Crisis and revival in Christian faith

During an interview with Pope Benedict XVI on July 12 during his flight to Australia for the 23rd World Youth Day, Paul Kelly from Australian Press pointed out to the Pope that Australia is a very secular country with low religious practice and much religious indifference.

He also asked the Pope if he was not worried and alarmed that the Australian Church may follow the European path to decline.

As always, the Pope expressed his opinion in clear terms and with a positive outlook. His prompt reply to Mr Kelly was: "I think Australia in its present historical configuration is a part of the 'Western world' economically and politically, and so it is clear that Australia also shares the Western world's success and problems.

The Western world has had great economic and technical successes in the past 50 years; yet religion - Christian faith - is in a certain sense in crisis.

"This is clear because there is the impression that we do not need God, we can do everything on our own, that we do not need God to be happy, we do not need God to create a better world, that God is not necessary.

On the other hand we see that religion is always present in the world and will always be present because God is present in the heart of the human being and can never disappear.

We see how religion is really a force in this world and in countries. I would not simply speak about a decline of religion in Europe; certainly there is a crisis in Europe, not so much in America but nevertheless there too, and in Australia.

"But on the other hand, there is always a presence of faith in new forms, and in new ways; in the minority, perhaps, but always present for all the society to see. And now in this historical moment, we begin to see that we do need God.

"We can do so many things, but we cannot create our climate. We thought we could do it, but we cannot do it... And so we also come to understand that we cannot be really happy, cannot really promote justice for all the world, without a criterion at work in our own ideas, without a God who is just and gives us the light, and give us life.

"So, I think there will be in a certain sense in this 'Western world' a crisis of our faith, but we will always also have a revival of the faith, because Christian faith is simply true, and the truth will always be present in the human world, and God will always be truth. In this sense, I am in the end, optimistic."