Religion.
No other topic can generate as much animosity as Religion can. Many in Europe despise it and see it as a machine of control from Rome or somewhere else. Others see it as an inseparable part of who they are. Others don't care. A whole variety of opinions exist, and now I am tasked with making some sense of all of this.
Obviously, Catholicism has made its presence felt throughout the ages. For some nations in Europe, such as Portugal, Catholicism as an official state religion only ended around 35 years ago. For others, such as France, there has been no state religion for many, many years. Still, all the major cathedrals that one finds throughout continental Europe are Roman Catholic, and as such, the Roman Catholic Church can still make its presence felt by the sheer size of its buildings and the history associated with them. Tourism through the Catholic churches is, without a doubt, a very profitable enterprise for the Roman church. In many cities, such as Beauvais, France; Milan, Italy; Bern, Switzerland; etc., the big, main attraction is a church or cathedral. But a presence spanning two centuries does not guarantee adoption or practice by the church's members.
Take Milan, for example. When we went to Milan last Thursday, mass was in session inside the Duomo. (By the way, that chapel is massive.) I would assume that normally tourists would be allowed to walk amongst the aisles and see the paintings as well as the platform where mass is given, etc. However, most of the cathedral was roped off for a Catholic service. And who, do you suppose, was there in the mass? Old people. The elderly. Those who had grown up in a time before all the modern conveniences and had learned that Catholicism and religion was something necessary for the quality of their lives. These were those for whom religion was simply a part of their lives. If they didn't heavily believe in the Catholic rituals and mass, I believe they went out of sheer habit to participate.
Now, contrast that with a lady I met on the train from Lisbon to Porto two days later. This was a lady who was going through a remarkably difficult time. She had breast cancer and had undergone chemotherapy as well as radiation treatments to avoid a mastectomy. During this trying ordeal, she had lost her de facto husband to medical malpractice and her mother. She was now all alone, and what's more, she was not educated. She obviously lived a very simple life. Yet, she kept a good attitude, and in some ways, was very proud of her ability to continue on.
I asked her if religion had something to do with her strength to continue on. She explained (and I heard this many, oh so many, times before when I was an LDS missionary in Lisbon) that she was a non-practicing catholic. This means that she didn't participate in any of the masses regularly, that she didn't go to church, and that she didn't really care about the ordinances of Catholicism, including marriage. However, she believed in God and felt very spiritual.
In fact, she explained to me that she had premonitions of the future. She said she could tell by virtue of her feelings and thoughts how things would turn out. I didn't believe her, but I didn't let on. When she said that she was certain that no one could fool her - "Ninguém me engana!" - I had to contain myself from rolling my eyes. This was a woman who was born and raised in the same little backwoods town in northern Portugal and, by her own admission, had never gone anywhere or seen much of anything beyond her little town. Yet it was apparent that she thought she had the whole world figured out. At least I can say that I was very glad to see she was confident.
We can see in these cases two extremes. The extremely devoted, and the "spiritual" but non-practicing. Somewhere in between we find another group to which I believe most young people belong. This third faction is that group that simply doesn't care about religion. I have seen many who don't care enough about the Catholic church to be a part of it. Many young people with whom I spoke in Portugal either didn't care, didn't think it was important, or didn't see the purpose in the Catholic institution in Europe.
Therefore, I have drawn a conclusion about Christian religion in Europe. It's influence is fading, and it's fading fast. The older the aging population gets and the more it dies off, the smaller the influence of the Catholic church will get. Yet, many people need a way to stay linked to something larger than themselves. With the increasing popularity of non-religious, spiritual practices, I can see the day when organized Christian religion is no longer relevant in Europe.
Being a Latter-Day Saint, I find this pattern to be tragic. The lady on the train to Porto had never even heard of the LDS missionaries, although I am sure that she has seen them but mistaken them for the Jehovah's Witnesses. The JWs are everywhere in Portugal, and they put a bad name on anyone with a nametag and a tie. It's tragic really.
I hope that this post made sense and was entertaining.
No comments:
Post a Comment