Pope Benedict XVI Blog

Pope Seeks Greater Role for Catholics in Europe on Policy Issues

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Patrick Kovarik/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Pope Benedict XVI offered communion at a special Mass in Lourdes, the pilgrimage site in France, during a recent visit.

New York Times
By RACHEL DONADIO
Published: September 19, 2008

ROME — Is the Catholic Church a beleaguered underdog, fighting for a voice in secular Europe, or a still-mighty power, wielding its influence on European law through friendly center-right governments?

That question, which has been building momentum throughout Pope Benedict XVI’s three-year-old papacy, came mightily to the fore in his recent trip to France.

Yet even as the pope calls for more animated discussion of church and state and more interreligious dialogue, no one, probably not even at the Vatican, expects Europe to become newly devout any time soon. Mass attendance is at record lows, as is the number of priests.

Nor does anyone expect France to overturn its dearly held tenet of “laïcité,” a strict separation of church and state, in spite of the pope’s admonition that secularism leads to nihilism and President Nicolas Sarkozy’s calls for a more “positive laïcité.”

But Benedict’s insistence that religion and politics be “open” to each other — coupled with his strong renewal while in Lourdes of the church’s opposition to same-sex couples, communion for the divorced and euthanasia — sends a direct message: the church doesn’t want European law to be at odds with church teaching, and he wants Catholics to make some noise about it.

This pope is looking to reconquer Europe, if not in numbers, then at the political table.

“Let’s not make mistakes, there are laws in Europe that the Vatican would like to change,” said John L. Allen Jr., a columnist for the National Catholic Reporter. Benedict’s remarks in France were “not an apolitical reflection,” he said.

The Vatican, Mr. Allen added, is concerned about “a progressive secularization of European institutions” that is “heavily influenced by the French model.”

For one, European Union legislation forbids discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. In an ongoing clash in Britain, Catholic orphanages have said they will have to shut down or break ties with the church if they are required to place children with same-sex couples. Spain legalized same-sex marriage in 2005, following the Netherlands and Belgium.

Some say the pope’s visit might encourage Catholics to speak up in opposition.

For its part, the Vatican seemed pleased with Benedict’s trip. The pope’s reception in France was “encouraging,” the Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said in an interview this week. The climate in France, he said, indicated that “the church has a contribution to make and it’s accepted and respected as a cultural and moral force, a force of moral commitment.”
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posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 6:01 PM