Opinion: "Another European Pope?".....

In the days leading up to the recently conclude Papal Conclave many Vatican observers speculated that the College of Cardinal might select an African or Latin American as Pope. They felt that the strength of Church in those regions combined with the social and economic challenges there made a compelling case for selecting a Pope from one of these regions. We all now know that they choose not to do this. Instead they turned to Europe, Germany specifically, and choose Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to be the next Pope.

This move makes sense to me for a primary reason. The church is flourishing in Latin America and Africa. Despite all the problems the church remains strong. By contrast, the church is Europe is dying. The aging of the European population combined with the increasingly secular nature of European life as caused Church attendance to wane at an alarming rate. At the same time the Muslim population continues to increase and attendance at Mosques far out places that at Churches. The trend is so alarming that it caused one commentator of observe that if current trends continue unabated Europe will become an outpost of Islam.

My assumption is that the Vatican hopes that by selecting a Pope from the very heart of Europe that they may stem this very distressing tide. I pray that is the case. In an age where the threats posed by Islamo-fascism could not possibly be higher I can think of no greater tragedy than allowing Europe to fall.