Post 211--The Spiritual Collapse of Europe

Yes, the rumours are true; the stats confirm them. Europe's spirituality is imploding, caving in on itself, according to CNS--Catholic News Service. You can read all about it down below from Michael Chapman.  

The result? Well, be sure to read to the end and you will come across the Pope's conclusion about the effects of this despiritualization.  He said:  

"The de-Christianization of the West has yielded such fruit as record high levels of abortion, out-of-wedlock births, homosexuality, divorce, sexually transmitted diseases, pornography, prostitution, drug abuse, depression, and suicide." 

What surprises me in the Pope's conclusion is that he limits his comments mostly to private and personal behaviour and says nothing about political or economic results. I am not sure where I would go with that. Is the current international behaviour of the West better or worse than that of the colonial era?  Better or worse for whom?  

The colonialist era was dominated by a people who largely considered themselves Christian, something their governments exploited by turning it into an ideology that justified ripping off other people.  Most Christian people did not even recognize how they were being hoodwinked by their powerful elite.  Was that situation really better than today's?  You give that some thought while you read the article below.  

(As far as that colonial issue is concerned, I wrote a dissertation on the subject that you can find as the second item on < www.SocialTheology.com/boeriana. htm >. )

I hope that reading the article below will bring you to your knees and pray for Europe's youth--as well as Canada's, for ours is not far removed from Europe's I believe, though I have no stats at my fingertips to prove it. 

===============

Report: Europe's Youth Abandoning Christianity

By Michael W. Chapman | March 22, 2018 | 3:52 PM EDT

Notre Dame Cathedral

in Paris. 

(YouTube)

(CNSNews.com) -- A new report, Europe's Young Adults and Religion, reveals that European youth (ages 16-29) have abandoned the Christianity of their ancestors in large numbers, and now many young people, in some countries more than 50%, do not identify with any religion at all. In addition, large majorities of young Europeans say they never pray. 

The report was prepared by researchers at St. Mary's University, Twickenham in London and the Institut Catholique de Paris. The report's author is Prof. Stephen Bullivant of St. Mary's University, where he directs the Benedict XVI Centre for Religion and Society. 

Some of the major findings from the study, which covered 22 European countries, include the following:

The proportion of youth (16-29) that said they do not identify with a religion was 91% in the Czech Republic. Estonia was 80% no affiliation with a religion; Sweden, 75%; France 64%; Spain, 55%; Germany 45%; and Austria 37%.

Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.  (YouTube)

In Poland, only 17% of youth said they had no religion; 25% of Lithuanian youth said the same. In Israel, only 1% said they had no religion. 

Seventy percent of Czech youth and 60% of Spanish, Dutch, British, and Belgian young people said they "never" attend religious services.

Eighty percent of Czech youth and 70% of Swedish, Danish, Estonian, Dutch, French, and Norwegian youth said they "never" pray.

As for the proportion of young people who identify as Catholic, in what was once known as Christendom, it is less than 50% in most of the countries surveyed. For instance, several countries had high proportions: Poland, 82% identify as Catholic; Lithuania, 71%; Slovenia, 55%; Ireland, 54%; and Portugal, 53%.

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Young people at World Youth Day.  (YouTube)

However, in all the other countries surveyed the proportion of Catholic young people was often far less than 50%.  In Spain, it was 37% of youth who identified as Catholic. In Switzerland, 24%; France, 23%; United Kingdom, 10%; Norway, 2%; Sweden, 1%; and Denmark, 1%. 

As for weekly Mass attendance, only 2% of Belgian youth said they go every week. In Hungary, 3%; Austria, 3%; Lithuania, 5%; and Germany, 6%.

However, in Poland 47% of the young people said they go to Mass every Sunday. In Portugal, 27%; Czech Republic, 24%; and Ireland, 24%. 

The report further found that "only 26% of French young adults, and 21% of British ones, identify as Christians. Only 7% of young adults in the U.K. identify as Anglicans, compared to 6% as Muslims. In France, 2% identify as Protestants, and 10% as Muslims."

(YouTube)

Commenting on the report, Prof. Bullivant said, "Christianity as a default, as a norm, is gone, and probably gone for good -- or at least for the next 100 years."

In 20 to 30 years, "mainstream churches will be smaller," he said, "but the few people left will be highly committed." 

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, said that Pope Benedict saw all of this coming. "He saw the effects of multiculturalism as clearly as anyone, showing how a contempt for moral truths that adhere to the Judeo-Christian ethos has led to 'a peculiar Western self-hatred that is nothing short of pathological." said Donohue

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Westminster Abbey in London.  (YouTube)

"The de-Christianization of the West has yielded such fruit as record high levels of abortion, out-of-wedlock births, homosexuality, divorce, sexually transmitted diseases, pornography, prostitution, drug abuse, depression, and suicide," he said.  "This is the natural outcome of a civilization that has allowed moral relativism to triumph over Christianity. Just as Pope Benedict XVI said it would."

Post 93—Ash Wednesday

I wonder: Did you observe Ash Wednesday this month?  It fell on Wednesday, February 10. As the name makes obvious, it always is celebrated on Wednesday.  But perhaps, before asking whether you observed it this past week, a prior question is whether you even know what it is. A second question is, even if you know what it is, whether you gave it any thought at all. The answer to the last question probably depends on which church you attend and whether your church pays attention to it. Some churches or denominations do; others ignore it. I attend two different churches/denominations, and both observed it by holding special services on the evening of February 10.

So what is Ash Wednesday? Wikipedia gives the following bare, curt definition: “the first day of Lent in the Western Christian Church, marked by services of penitence.”  As if the writer regrets this curt version, she/he then provides a few more details: “a day of fasting, is the first day of Lent in Western Christianity. It (normally) occurs 46 days…before Easter and can fall as early as February 4th or as late as 10 March. Ash Wednesday is observed by many Western Christians, including Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists,Presbyterians, and Roman Catholics.”  More recently denominations like the Christian Reformed Church and some Baptist groups have also begun to observe it.  The more recent arrivals have dropped the fasting part of it.

The Gospels tell us that Jesus spent 40 days fasting in the wilderness or desert, during which time he faced satanic temptations. The 40 days of Lent, which Ash Wednesday is day 1, mirrors this period of fasting. The name itself comes from the ashes made from palm branches that were used on the previous year’s Palm Sunday. These ashes were/are placed in the form of a cross on the foreheads of the participants by a clergy person, accompanied with formulae like “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19) or  “Repent, and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1:15). The first and more original of the two sayings are the words spoken to Adam and Eve after their fall into sin and remind worshippers of their sinfulness and mortality along with their need to repent. 

Ash Wednesday in some countries is enriched by some additional traditions. For example, I understand that on that day the Pope traditionally participates in a penitential procession between two churches, where ashes are sprinkled on his head—not smudged on his forehead--, while the Pope also places ashes on the heads of other worshippers. The Catholic Church and, more recently, some Protestant churches as well, participate in the “Ashes to Go” programme, during which clergy go to public places like downtowns, sidewalks, train stations, malls to place ashes on passersby, sometimes even on drivers waiting at stoplights! Another innovation is for small cards to be distributed among the congregation on which people are invited to write a sin they need to confess. These cards are then brought to an altar or table where they are burned. 

The association of ashes with grief, sorrow or repentance has ancient Biblical and cultural roots, even among Israel’s Pagan neighbours as in Nineveh. When Tamar was raped by her half-brother, she sprinkled ashes on her head…and went away crying (2 Samuel 13:19). Job said in Job 42:3-6, “I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” The prophet Jeremiah called for repentance, “O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, roll in the ashes” (Jeremiah 6:26). Daniel pleaded to God “in earnest prayer with fasting, sackcloth and ashes” (Daniel 9:3). In the New Testament, Jesus spoke of the practice: “If the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes” (Matthew 3:47; Luke 10:13). There is also reference to it in Hebrews 9:13. 

So my wife and I participated in the ceremony at First Baptist Church in downtown Vancouver. But it was not merely a ceremony; it was a living experience what with the readings, prayers and hymns that goaded us towards a renewed sense of our sinfulness, mortality and need to repent. Though these are daily elements in the heart of a born-again Christian—or should be—a ceremony like this refreshes that awareness and stimulates one’s resolve to revive it. I am happy that I participated in this first step into Lent. The beauty of it all is that, paradoxically, after one goes through what sounds like a macabre exercise, one comes away from it with renewed joy and peace in his heart.

If you have not been in the habit, I strongly recommend attending Ash Wednesday 2017.  Especially for the born-again, for those who are alive in Christ, it is a blessed way of starting your Lenten journey towards the Resurrection of our Lord.