorial; specifically, that all fears and anxieties can be reduced ultimately to one terrifying ghost, the certainty of death, and with it, the specter of extinction.

The great St. Augustine, who ranks alongside a handful of theological superstars, wrestled with this issue as early as the fourth century in the enduring classic, The City of God, when he wrote: "From the first moment we find ourselves in a mortal body, something happens within us which steadily leads us toward death… Each one of us is nearer death a year hence than a year ago, nearer tomorrow than he was today… Our entire lifetime is… a racing toward death…"

Such is the truth set forth by reason alone or philosophy, and, of course, confirmed through Revelation. It is also a truth which modern empirical psychologists have pondered and attempted to work upon in almost countless theories, several impacting man’s existence in the world today. Thus, Martin Heidegger, whose depressing ideas about Being and Time have thoroughly penetrated modern society, defined man as, simply, "Being-toward-death." (The German reads, Sein zum Tode.) According to Heidegger, the human being (you and I) is simply "thrown" into existence (Geworfenkeit) and in the midst of Dread (Angst) with nothing and no one to come to his help.

This is where Christmas changes the scene for believers such as you and me. Christmas – the Incarnation, the Son of God’s taking on our human nature – is both the key and the light beyond the terrible canyon of death. Christmas introduces the living God and Creator into our very midst with not only the answers but also the spiritual energy to progress forward in a world filled with meaning, since we can be sure that Dread (Angst) cannot overcome us. Christ the Lord has come into our world as our Savior – to gift us with all that we need to find our way in the darkest areas of the tunnel of life, where the light shines without interruption, showing us the way and the destination both.

This is why Christmas is so meaningful to an adult; it is not simply meant for children. Truly Mozart-like, its joy rests on, and emanates from, the profoundly awesome Mystery of an Incarnate God. Hence, we pray in caroling today, "Fall on your knees … O hear the angel voices, O night divine, O night when Christ was born."

Pope Benedict XVI’s pilgrimage to World Youth Day in Madrid recently was the subject of a fascinating article by Peru’s Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa in the 28 August issue of El Pais. An English translation appeared in the 21 September Vatican journal, L’Osservatore Romano. For masterly prose as well as theological precision, it is a remarkable piece.

The author, whose credentials as an observer as well as a literary great can hardly be questioned (he successfully made the agonizing pilgrimage from agnosticism), argues that the Papal visit, dubbed by El Pais as "the largest gathering of Catholics in the history of Spain," demonstrated that the Church of Christ "retains her strength and vitality," and that this "Barque of Peter" is unquestionably "braving the changes and storms" threatening it with shipwreck.

The enormous crowds, the literary giant wrote, saw countless youths, students and young professionals from all over the world joining in song, dance, prayer, and proclamation to celebrate "their belonging to the Catholic Church" as well as their "addiction" to the Holy Father. (Somos adictos a Benedicto was one of the slogans seen on many signs.) The Church in Madrid, Mr. Llosa added, rejected outright "the prediction that it is shrinking in today’s world."

This is not to deny, the Nobel Laureate affirms, that "Catholic Spain" is not so "Catholic" as it once was. Survey data indicate that while 70 percent admit to being "Catholic" (51 percent among youths), these percentages, he writes, transcend the Spanish context and is "indicative of what is happening to Catholicism in the rest of the world." ("Reasons" given for the decline of faith include the usual factors; e.g., objections to Catholic doctrine regarding contraception and the "day-after pill," abortion, homosexual behavior and refusal to ordain women as priests).

Nonetheless, Mario Vargas Llosa views such "reasons" not as signs of the Church’s inevitable collapse, but rather as "a leaven stirring the vitality and energy" among the loyal faithful, especially during the Pontificates of Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II. (Benedict, he views as "probably the most cultured and intelligent Pope the Church has had for a long time," a most worthy successor to Pope John Paul II. Karol Wojtyla, he sees as "a charismatic leader, an agitator of crowds and an extraordinary orator.")

(Have there ever been two Popes in a row whose brilliance and leadership style can be surpassed? Can the same situation ever occur again – a Joshua following a Moses? We are indeed living in one of the finest chapters of Papal history.)

Regarding the strident critics who would have the Church "change" its doctrine in the disputed areas cited above (e.g., abortion, homosexual behavior, etc.), Vargas Llosa insists that the Church simply cannot yield to such "progressive dreams" without denying herself and disappearing. If the Church is losing members, it is still nonetheless "more united, active and combative, compared to the years in which it seemed on the verge of tearing apart and splitting up because of internal ideological strife."

Besides, the Nobel winner concludes, the prevailing culture (e.g., aggressive secularism) has been unable to "replace" authentic religion, and is certain to keep failing in this regard (except for small minorities on the fringes of society). Surely most human beings find answers "solely through a transcendence that neither philosophy, nor literature, nor science have managed to justify rationally."

As for those brilliant intellectuals who advocate atheism as the only answer to personal meaning or civilizing progress, he maintains, "the idea of definitive extinction will continue to be intolerable to the ordinary person, who will find in faith that hope of life after death which they have never been able to relinquish." (Italics added.)

Prior to Pope John Paul II’s pastoral visit to World Youth Day in France in August 1997, predictions by the French media emphatically indicated "little general interest." Moreover, the French press and broadcast venues kept up their negative chants even when the gathering began to turn into what was readily recognizable by the world at large; specifically, a spectacular success. Large numbers of young people flocked to the Holy Father’s presence to hear him, to worship with him, and, simply, to be with him. The Papal pilgrimage to Paris quickly became a stunning surprise to naysayers.

Comparable indifference by media outlets was seen at Denver, where WYD occurred in 1993, causing some reporters to rush back to the scene to cover at least the closing.

Has not the generally underestimated Papal visit to Spain in August 2011 turned out similarly? The Holy Spirit breathes where he will, and young people everywhere continue to be attuned to his spiritual, radar-like promptings. Regardless of the low-key coverage that the media accorded Pope Benedict’s visit to World Youth Day in Madrid (the BBC has come under emphatic attack because of its apparent disinterest, e.g., focusing on protestors), the gathering drew (in the fierce heat of the meseta) over a million young pilgrims.

Police reports also indicated that 1.5 million people were on hand for the two final sessions in the Cuatro Vientos military airfield. "No matter where one went," one reporter wrote, "one was in the midst of … happy WYD pilgrims." Watching segments of the congress on international television, one could not help but feel drawn into an enormous festival of sincere faith on the part of the young. The message relayed to the viewer was surely one of hope for the future – a theme which secularists seem programmed to ignore or even conceal.

Indeed, a Nobel Laureate for Literature, Mario Vargas Liosa, once a severe critic of the Church as well as an avowed agnostic, stated that WYD can be interpreted in one of two ways: as primarily a superficial, rather than a solid religious festival; or a "proof that the Church of Christ maintains its strength and vitality." Despite inroads into Western culture made by secularists and materialists, he added, the artificial culture "has not been able to replace religion, nor will it be able to do so …" Hence, "believers and unbelievers should rejoice at what has taken place in Madrid."

Again and again, the Western world continues to witness religious revivals. We can only thank God for allowing us to be alive, now, in this crucial era of world history.

May this continuing phenomenon be kept alive, from nation to nation, diffusing hope and light to a weak, darkened, stormy world.

Young people are there, whenever the situation becomes morally bleak; they are there, with the Pope, contra viento y marea ("against all odds," as one Madrid newspaper insightfully observed).

Moreover, youths are there with their bishops on the local scenes. We have just witnessed this here in the Archdiocese, where about 2,000 young people gathered on 18 Sept. at Thomas Seminary, Bloomfield, for prayer and religious celebration with Archbishop Henry J. Mansell and the priests of the Archdiocese. Indeed, the event constituted another chapter in a series of youth rallies which have been occurring regularly since 2006. Again the Spirit speaks to those who listen sincerely with open hearts – which is what our young people are evidently doing.

On 27 October this year, the world’s religious leaders will mark the 25th anniversary of a gathering inaugurated by Pope John Paul II.

At the 1986 meeting, three spiritual elements were emphasized: prayer, pilgrimage and fasting. Blessed Pope John Paul explained these elements in an opening address to the 1986 gathering:

"The fact that we have come here does not imply any intention of seeking a religious consensus among ourselves or of negotiating our faith convictions. Neither does it mean that religions can be reconciled at the level of a common commitment in an earthly project which would surpass them all. Nor is it a concession to relativism in religious beliefs."

Pope Benedict XVI has determined, after an interim of a quarter century, to invite the world’s religious leaders to the same venue. Two key reasons are being given. First, there is a desire, obviously, to commemorate the historic event of October 1986, a happening that opened a new era of relations among peoples of varying religions as well as cultures, a time in which believers literally need to express their religious commitments before a confused and shattered world. Second, a new meeting is sure to help peoples of faith in God to survey the future – which promises not only progress in understanding divine mysteries, but also many challenges and assaults certain to be intensified by the forces of evil.

In view of this second reason, that of inevitable mounting attacks against religious belief, invitations to Assisi are being sent out to nonbelievers, even avowed atheists. Moreover, some well-known figures from the worlds of physical science and of culture, who publicly deny religious belief, are also being asked to come.

As for the question, "Why Assisi?" The answer is simple; Saint Francis, who was undoubtedly the most influential figure of the second millennium, remains a blessed icon of peace, unity and love in accordance with God’s will, a will that we can all begin to fulfill through prayer, pilgrimage and fasting. The spirit of prayer energizes us all toward peaceful unity, symbolized by pilgrimage, and realized through fasting, which effects continuing conversion.

In our Catholic faith, all this comes together in the Mystery of the Incarnation, by which the status of the human being was elevated beyond imagination. This is the Mystery which we commemorate on our knees every Christmas, which is not merely "the most important economic season in the country," or a "happy holiday," as some media spokespersons have recently insisted. On the contrary, it is a key event in the world’s history, a critical moment signaling that Satan, the Father of Lies, cannot possibly win, and is even now on a leash.

President Calvin Coolidge’s address in 1926 on the 150^th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is reflected on by Leon Kass in the 1 July op-ed section of The Wall Street Journal. His presentation is extremely significant in our times, when crude efforts are being made by some either to dismiss the Declaration or else to remove it from the set of the three key charters defining America’s identity; i.e., the United States Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

A central point made by President Coolidge is that America’s freedom rests, ultimately, on its religious foundations. Not that this principle was first enunciated by Coolidge; of course not. Rather, the President was saying what many Christian preachers have said all along – indeed, still say. The truth is that freedom, which is a natural human right, can only be defended, in the final analysis, by truly religious premisses, gleaned from the Sacred Scriptures; and from reason illumined by Revelation.

We have found President Coolidge’s thoughts in, for example, the famed journal of Alexis de Tocqueville, who traveled our great nation as it was emerging (1835). The same thoughts date back to the 17^th- and 18^th-century preachers and writers, including Connecticut’s own Thomas Hooker. Thus, noted President Coolidge, these early religious leaders "preached equality because they believed in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man," and they "justified freedom by the text that we are all created in the divine image, all partakers of the divine spirit."

For President Coolidge, as for our Founding Fathers, the Declaration of Independence – in Mr. Kass’s analysis – "is a great spiritual document" (italics added). Hence, said the President, "equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man… are ideals. They have their source and their roots in the religious convictions … Unless the faith of the American people in these religious convictions is to endure, the principles of our Declaration will perish" (italics added). Coolidge, the op-ed piece adds, was convinced that "the Declaration’s principles are final, not to be discarded in the name of progress."

Progress? Isn’t the dismissal of the Declaration a backward step – in fact, a leap into the past?

Moreover (and this is where the op-ed piece in the WSJ excels), Coolidge’s concluding comments are highly instructive as well as relevant today:

"We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create our Declaration [of Independence]. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first …"

Hence, President Coolidge argued: we of today must be "like-minded," and must decline to let ourselves "sink into a pagan materialism." Furthermore, we must "cultivate the reverence for the things that are holy," striving always to follow "the spiritual and moral leadership" that our forefathers here manifested.

Coolidge, Mr. Kass admits, was not a religious zealot, and he greatly valued our concern about the establishment of a specific religious Creed. But he also realized quite well that America’s free institutions and economic prosperity ultimately "rest on cultural grounds, which in turn rest on religious foundations."

To which we all can say, "Amen."

"Even a traditionally Catholic people can feel negatively or assimilate almost unconsciously the repercussions of a culture that ends by insinuating a mentality in which the Gospel message is openly rejected or subtly hindered."

In an essay adapted from a talk about Catholic Liturgy in 1997, Cardinal Avery Dulles recalled a banner affixed to a pulpit from which he had just preached during a Mass in Baltimore. The banner, which he read while kneeling in a main pew following Mass, bore the inscription, "God is other people." If the then-Father Dulles had a magic marker, he wrote, "I would not have been able to resist the temptation to insert a comma after the word, ‘other.’"

Easter is the Solemnity of the Resurrection of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. As such, it is a mystery of faith; in a sense, so fundamentally a mystery that our entire faith rests upon it. (See 1 Cor XV, 14.) Hence, it is an article of faith, whose truth is absolutely certain but whose comprehension can grow stronger through intellectual probing as the centuries unfold. Theology, after all, is defined as "faith in search of understanding" (fides quaerens intellectum).