A portrait of Europe

Poison is tolerated in small quantity. By persistently taking small sips of hemlock you can become invulnerable to its effects. It’s what Mátyás Rákosi, Secretary General of the Hungarian Communist Party in 1947 called “the salami tactics”; used to persuade the public opinion to accept “piece by piece” ideological programs they would never accept otherwise. Thus little by little, without even realizing it, we came to accept abortion, divorce, gay “marriage”, embryo experiments… and we’ll end up accepting euthanasia and cloning without showing much resistance. A recent survey carried out in Spain on the values of adult population showed there is half as much tolerance towards abortion compared to smoking in a public building. Cigarette-smoke is annoying, while the surgery carried out behind the silent walls of an abortion clinic is not as much. Thousands of Spaniards rallied in the streets to celebrate the gay pride and the world cup victory on the same day. All newspapers published photographs; a large amount of videos on the celebrations were uploaded on Youtube. While the two events were being held the government adopted a new law on abortion, which transforms this practice in a right and stipulates compulsory “gender ideology” education in primary and high-school programs, while providing that abortion practices become part of academic studies. However, only several hundred people rallied in the streets to protest this injustice before the Spanish Constitutional Court. In the meantime, the drama of the umpteenth laicist proposal was staged in Strasbourg, aimed at establishing the degree of discomfort caused by the display of a crucifix in public schools. Still, we’re not irritated by abortion, we’re not irritated by the ideological interventionism of laicist lobbies, we’re not irritated by the education planned for the younger generations, we’re not irritated by the divorce of our neighbours, we’re not irritated that embryos are preserved sine die in obscure and cold test-tubes… It’s small-quantity poison, the slice of ideology that we gobble down without even chewing… so it may not irritate us. To become accustomed to evil is the first step towards losing our souls. Europe is embodying the story of Dorian Gray: under the sad façade of joyless entertainment, of wellbeing without progress, lies a dark and sad soul. Tired of living, we rally in the streets to celebrate simply anything: tired of ourselves we fill our lives with inconsequential issues. Some time ago we celebrated the feast of Saint Benedict, patron saint of Europe. Saint Benedict wasn’t a modern optimist. He was a Christian who fully lived the virtue of hope. In a world full of holes caused by moral degeneration, he didn’t propose steril moralism, nor political changes. His was the same commitment of contemporary Christians: to be “creative minorities” in a crumbling world. Today this is the mission of Christians in Europe: to be the lighthouse of those who are lost, the pillar of those who spent all their energies in things that are worth nothing.