Denver Catholic

26 MAY 27-JUNE 9, 2017 | DENVER CATHOLIC Perspectives Catholic Lite and Europe's demographic suicide T en years ago, after my medita- tion on Europe, The Cube and the Cathedral, had appeared in several languages, I was invited to speak to members of the European Parliament in Brussels. There, I tried to make what seemed three rather obvious points. (1) Europe is committing demographic suicide, systematically depopulating itself in what British historian Niall Fer- guson has called "the greatest sus- tained reduction in European pop- ulation since the Black Death in the 14th century." (2) This unwillingness to create the future in the most elemental sense, by creating new generations, is at the root of many of Europe's problems, including its diffi culties assimilating immigrants and its fi scal distress. (3) When an entire continent — healthier, wealthier, and more secure than ever before — deliberately chooses sterility, the most basic cause for that must lie in the realm of the human spirit, in a certain souring about the very mystery of being. The response to this analysis that has stuck in my mind ever since came from an Italian Euro-parliamen- tarian, who said, in so many words, "Look, we know we're fi nished. We're trying to arrange things so that we can die comfortably in our beds. Don't you Yanks come over here and start stirring things up." It was brutal but it had the merit of being honest, and it came back to me the day after the recent French presidential election, when it was pointed out by several observers that the prime ministers or presidents of Europe's largest economies – and of all the European members of that exclusive global club, the G7 — are without children: German's Angela Merkel, Great Britain's Theresa May, Italy's Paolo Gentiloni, and France's Emmanuel Macron. Add to the mix the childless Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte and the childless prime minister of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel, and something quite striking comes into focus: Of the six founding members of what has evolved into the European Union, fi ve are now led by childless prime ministers or presidents, a situation that would have been unimaginable to one of the founders of modern "Europe," Konrad Adenauer, who was the father of eight. The childlessness in this elite cohort certainly has diff erent causes, given the diverse personalities involved. Some of these leaders doubtless experience their childless- ness as a sorrow — although none seems to have taken the option of adopting children. Nonetheless, the childlessness of so many western European leaders is, if nothing else, a stark illustration of the crisis I iden- tifi ed more than a decade ago — and which my Italian interlocutor in Brussels confi rmed, if in a thoroughly depressing way. The members of the American commentariat most attuned to this plague of Euro-childlessness tend to discuss its impacts in terms of the rapidly growing Muslim popu- lation in Europe and the difficulties so many European states seem to have in assimilating immigrants from a different civilizational orbit. Those problems are real enough. But for a Catholic, Europe's demo- graphic winter bespeaks, first and foremost, a colossal evangelical failure. Acknowledging that also sheds light on the contemporary Catholic situation in Europe. In recent years, the Catholic Lite Brigade has reasserted itself in west- ern Europe and in the counsels of the world Church. It is time to ask whether Catholic Lite — as displayed in Germany, Belgium, the Nether- lands, and elsewhere — does not have something to do with Europe's demographic meltdown. It is time to ask whether Catholic Lite is not at least partially responsible, not only for Europe's self-chosen sterility, but for Europe's rapidly accelerating embrace of euthanasia. It is time to ask why Catholic Lite has been such an abysmal failure in forming public moral cultures in which self-gift, not self-aggrandizement, is the touch- stone of human aspiration. Sixteen years ago, then-Cardi- nal Joseph Ratzinger told me that "Organized Catholicism in Germany is a task force for the old ideas" — the ideas of Catholic Lite. The same might be said of "organized Cathol- icism" throughout much of western Europe. And while there are signs of hope to be found in renewal move- ments and new forms of Catholic community across the continent, the continued embrace of Catholic Lite by too many western European Catholic leaders and intellectuals bodes ill for a European Catholicism that can inspire Europe to reject demographic suicide and rediscover the joy of creating the future through having children. The Catholic Diff erence George Weigel is a distinguished senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. GEORGE WEIGEL Helping others: the ride of your life N ear the beginning of a 464-mile bike tour, my right knee gave out. I pulled over to a Ride the Rockies aid station in a tiny town in Col- orado and lay down in the grass, in pain, my knee swollen. I felt alone and help- less. When I received help, my sense of relief and security was over- whelming. When you can't help yourself, it's a cold and lonely feel- ing. It really takes your breath away. Now, imagine the helplessness of someone experiencing home- lessness: Foraging for food in trash bins, hunkered down under a bridge or not sleeping for fear of harm. It's not something you would ever want to experience. But thousands of our brothers and sisters across the coun- try do experience homelessness. One- fi fth of them are children. There is good news. The esti- mated number of homeless people has trended down in the past decade. The sad news, in Colorado, is that we're counter to the trend. Between 2015 and 2016, when overall home- lessness dropped 2.6 percent nation- ally, Colorado experienced the sin- gle-largest percentage increase of homeless individuals (12.6 percent) of any state, according to the Annual Homeless Assessment Report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The causes are many and varied. What's important is what we do about it. At the Samaritan House homeless shel- ter in downtown Denver, of those indi- viduals and families who complete the fi rst 30 days of the Levels Program that includes life skills, more than 60 percent leave the shelter with housing in place. This year, we will open the Samaritan House Women's Shelter in northeast Denver to accommodate 150 women a night. We're also moving our administra- tive offi ces to that location to be in closer community with those we serve. With your help, Catholic Charities is provid- ing hope in the face of helplessness. That's also why, for the seventh consecutive year, Team Samaritan House is part of Ride the Rockies. I was on the ride in 2015 when my knee Guest Column Larry Smith is the president and CEO of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Denver. Visit online at ccdenver. org or call 303-742-0828 to learn more, volunteer or make a donation. LARRY SMITH Each year, Team Samar- itan House rides in the annual Ride the Rockies cycling event to help fund Catholic Charities' homeless shelter. photo provided

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