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PASTOR GENERAL
I
S REPORT, MAY 31, 1985
the� may be leading the Church into
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a new era" involving a
more aggressive affirmationof its fraal tion"arprinciples.
This may well be the message of the trip to the Low Countries:
that the Pope is quite prepared to listen to criticism, quite un
derstanding that the road he proposes is neither easy nor popu
lar. It is equally clear that no amount of criticism will make
him change direction.
A recent article in the LOS ANGEL ES TIMES asked why the young people in
Holland felt they had to display their feelings so openly and rudely. Were
they afraid that the Pope might actually be correct in many of his moral
pronouncements, such as against homosexuality and living-togetherness?
Were they, in the back of their own minds, aware that their hedonistic soci
ety had only brought pain, suffering and emptiness? They couldn't admit
� were wrong, so they felt compelled to vioiently defend their wayward
�edoms, speculated the author.
The Catholic Church throughout Western Europe is in bad shape.
Even in
Belgium and Luxembourg
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(a formerly Catholic stronghold) the Pope's crowds
were small, albeit polite, leading one observer to note that "the prosper
ous Luxembourgois and B�lgians do not care enough about the Pope, or the
church to which most of them nominally belong, to register a protest."
It is only in John Paul's native Poland, it seems, that real zeal for the
church in Europe still exists. Might it be that Catholicism will never be
able to revivify Europe until Europe is made one, in order that the flames
still burning brightly behind the Iron Curtain can reignite deadened pas
sions in the West? Similarly, in the secular field, German patriotism will
likely never be restored until the U.S.-patterned Federal Republic can
be
linked with the
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fossilized" German state in the east. (Young West Germans
visiting the DDR often state that they feel "more German" there). It's as
if the spirit necessary to reanimate the future united Europe remains
locked up in the- East for future use.
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau
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