Catholic Transcript Online

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.)