Moral Rot versus Religion

Daniel Henninger has a thoughtful opinion article on the new Pope and his crusade against the moral rot, aka "dictatorship of relativism," that infects the suppurating sores of Western Europe and its petits fonctionnaires in Brussells. Apropos of these Kafkaesque Nibelung-armies, George Weigel says:

"Ratzinger has been thinking about Europe for 25 years," Mr. Weigel told me. "He needs to address the problem of a Europe in which consciences are being coerced by transnational institutions. This is the cash-out of what he means by the dictatorship of relativism. It's a real issue with real world consequences."

This Good Friday, I am reflecting on the news that my poker pal's son is entering a Protestant seminary and my daughter's brilliant English teacher, with an Ivy League PhD, is entering a Catholic seminary. Her teacher is in his mid-twenties and tells his class that the hurdles to entering a seminary are now high---the Church actually hires the FBI to give the postulants, whatever, a security clearance.

Larry King showcased some Catholic seminarian wannabees last night who are starring in a new reality program called "God or the Girl," which shows the struggles some virile young men who have girlfriends have in deciding whether to embrace a life of chastity.

The Henninger article also mentions an increase in vocations, in of all places, Italy. College-educated women entering cloistered religious orders. I'm sure they are not all arts-majors who want to contemplate the sometimes-stunning masterpieces inside cloister walls in Tuscany, for instance.

A moral revival has to confront the activist blasphemy of MTV, owned by ViaCom and the odious Sumner Redstone, which is celebrating Easter by vicious attacks on Christianity and morality. Since ViaCom owns CBS, that puts that network off my watchlist, even though Bob Schieffer beats ABC and NBC right now for anchor news.

The Christians appear to be stuck in a "turn the other cheek" mode. Perhaps the murderous attacks in Nigeria will begin to awaken the slumbering one billion Roman Catholics from their reveries and perhaps this Pope will help them to realize that civilization itself is under attack by fanatical levellers and Luddites who wish only "creative destruction," or rather destruction and let's think about creation later.

Henninger's realism is a sort of antidote to the pious ramblings of others, who accept God's Providence without realizing St. Ignatius's maxim that "you must work as though it depends on yourself and pray as if it all depends on God" or words to that effect.

Pope Ratzinger even got Jurgen Habermas to admit that there are things about Christianity worth saving. His visit to a newly revivified Germany during the World Cup summer should be memorable. Read Henninger's article for an interesting excursion into the realm of possibilities.