editorial Christian Event and Idolatry For some time now, an anti-Christian controversy has been back in action. On a number of occasions, and in relation to different facts, philosophers, journalists and so-called mâitres a penser have accused the religious sense of being the direct or indirect cause of all kinds of ills. They link social, scientific and even political backwardness, whether in individuals or peoples, with the persistence of a strong religious spirit. In short, religiosity is against progress. There is nothing new in this. Some of the philosophies, and even the powers strongest today, were founded with an identity opposed to the religious fact, finding, as it were, their raison d’être in that aversion. In many cases, the arguments used are shoddy, based either on ignorance or on bad faith. It has been a while since historical studies have thrown clearer light on many issues, revealing, for example, how the Medieval period, which many still stubbornly call the “Dark Ages,” was a time of great inventions, rich in important advances and discoveries in all fields. But those controversialists are less interested in history or in facts than in opinions, and how to manipulate them in order to win a consensus. It was Nietzsche who said, “There are no facts, only interpretations.” There are two things to be learned from this revival. The first is that the true opposition, as in the Bible, is not between religious and antireligious people, but between religious people and idolaters. It is surprising to note that many of these thinkers are just as furious with religion as they are ready to set up, for themselves and for others, a sort of idol in which to believe and to which to give homage. For some, it is still the Jacobin “Goddess Reason,”–in other words, the tool that calculates what can be measured and maneuvered and which presumes, step by step, to possess every phenomenon, censuring whatever escapes. Moreover, this idol can coincide with many things: people end up believing that the absolute value is politics, or organization, or welfare, to the point of making an idol of “health,” sacrificing time and money to it, or of “fame,” as the remedy for the boredom of a meaningless life. There are even those who make an idol of the affirmation of life as a purely organic phenomenon. The other element that stands out is that these controversies conceal the real target, which is precisely the Church, since many other religious expressions are applauded (perhaps in the name of so-called multiculturalism). The recent European Constitution is an eloquent example of this anti-Catholic attitude. Let us not, however, forget that denial of the Mystery that gives infinite value to the person leaves man at the mercy of power. The Christian event, as great modern geniuses from Rimbaud to Dostoevsky perceived, is the only fact able to dispute every complacency and every power attained. For Christianity is not a religion, a discourse that has few or many points of contact with every other discourse, but the presence in history of a God who proposes His victory as the only one possible over life and death, as possible relationship with destiny. You can tackle this proposal seriously only if you are in love with the truth more than with yourself or, in other words, if you have a simple heart and you are more ready to acknowledge the positivity of a presence than to take refuge in bitter, mistaken, and empty polemics.