My,
how the world has changed. The dust is still settling from the referendum in
Ireland last week in which voters repealed the 8th Amendment to the Irish
Constitution, which protected the right of unborn babies to live. The
outcome was a bitter disappointment, but not really a surprise. Perhaps more surprising to many of us
(although it ought not to have been: see below) was the margin of the
pro-abortion victory: 67%-33%, a thunderous landslide. Ironically, the amendment
was voted in by the same margin just 35 years ago, except in 1983 67% of Irish
voters cast their ballots in favor of protecting unborn life. The dramatic reversal reminds me of the tune played by the British military bands when they
surrendered to George Washington’s ragtag Continental Army at Yorktown: “The
World Turned Upside Down.”
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| Crowd in Dublin cheers abolition of Irish pro-life amendment (AP) |
Clearly, much has
changed in Ireland over the last three and a half decades, and there are
certainly plenty of local factors that have played a role in the change.
I don’t believe, however, that the change is a purely Irish one, or even
largely local. Despite a strong historical identification with Catholicism, the
Emerald Isle has been following the same secularizing trend that has captured
the rest of Western Europe. According to research done by
the Pew Center, only 37% percent of Irish attend religious services weekly or
monthly; that’s better than any other Western European nation other than Italy,
but it’s still well under half of the population (and it has been shown that
oftentimes people are untruthful on this
question, exaggerating church attendance figures). A larger figure, 41%, report
they “seldom or never” go to church. Only 19% pray daily, 24% believe in
God “with absolute certainty”, and only 69% believe in God at all.
The Irish are only
marginally better, if at all, than other Europeans in these categories. We see
similar trends in the United States, where, according to the Barna Group,
The pattern is indisputable: The younger the generation, the more
post-Christian it is. Nearly half of Millennials (48%) qualify as
post-Christian compared to two-fifths of Gen X-ers (40%), one-third of Boomers
(35%) and one-quarter of Elders (28%).
The
entire western world is abandoning Christianity, and at a rapid rate. Needless to say, these
changes carry some very concrete consequences. Pew also
reports, for instance, that the higher the level of religious
commitment, the more likely a person is to be involved with charitable
organizations and, in fact, every sort of community group (except athletic
ones). Arthur Brooks details similar findings in the United States in his
book Who Really Cares? These numbers show that fewer believing Christians means less
charitable giving, less involvement in charitable causes, less self-sacrifice
for the good of others; in other words, if I may be blunt, a more selfish,
self-centered society. This de-Christianizing trend intensifies over time, because the more disconnected they are from any
practice of religion, the harder it becomes for people to recognize even the
largely material goods provided by the Church: Barna reports that
When the unchurched were asked to describe what they believe are the
positive and negative contributions of Christianity in America, almost half
(49%) could not identify a single favorable impact of the Christian community,
while nearly two-fifths (37%) were unable to identify a negative impact.
Pew reports similar outcomes in Europe. This is despite the massive
amount of wealth, material and effort Christians have put into helping the poor
and disadvantaged over the past two millennia.
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| From The Phillip Medhurst Picture Torah |
Given all
that, we should not be surprised that Christian moral teachings, particularly those that demand self-sacrifice or denial of powerful desires, are less popular
than ever, and rapidly becoming less so. From the very beginning of time
the Tempter has been whispering in our ears that “You will be like God” (Genesis
3:5), if only we would give in to our desires, instead of following the
path of self-denial. How hard is it to resist him when we have no faith,
or perhaps only a shallow faith, to fortify us? How much harder now that
the institutions that dominate our culture, which in the past reinforced
morality, have today switched sides, and take Satan’s side in the debate (take
note: every major political party in Ireland endorsed repeal of the 8th
amendment)? Small wonder, then, that Pew's figures show the people of once
Catholic Ireland favoring legal abortion by a margin of 66-30% (those who
self-identify as “highly committed Christians” are the only group in which a
majority opposes it). Consequently, small wonder that Irish voters abolished
the protection of unborn life by roughly the same margin.
Well
then, where does that leave us? Am I saying that we are going to Hell in
the proverbial handbasket? Ultimately, no, as our Lord has promised us
that “the gates of Hell will not prevail” against his Church (Matthew
16:17). “Prevail”, however, is statement about where things will end; a
lot can happen in the meanwhile, not all of it good. The fact is that an
enormous amount of damage can occur, to individual souls and to entire
populations, before our wayward society comes to its senses.
Very
often it is the damage itself that helps bring about the change. As St.
Paul tells us, “We know that in everything God works for good with those who
love him, who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:48). The familiar
phrase “hitting rock bottom” applies here. This is a very important
concept in Alcoholics Anonymous and related 12 Step groups. An alcoholic “hits rock bottom” when the
damage and pain caused by his drinking become so severe and painful that he has
to admit his life is beyond his control, and that he needs to turn to God to
save him from his self-destructive desires. Our culture, it would seem,
needs to hit rock bottom before it begins to turn back to God. Who can say how long that will take, or how
many souls will be lost in the process?
I am painfully reminded of Adam Smith’s remark that “There is a great
deal of ruin in a nation.” We should
also not forget that the followers of Muhammed are not standing idly by while
what was once called “Christendom” breaks itself to pieces.
However
that may be, formerly Catholic Ireland’s embrace of the abortion license is a
sign of what is happening throughout the historic heart of the Christian world. There is no longer a Catholic Ireland . . . there's no longer a "Catholic" anywhere in Europe or North America (with the possible exception of Poland, and that probably not for long). Earlier this week I republished a blog post about a radio address delivered almost half a century ago by a German
Theologian named Joseph Ratzinger (later to become Pope Benedict XVI).
Fr. Ratzinger foresaw a world slipping ever further into
Godlessness. In that increasingly
hostile environment, Christ’s Church would become smaller - perhaps much
smaller. It would, at the same time, be a Church purified by adversity,
more faithful to the Gospel, and more essential than ever:
We will
have to count on terrific upheavals. But I am equally certain about what will
remain at the end: not the Church of the political cult, which is dead already,
but the Church of faith. She may well no longer be the dominant social power to
the extent that she was until recently; but she will enjoy a fresh blossoming
and be seen as man's home, where he will find life and hope beyond death.
That is
increasingly the choice before us if we wish to follow Jesus Christ: a small,
unfashionable, and even persecuted Church, one which “will make much bigger
demands on the initiative of her individual members” than we might be used to,
or be comfortable with.
It is also clear that
we will need to commit ourselves ever more faithfully to live lives worthy of
our Lord. Christ tells us,
"You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how
shall its saltness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be
thrown out and trodden under foot by men. (Matthew 5:13)
Whatever else might have been happening, the
failures of prominent Catholics in the Irish church played a role in the
triumph of legal abortion there, a living example of how damaging “salt that
has lost its taste” can be. If hope to do any better ourselves, we will need to rely more than ever on the
help Jesus Christ offers us in the sacramental life, because the world of the
future will need the Church, more than it ever has, to be a “light to the
nations” (Isaiah 49:6).
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| Zambians attending Mass (www.southworld.net) |
One bright spot I
haven’t yet mentioned: while the historic heart of Christendom collapses, the
faith still burns brightly on the periphery, particularly in Africa. As
Europe and North America increasingly revert to mission territory, I fully
expect our brothers in Christ to the South will be there to help us find our
way back. However difficult things
become, Christ will provide a way.
That, of course, is
our brightest spot: the Salvation that Christ has promised, which is the
foundation of Christian Hope. Short term, the future looks grim, and we
need to accept that and prepare ourselves for it. While the present defeat in
Ireland is a stark sign of how far we have fallen, however, it is not a
reason for despair. After all, the Lord
has given his word:
There shall no more be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of
the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall worship him; they shall see his
face, and his name shall be on their foreheads. And night shall be no more;
they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and
they shall reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 22:3-7)
