” “The great excitement of the next few days in Cologne must not make us forget that the Church, even in Germany, is experiencing a situation of great difficulty. This was emphasized during Mass in the church of Our Lady of the Assumption (in Cologne), broadcast live on Rai Uno, by Father Ermengildo Baggio, local Italian director of Catholic Mission. In addressing the many young Italians who live in Germany, Father Baggio, a Scalabrinian religious, stated: "We are in difficulty for two reasons: we are living in a society that is no longer Christian less than 10% of the baptized take part in the Eucharist and if we speak about faith or religion we are considered to be ‘strange’. And while our religion seems to be becoming increasingly weaker, the other religions appear to be strong, nay even too strong. In the face of the recent events linked to Islamic terrorism, we have repeatedly heard people say: "they want to conquer Europe and they will succeed unless we defend ourselves". In Father Baggio’s opinion "we are moving away from the idea of our culture and our religion being superior and slipping into a resigned pessimism, and into the belief that bearing witness to our faith has lost meaning". Perhaps the reason for this is that we have mistaken "the truth of Christ as sole Saviour of the world for the idea that sooner or later Christianity would become the sole religion of the world". According to Father Baggio "we must not save the world, but live with the truth that have been given us, Jesus Christ". "If we are loyal to this mission he concluded we do not need any confirmation from the outside, from the mass media or from statistics, because the truth is light for itself which illuminates all those who are in the house, even today that the house is the world".
