Fewer births, culture wars weaken European civilization, says Weigel

Published: 2006-06-08

PRINCETON, N.J. (CNS) -- Contemporary Europe's efforts to eliminate vestiges of Christianity from its culture and its increasingly low birthrates are leading to its demise, according to author George Weigel. The current situation in Europe is "multiculturalism run amok," at times incoherent and often contradictory, he said during a May lecture at Princeton University, sponsored by the university's Catholic campus ministry organization. Weigel's comments were primarily based on his 2005 book, "The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America and Politics Without God." The author, who is also a regular television and newspaper commentator and fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, said that in all the states of the European Union radical secularists are seeking to eliminate the vestiges of Christianity from their culture. To prove his point, he said the 2004 debate over excluding references to Christian heritage in the preamble of the proposed European Union constitution was all part of an effort to marginalize the dwindling number of practicing Christians and to ban religious expression from the public square.

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