Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

European Communion

Home
Catholic
IR Expert: Church Losing Culture Wars “All Over the Continent”

IR Expert: Church Losing Culture Wars “All Over the Continent”

Last updated on: January 18, 2018 at 6:54 pm by Cameron Doody

IR Expert: Church Losing Culture Wars “All Over the Continent” 2018-01-18T18:54:23+01:00 Cameron Doody

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Can the Church still evangelize Europe? (Pixabay)

All over Europe today, “religion plays a role of the epicenter of cultural resistance to the new, the fluid, the strange, the unknown”. An interesting diagnosis of the state of the continent from Petr Kratochvil, director of the Institute of International Relations in Prague, who also warns that the Churches “are not really that important” any more “in influencing moral decision-making” and in that sense are losing the “culture wars” currently being fought in Europe all the way from Ireland to Poland.

After a “very ambiguous” and “rather complex” relationship of several decades between the EU and the Churches “the edges are becoming softer now and the dialogue is more fruitful and more intense”, said the Czech IR expert in a recent interview with New Eastern Europe.

The interfaith responses to the London and Manchester terrorist attacks show “the visibility of the religious communities across the EU is growing”, continued Kratochvil. “Suddenly, the idea of religion being visible in the public is again – at least under some circumstances – acceptable in the EU”: thanks in large part to the blossoming of the effects of the “long-term positive assessment of the [European] integration process” undertaken by popes since Paul VI in the 60s.

Not that this heightened visibility is necessarily leaving all European bishops in a very positive light. Especially, said Kratochvil, the ultra-conservative prelates of Poland and the Czech Republic: countries in which “the Church has unfortunately taken the anti-refugee, nationalist side, while still claiming their position is rooted in Christianity”. Without asking, too, what the Czech expert calls the “real question” behind the migrant crisis still shaking the continent: that is, “Is Christianity a conservative movement, or a radically open – even revolutionary – one?”

But precisely because of the particularly bitter conservative backlash they have experienced, Poland and the Czech Republic are the countries in which Kratochvil has been able to discern an even more interesting phenomenon being felt continent-wide. In the Czech Republic, he said – “probably the most secular society in the world” – “people still look back to [an] idealised and romanticised Christianity, a sort of cultural Christianity”.

“People do not really go to church, do not even believe in God, but some have recently started publicly saying that they are Christians”, observed the expert. “This, of course, does not mean that they pray to Jesus, but that they do not like Muslims“.

Base instincts these of looking back in times of crisis to a supposedly more certain past to which lawmakers have played unashamedly, according to Kratochvil: as in the legislation that passed in the Czech Republic a few years ago proclaiming Good Friday a public holiday, and that much as a way of strengthening the country’s “Christian” identity.

“[L]ess than 20 per cent of people belong to the Church and less than five per cent go [to] Church regularly. And yet, we suddenly turn back to the past and say that we are Christians“, observed the academic, lambasting the legislation as “absurd” and warning that such restorationist tactics have little future in today’s Europe.

“[I]n the end the Church will lose” the cultural battles in which it is immersed – on everything from welcoming migrants to accepting gay marriage – “and then it will have to change not only its strategy, but also its focus”, warned Kotochvil. “The Pope has spoken about it time and again”, but the Church in Eastern Europe “does not want to listen to him”.

Whither the Church in Europe? (Pixabay)

Previous Post

January 15, 2018

Borghesi: "Pope's Opponents Are The Ones Sowing Confusion"

Next Post

January 22, 2018 'La Civiltà Cattolica' Demolishes the "Benedict Option"

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Africa Albania Australia Austria Bosnia-Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Czech Republic Europe France Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Italy Malta Netherlands Poland Portugal Slovakia Spain Switzerland Uncategorized US Vatican

Select a Month September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

In the Parable of the Ten Virgins, what were the wise ones prepared for?

Select your answer to see how you score.

A king The Sabbath The bridegroom A feast