Current affairs
After Lisbon

Let’s Give a Face to the New Europe
The treaty that reforms European institutions has come into force.
On a continent where it seems that relativism always wins, what challenge is waiting for us today? “To witness to the Truth,” asserts German sociologist GABRIELE KUBY.

by Lorenzo Fazzini

“We have to witness to the Truth, not to promote values.” To speak with German sociologist and writer Gabriele Kuby, born in 1944, is like feeling the fire of early Christianity. Having an agnostic journalist as a father and a Protestant sculptor as a mother, this former student of sociologist Ralf Dahrendorf–the expert on the dynamics of power who died last June–went through a conversion in 1968 and then through a long march in the desert of occultism. She came to the faith amidst the suffering of a failed marriage, thanks to a providential encounter with a neighbor who invited her to say the rosary. Since then, she began to discover the “treasures” of Catholicism (“In the catechism and encyclicals by Pope John Paul II, I found a light which made shine the truth on human nature and on the problems of our times”), understood the charm of authors such as Romano Guardini and St. Augustine, and embarked on a friendship with the Catholic philosopher Dietrich von Hildebrandt... Then, in 1997, she decided to enter the Church.
In her works, often bestsellers, Kuby deals with delicate themes: sexuality, relativism, the future of young people... One of her pamphlets on Harry Potter’s saga even caught the attention of the then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who personally wrote to her, encouraging her to “enlighten people about these subtle seductions.” In “Die Gender Revolution”, she analyzes the theory of gender in a European way, denouncing the “relativist dictatorship” in contemporary society. A few weeks after the enforcement of the Lisbon Treaty, she presents to us the main topics that are waiting for us in a Europe that has lost the memory of itself, making non-discrimination its idol.

What are the challenges that “this” Europe offers to the Christians?
There is no other way to answer if not telling the Truth. Pilate already asked it: what is the Truth? The  Truth was Jesus Himself. Even in today’s Europe, the Truth has its roots in Christ. In my work, I am involved in cultural debates on sexual issues. Countering the tendencies that would unhinge sexuality from its correct meaning, I have committed myself to presenting Christianity, even if our proposal is more and more often criminalized. We have to stay within this truth that, in this case, announces the reality of the family. We have to behave as Christ says, to be clever as snakes and simple as doves; we have to analyze situations and to understand the tendencies that belittle the Christian thought, but we must also avoid fundamentalism.

To obtain a “political” result on these issues, is it better to count on “wide” alliances with others in the name of values, in your opinion?
We have to be attached to Christ; the rest comes afterwards. We cannot betray people with Christian values removed from their roots. Even if we do not succeed in being a political catalyst, we will always know that we fought the good battle. “Success” on these issues is not in our hands. We will have to answer to future generations about our behavior. My generation, the one of the sixties, destroyed the family. We have at least the responsibility to witness to the Truth. It is not an easy battle, but in the end it has never been so in any epoch.

How can we deal with it?
I don’t want to present general strategies. The first issue concerns our identity. We are called to announce the truth. Of course, we cannot hide the fact that we are in a critical moment for Europe. And we have to fight against the “enemies” of Christianity who nowadays focus especially on the human sexuality dimension to extend their influence.

During his journey to Prague last September, Pope Benedict XVI often referred to the past role of “creative minorities” for the Old Continent. Someone even compared the current period with that of the end of the Roman Empire: the Christians of today as the monks of the sixth century. What are your thoughts on this?
The problem is that those religious people were at a starting point, while we are in a situation of confusion, where even the Church presents some problems–as Paul VI said, too much “world” has insinuated itself into the Church. It is for this reason that we are so weak; people don’t feel the strength of the Gospel anymore. Also within the Church there are those who try to adapt it to the spirit of our times, but fortunately there are those who remain faithful to it. We don’t know where salvation is. And so it happens that, as Christians, we are frightened. We feel like the Apostles under the Cross, but we have to have faith in the Resurrection and to believe that everything is in the hands of God.

You spoke about the “fear” of Christians. Is there a fear of bringing the Gospel into the political discussion?
As Catholics, we are entering into an ideology; values are not an ideological issue, because they say whether or not something is good. But today everything is becoming good and nothing is wrong. It is necessary to change the points of reference and to speak about the Truth: if we have fear, it means that we are not fighting the “good fight.” Values must not be defended merely because they are good. In fact, we should answer the question: why are they good?

For example?
In the case of Obama’s healthcare reform, we have been hearing about the idea of taking away from doctors the right to conscientious objection for abortion. What can doctors do, in that case? More and more often, we are going toward similar unavoidable situations.

In what aspects of existence will Christians in Europe be called to a clear choice?
Europe is experimenting with the most radical revolution against Christianity ever known, based on redefining the family and sexuality. This is a revolution “from on high,” conducted by the United Nations, the European Union, and several governments of Member States, thanks to the universal support of the media. The technical means of control and the psychological technique of mass manipulation have been finely tuned, so that this soft totalitarianism can go on for a long time, to undermine what remains of the Christian culture. Europe is establishing new values that are not “human” but “fundamental,” which clash against our tradition.

Where can we see these “new fundamental rights” coming into effect?
Think of homosexual marriage, made equal in everything to the marriage between a man and a woman, upheld in the name of a right that is fundamental (and no longer human). All this, to make it appear as something natural. This will require us to answer personally. And the issue will not be: Is it a good or a bad thing? But it will be: Is it true or false? God made us man and woman, and only in this way can humanity continue to exist. It is not relativism, but an absolute truth.