EXCERPT:
It is no secret that Pope Benedict XVI has worried about Europe for years. Since the student revolts of 1968 he has feared that Europe's Christian roots might be plowed under by modern secularism. And more recently, the growing Muslim presence in countries like France, Germany, and Britain has given him a new cause for alarm.
It is true, of course, the Christianity’s hold on Europe has been declining since the French Revolution broke the alliance between monarchy and hierarchy. But since World War II, the shortage of clergy, worshipers, and funds has reached crisis proportions. And now the sex abuse scandal spreading across Europe has produced what one Bishop called “Our greatest crisis since the French Revolution."
Yet my recent trip to France revealed a new and unforeseen development. Despite not one but two bad reputations (it has long been accused of harboring a "retrograde" spirit, and more recently stands accused of "inexcusable nonchalance" in managing priestly pedophilia) the Church in France is enjoying something of a PR rehabilitation. (The French, of course, are never shocked by such turnabouts -- not more than 400 years after Joan of Arc’s remarkable posthumous rehabilitation when, 25 years in her grave, she was sainted despite her convictions in church court for heresy and witchcraft.)
As one popular French magazine put it:
She (the church) nonetheless continues to hold her place in public debate. Her advice is sought, she gives it, and many listen. Curiously contrasting, too, is the gap between churches (and seminaries) often deserted, and the crowds that rushed elsewhere to see Xavier Beauvais’ “Des Hommes et Des Dieux.”.
The last reference is to a movie (English title "Of God and Men," which won the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival last year and then became a box-office smash in France. It tells the true story of a community of French Trappist monks living in North Africa when Algeria erupted in terrorist violence in the 1990s. Threatened by terrorists who saw the monks as an alien presence, they decided not to evacuate the monastery for a safer venue. The film meticulously details the spiritual struggle among men committed to God -- and to the Muslim populace surrounding them -- but faced with the prospect of sudden and violent death.
The movie, which I saw during my visit, treats the monks’ faith with utmost respect, and takes their struggle absolutely seriously. I was both moved and impressed that a French director, as well as a huge French audience, would resist the easy secularist temptation to dismiss these men as misguided naifs duped by an outmoded faith. Instead they are portrayed as thoughtful, courageous, even heroic figures.
The enormous ticket sales suggest that, even if they don’t know it, the French hunger for spiritual inspiration.
Another striking example of the Church's renewed presence in France public life came on November 11 when I attended the solemn Te Deum and at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Chartres, presided over by Bishop Michel Pansard.
Despite America's attempts to dilute the holiday into a generic celebration of military service by calling a “Veterans Day,” the French refuse to forget that on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month -- the feast of Saint Martin, patron of peace -- World War I came to an end.
The Te Deum is the traditional chant for Armistice Day, which (a bit like our Thanksgiving) is both a patriotic and a religious holiday for the French.
What struck me was that, even though I was attending a church service inside a cathedral, the Bishop’s talk (delivered to an assembly of the town's veterans, families, and other citizens and tourists, many of whom were not practicing Catholics) clearly addressed public issues. It sent the message that our faith, while personal, is hardly a private affair, but is a social thing that -- even in the most secularized country -- continues to claim its place in the public forum.
I was so moved by this address, both its content and its implications, that I asked the bishop for a copy, and translated it once I got home. As you read it, never forget that modern France has been a fiercely secularized haven for the most militant atheism and anti-clericalism; indeed, France still treats all religion as a private matter to be kept in its place.
No comments:
Post a Comment