Unless Europe really has a continental death wish, and is not merely suffering from reproductive and cultural dyspepsia, it will resuscitate its birth rate and stop trying to replace the unborn with unassimilated aliens. If Europe revives, the European churches, especially the premier Christian Church, will revive also.
The Roman Catholic Church is in excellent condition in most of English and Spanish-speaking North America. In much of Asia and Africa, the major Christian churches are growing steadily.
This does not mean that the Church leaders have vast secular influence, though the late Pope was instrumental in the collapse of Communism in Poland and Nicaragua, (where even the re-elected Sandinista President, Daniel Ortega, has instituted a startling series of pro-life measures). But it does mean that the Christian perspective is strong and widely embraced, and affronted with peril.
The separation of Church and State is a principle of every sophisticated Western society, and ostentation and fervour in religion, as in most other things, is broadly disliked in the West. However, no Westerner, whether religious practitioner or not, need endure the allegation from Islamist fanatics that ours is a godless and decadent society.
Our religious practice is a good deal more spontaneous, intellectually distinguished, and conducive to productive activity and general civility than all but the most unrepresentatively thoughtful versions of Islam. No Islamic leader has a fraction of the moral or intellectual credibility or mere market share of the Pope. Rome and all the West, secular and ecumenical, have seen off more serious challenges than this.
This work is based on an article written for the National Post of Canada.
