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Ratzinger's Full Circle
22 November 2004Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who heads the Vatican's Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (formerly known as the Inquisition) and who is considered the likely successor to the Pope, has indicted "secular Europe" as an anti-God continent that leaves no room for the Catholic and Christian vision. "'Secularism is no longer neutral,'" Ratzinger told an Italian paper, but rather "'hostile to public manifestations of Christianity.'" Which manifestation in particular? The placement of Rocco Buttiglione, an Italian politician with ultra-conservative views on the role of women and the condemnation of homosexuality, in the office of EU Human Rights Commissioner. Citing the European Parliament's rejection of Buttiglione and the case of a Swedish pastor imprisoned for preaching against homosexuality, Ratzinger said that Christianity has come full circle back to "a band of the faithful" persecuted by the Roman Empire. Ratzinger also diagnosed a demographic problem for Europe in the changing ethnic composition of "'the ancient heartlands of Christendom'" threatened by a falling birthrate and Muslim immigration.
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