Christian Roots

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A recent poll shows that Europeans want to preserve Europe's Christian roots, despite the comments made by progressive prelates.

A study conducted by the conservative Hungarian Századvég Foundation found that 56% of Europeans from EU member states and Britain reject secularism and want to preserve Christian culture. Only 35% expressed a preference for secular culture.

The survey's findings stand in stark contrast to the noisome proclamations of progressive leaders — including those within the Catholic Church.

In promoting tolerance of the sin of sodomy, Luxembourg archbishop and leader of the global synod Cdl. Jean-Claude Hollerich dismissed the notion of a Europe founded firmly upon the Church. He postulated, "We will no longer have Christian Europe, but hopefully a small, lively church in Europe." The pro-gay prelate added that in order to be accepted in secular Europe's future, the Church must adopt a different stance on homosexuality.

Shortly afterward, Abp. Éric de Moulins-Beaufort of Reims, the president of the French bishops' conference, lamented that Catholicism has become irrelevant, now seen as "just a part of the cultural heritage" by most Europeans. "It no longer gives the majority of people in our countries a basis for their lives, their actions, for weighing up decisions, for their ideas of the world," he observed.

Decline & Fall

Despite the findings of the Századvég Foundation, secularism dominates much of Europe. Some of the most historically Catholic nations now embrace philosophies and policies directly antithetical to the Faith.

Once known as the "eldest daughter of the Church," France is poised to enshrine abortion as a "right" in its constitution. The country is also actively working to remove Catholic statues from the public sphere, further demonstrating its refusal to acknowledge the foundation upon which France was built.

Last year, once-Catholic Spain approved the destruction of a Catholic basilica and the world's largest cross. It simultaneously banned any expressions of admiration for Catholic president Francisco Franco.

Secularism has struck an especially brutal blow to Ireland. No longer the "land of saints and scholars," the Emerald Isle now vehemently pushes sodomy and embraces the core tenets of atheistic globalism.

Abortion so-called rights are passionately defended across the European continent, along with the vociferous promotion of the LGBT agenda. Also, Europeans are leaving the Catholic Church in droves, and anybody opposed to the onslaught of secularism is labeled a "Nazi" or "fascist" and relegated to the fringes of society.

For example, both the French media and the global mainstream media consistently labeled centrist presidential candidate Marine Le Pen as "far right." Fellow presidential contender Éric Zemmour fared even worse, often being called a Nazi, despite his ethnically Jewish heritage. Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán has also been called a Nazi, and Italy's first female prime minister (a Catholic mother) is derided as a fascist and compared to a caricature of Benito Mussolini.

All of these figures have urged a return to Europe's Christian roots and fundamentally Catholic principles, which secularists label as fascism.

Upon This Rock

Despite the vocal cries of secular elites and statements from the likes of Cdl. Hollerich, Europe was and is founded upon Catholicism. In fact, Hollerich should be more aware of that truth because he recently celebrated the first Holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne, while delivering an address at Aachen's Karlsfest.

Constantine first subjected the Roman Empire to the Church in 312, but the invasion of non-Christians resulted in Rome's dissolution. Some 500 years later, Charlemagne would reunite Europe and, once again, lay it at the feet of Holy Mother Church. Crowned in A.D. 800, Charlemagne commanded the allegiance of all the kings, princes and nobles of Europe, but he still bowed his head to the pope.

All the good that Europe has produced — from science and medicine to architecture and art, from the literature of Dante Alighieri and Miguel Cervantes to the literature of G.K. Chesterton and J.R.R. Tolkien, from the intellectually staggering advance in law to the exploration and explanation of the globe — has blossomed from its Christian roots.

In his seminal nonfiction work The Abolition of Man, author C.S. Lewis describes a series of principles or values springing from Christianity. This series of principles is juxtaposed against the secular equivocation (or dilution) of values — what Pope Benedict XVI would later call the "dictatorship of relativism."

Lewis writes of the Christian understanding of virtue:

It is the sole source of all value judgements. If it is rejected, all value is rejected. If any value is retained, it is retained. The effort to refute it and raise a new system of value in its place is self-contradictory. There has never been, and never will be, a radically new judgment of value in the history of the world. ... The human mind has no more power of inventing a new value than of imagining a new primary color, or, indeed, of creating a new sun and a new sky for it to move in.

Church Militant spoke with faithful Catholic Michael Leahy, chairman of the conservative Irish Freedom Party, who expounded on Lewis' thoughts:

Europe without Christianity ceases to be a coherent culture, and the term "Europe" becomes a geographical, rather than a cultural, expression, in that one could no more talk about "European values" or "European culture" than one could talk about the values and culture of the equator or of the Nile river. ... With the ongoing war against Christianity, it is not just likely, but inevitable that these cultural norms, on which so much of our wellbeing, prosperity, happiness and human dignity depend, will also disappear. While Europe is still living on the cultural capital of its Christian heritage in these matters, that capital is being rapidly depleted.

In fact, the secularists are incapable of creating a cohesive culture or ideology because they excise Christianity. "Inclusion" sounds nice enough, but it's difficult to tell how something like that coheres with the eugenic extermination of babies with Down syndrome. Preaching "tolerance" is all well and good, but European elites seem hesitant to tolerate Christians citing Scripture. "Free speech" looks good on paper, but one has difficulty figuring out how it complements arresting people for praying in silence.

Lewis describes the process as "a rebellion of the branches against the tree: if the rebels could succeed, they would find that they had destroyed themselves."

Europe is rooted in Catholicism. All efforts to eradicate Catholicism from Europe are efforts to cut the tree from its roots and will, inevitably and invariably, result in the tree withering and dying.

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