The End of Catholic Europe? | The American Spectator

Over the course of his life, English author and Catholic convert Evelyn Waugh insisted that the Catholic Faith is fundamental to the identity of Europe. A seasoned travel writer, war correspondent, and World War II veteran, Waugh had traveled across much of Europe and seen the damage done by various anti-Christian philosophies, ideologies, and movements. In 1939, on the eve of the Second World War, he wrote, “The history of Europe is the history of the Church; the two are inseparable.”

A decade later, Waugh warned, “Europe is and must remain fundamentally Catholic, because Catholicism is the essence of its historic life.” He repeated this claim in 1950 (“To speak of Europe without its Catholic heart is to speak of a body without a soul.”) and in 1952 (“Catholicism is not an accretion to European culture; it is the foundation on which it stands.”). Would that Europe had heeded his words.

According to the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe (OIDAC Europe), a statue of one of the Apostles was beheaded in Trier Cathedral in Germany. “The stolen head, roughly the size of a fist, was part of a centuries-old ensemble depicting apostles listening to Jesus, and is considered historically and artistically irreplaceable,” OIDAC Europe reported. Cathedral Provost Jörg Michael Peters lamented, “It’s not just material damage — it’s the loss of a unique, historically significant piece.”

Europe’s history is inextricably intertwined with Christianity, specifically Catholicism. Yet that Catholic identity has been shed over the past century and the continent is now unrecognizable. Hate crimes and hostility against Christians have surged across Europe, and it seems hardly a week goes by without news of some jihadist driving his car through a crowded Christmas market, stabbing priests and sacristans in the streets, or attacking chaplains at a military barracks. Catholic churches are set on fire and Catholic statues and imagery are vandalized and desecrated.

All across Europe, Catholicism is waning: Ireland, Germany, and even Poland, once a stronghold for Catholicism on the continent, have all seen declining numbers of Catholics and rising anti-Catholic hostility.

By the end of the fourth century, the Catholic Church was the unifying force across Europe, and would remain so for centuries. As the Roman Empire collapsed, it was the Church which stabilized the continent, converting the Germanic tribes that toppled Rome and providing Europe with a cohesive moral code under which to live. Throughout the Middle Ages, the Church distanced herself from the influence of secular rulers and, along with the development of scholasticism, became distinguished as an arbiter of justice and a font of wisdom.

It was during the 16th and 17th centuries that Europe began to revolt against its Catholic heritage and identity, first with the Protestant revolution and then with the explicitly anti-Christian French Revolution. The First World War was the death knell for Europe. After watching so many millions of young men, bright and talented, practically an entire generation across the whole continent, brutally slaughtered in one of the most needless conflicts in history, the people of Europe began to lose faith. Maintaining one’s Catholicism or converting, as Waugh did, became a reactionary measure.

But the shedding of Europe’s Catholic identity was not a matter of tossing off weighty shackles and it brought no freedom. Rather, it was more akin to dropping one’s shield at a time when protection is needed. Now, the continent is practically overrun with third-world pagans, Muslims, and Hindus of all stripes. Christianity, in the few places where it is left, is under assault.

It is not too late for Europe to heed the warnings of Waugh. Europe must return to the Catholic Faith, abandon its postliberal progressivism, and once again embrace its Catholic identity. Without any such measures, the entire continent will fall to barbarians, just as Rome did, but it will not have the Catholic identity necessary to survive; it will simply be lost.

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