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S i d e b a r
Culture in Crisis
Pope Benedict XVI on Europe
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This Rock
Volume 18, Number 3
 March 2007 
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Pope Benedict XVI is particularly aggrieved when he observes the European landscape. In Without Roots (2006), co-authored with Marcello Pera, the Holy Father makes the diagnosis that "Europe seems hollow, as if it were internally paralyzed by a failure of its circulatory system that is endangering its life" (66). Pera, though an unbeliever, is in agreement with Benedict’s assessment to a remarkable degree while averring that, "Christianity has been the greatest force in Western history" (2). He deplores the current relativism that is sweeping Europe, contending that it has "debilitated our Christian defenses and prepared us for surrender." He fully agrees that Benedict’s diagnosis that Europe has "lost the capacity for self-love." In fact, as he adds, the situation is "nothing short of pathological." "How," says Pera in a tone of near desperation, "can we restore realism" to Europe?" The Pope enumerates three phenomena that are contributing to this necrosis.
The first is a widespread disregard for human rights and human dignity. In the concrete sphere of biology, in reference to cloning, the freezing and storing of human fetuses for research purposes and for organ transplants, stem-cell research where human embryos are deliberately destroyed, one finds clear evidence that the notion of rights and dignity do not apply to the human unborn.
The second factor relates to the undermining of monogamous marriage through easier forms of divorce, widespread cohabitation, and the popular acceptance of a hedonistic lifestyle. Paradoxically, as monogamous marriage is being undermined, there is a clamor for homosexual "marriage." If same-sex unions are perceived to have the same moral standing as monogamous, heterosexual marriages, the Pontiff, concludes, "then we are truly facing a dissolution of the image of humankind bearing consequences that can only be extremely grave" (77).
The third factor pertains to the decline of religion, particularly the practice of Christianity. To a significant extent, a loss of a sense of the sacred has been replaced by multiculturalism. Yet it is a spurious form of multiculturalism that routinely tolerates acts that dishonor Christianity in the name of freedom of speech. Such tolerance is not extended to other religions. Pope Benedict does not believe that a true multiculturalism can survive without a genuine respect for the sacred. Speaking for Christianity, he reminds us that
[I]t is our duty to cultivate within ourselves respect for the sacred and to show the face of the revealed God, of the God who has compassion for the poor and the weak, for widows and orphans, for the foreigner; the God who is so human that He Himself became man, a man who suffered, and who by His suffering with us gave dignity and hope to our pain. (79)
Of the three factors that the Pope enumerates, the first two pertain to truth: the truth of man, including his dignity and rights; the truth of marriage in its traditional, universal and Biblical sense as the union of a man and a woman. The third factor pertains to religion. Pope Benedict, therefore, is urging Europe to embrace the pillars of truth and religion so that it can overcome its culture of "self-hatred" and be restored to health.
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