Church in the margins

Archbishop Vincent Nichols Of Westminster is right when he compares the dogmatic stridency of some secularists with that of “the worst religious believer”, a characteristic that allows for little charity of thought, never mind tolerance for contrary views.

For radical secularists and religionists, God is the subject of a debate that must be won or lost, with the defeated being vanquished and no openness for mutual accommodation. And in some regions, particularly in Europe, Christianity is becoming increasingly marginalised in the public discourse.

The results of a recent survey on the state of Catholicism in France, conducted for the French Catholic daily La Croix, make for bleak reading. Respondents identifying themselves as Catholic declined from 81% in 1965 to 64% last year; weekly Mass attendance from 27% to only 4,5%. And among those who described themselves as practising Catholics, there seems to be a profound cleavage between what the Church teaches and what they believe. For example, 75% want a new teaching on contraception, and 68% on abortion.

Within Catholic circles, there will be much debate to find an explanation for such figures, which presumably could be replicated throughout much of Europe. Many will be tempted to place the blame on that ill-defined “Spirit of Vatican II”, but that would be a wholly inadequate premise. Europe’s disaffection with Christianity is nothing new. It has been a slow process, preceding the Second Vatican Council by more than a century, arguably beginning with the French Revolution of 1789.

The secularists have started “winning” only over the past few decades, in a phenomenon that touches all Christian churches. But the secularist “victory” will never be complete. While more than two-thirds of France’s practising Catholics reject their Church’s teaching on abortion, they have not rejected what the radical secularists object to in particular: the belief in God. To the secularists, the Christian’s faith in God is an eccentric superstition; for some it is so childish that they regard the believer, with extraordinary arrogance, as intellectually deficient.

The secularist propagandists are baffled when they do find common purpose with the Church. Not infrequently, religion is sidelined as supposedly irrelevant, even when it could be contributing (and sometimes the Church is then attacked for apparently doing nothing).

Pope Benedict referred to this in his address to diplomats at the Vatican when he said that the Catholic Church and other religious bodies could contribute in persuading people of environmental priorities, if given the chance.

“Sadly, in certain countries, mainly in the West, one encounters in political and cultural circles, as well as in the media, scarce respect and at times hostility, if not scorn, directed towards religion and towards Christianity in particular,” the pope noted.

South Africa is still mostly a religious country, though some of the country’s secular media, organisations and even politicians have adopted positions such as those decried by Pope Benedict.

For South African Christians, the response to that must take the form neither of surrender nor of engagement in a dogmatic culture war, but of respectful dialogue.

Archbishop Nichols points the way: “That means getting away from soundbites and getting away from discussion that is always centred around oppositional conflict.”

At the very least, sincere and open dialogue may clear the air of the suspicion, ridicule and antagonism between Catholics and secularists.