Most American Catholics have an idea of Europe shaped by its Christian history. The Catholic Church founded and nurtured the first universities. She inspired much of the great European art, music, philosophy and architecture of the last 15 centuries.
This happened naturally. The faith of the Apostles shaped the lives of believers. Believers, by their choices and actions over the centuries, then created the civilization that became Europe. Faith became habits of thought and action, which became culture. It's no accident that all of the founders of the modern European unity movement were practicing Catholics. Their concern for Europe's common good came directly from their Christian view of the world.
Even the Enlightenment, despite its bias against Christianity, could only emerge in a Christian culture. It needed Christian ideas of human freedom and dignity to grow. As historian Crane Brinton once wrote, "the Enlightenment is a child of Christianity, which may explain for our Freudian times why the Enlightenment was so hostile to Christianity."
As the faith of European Christians has dwindled over the last 70 years, however, so has the soul of their culture. So has their idea of human dignity. So has their culture's sense of hope and purpose. Europe now faces its biggest population decline since the Black Death. All across the continent, Christians who practice their faith must deal with a growing, unfriendly secularism that has resulted in legal infanticide in the Netherlands, the redefinition of marriage in Spain and a complete exclusion of Christianity from any mention in the recently proposed European Constitution.
The problem isn't just European. Closer to home, Canada has played out the same drama in a much shorter time. In a generation, Canada has gone from a religiously active culture to a mirror of Europe's problems. Some of this can be blamed on scandals in the Church. But the roots go deeper than that.
Canada, like the United States, is locked in a struggle of national identity and values. The rapid push for legalization of homosexual "marriage" in Canada offers a useful lesson to Americans. So does a bizarre July 18 commentary on Canada's national public radio from a former professor at the Royal Military College, aimed especially at the Catholic Church, that called for increased state control of religious practice and "registration" of religious believers. Anyone who wonders about the degree of hostility developing toward the Christian faith in our own backyard should listen to it carefully.
Here in the United States, Catholics and other religious believers still have the freedom, energy and skills to protect the soul " and to help shape the future " of the American experiment. We can't do that by separating our religious and moral convictions from public discourse about the issues facing our country.
People of faith have always played an active role in American life. Catholic citizens need to continue that witness. We need to live our faith in our personal lives, and we need to reflect our Christian discipleship in our public choices and actions " always with love and respect for others, but always, nonetheless.
We don't have to look very far for a glimpse of the future if we don't.
