Dear Editor, I was surprised by the echo produced by the words I said at a lecture in Bienno last October 22. I see that some interpret it in terms of 'the battle between Christians and Muslims'. I am greatly pained by such a reading and I apologize if I myself induces such a reading because I was lacking in clarity. In John Paul II's mind, there was no idea of 'battle' – on the contrary, he sought better relations. In the conversation with the Pope that I spoke of at the conference, and which your newspaper disseminated, the Pope referred to certain groups of terrorists who even then had already started to be active, using the name of God (as Pope Francis often reminds us today), and in his comments, there was no kind of generalization. Mauro Longhi
“Remind those whom you will meet in the Church of the third millennium. I see the Church afflicted by a mortal scourge – more profound, more sorrowful than those we have suffered in the second millennium (referring to Nazism and Communism). It is called Islamism. It will invade Europe. I see the hordes coming – from Morocco, Libya, Egypt and the countries of the East. They will invade Europe, and Europe will be a cellar of old relics, shadows, cobwebs, memories of family. But you, the Church of the third millennium, must keep out that invasion. Not with weapons – they will not suffice – but by living your faith with integrity”.
Dear Mons. Longhi: There is no need to apologize. You were very clear in simply reporting an episode in the life of St. John Paul II of which you were a personal witness and which opens a window on Karol Wojtyla's mystical life. Rather, those who need to apologize are those curial circles who have wished to reduce the vision of John Paul II to their own ideological schemes or those clerical news organs who have constructed improbable behind-the-scenes theories on the motives of your narrative and our article. We simply reported your words at the lecture in which you said John Paul II had a vision of an Islamic invasion of Europe and that we should oppose such an invasion above all by living our faith with integrity. Does it bother the critics to speak of an invasion? But even Pope Francis called it so in an interview on March 2, 2016 with the French weekly magazine La Vie: "An Arab invasion of Europe is under way," he said, although he added he was optimistic about the outcome of this invasion. And two months ago, it had been Cardinal Schoenborn of Vienna who expressed fear over 'the Islamic conquest' of Europe. So does it also bother the critics to speak of the need to live our faith with integrity? But is this not the task of all believers, Islam or not Islam? Nonetheless, the real alternative Europe has was very well expressed by the late Cardinal Giacomo Biffi of Bologna, speaking at around the same time John Paul II had his vision: Europe will either become Christian again or it will become Muslim. What seems to me without a future is the 'culture of nothing'. Of freedom without limits and without content, of skepticism vaunted as intellectual superiority, which seems to the largely dominant attitude among the European peoples, who are more or less all rich in means but poor in truth. This 'culture of nothing' (fed by hedonism and libertarian insatiability) [nihilism?] will not be able to stand up against the ideological assault of Islam which is inevitable. Only re-discovering Christianity as the only salvation for man – and therefore, only a decisive resurrection of Europe's ancient soul – can offer a different outcome to the inevitable confrontation. Does this mean calling for a new Crusade? Or taking refuge in 'dialog' and 'relationship'? But true dialog is possible only between two clearly identified entities - if I know who I am and I know my interoluctor, his values, what and how he thinks. Yet the dominant Catholicism today is merrily renouncing its identity and seems not to have the least idea of what it is facing, and has nothing more than a sentimental solidarity. St. John Paul II lived through this, and in hearing his testimony, dear Mons. Longhi, we canot but look with wonder at the great spiritual gifts that he received. Who would have imagined in 1993 what is now before our eyes? Only a few in Europe at the time were able to recognize the manifestations of an Islamic 'rebirth', let alone think of an Islamic 'invasion' of Europe. At the time of your conversation with John Paul II in March 1993, there was an atmosphere of great international optimism: Promising peace conversations between Israel and the Palestinians were under way which in a few months (Sept 1993) would culminate in the historic Oslo accords which would go on to earn the Nobel Peace Prize for its protagonists, Israeli Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasir Arafat. [The shortsightedness, rashness and wishful thinking of the Nobel Peace Prizegivers is nowhere more evident than in this choice, in which the Oslo Accords have merely been used by the Palestinians as a pretext for going on doing what they always did (not forgetting that Arafat is the acknowledged father of organized terrorism as a political tool).] Islamist terrorism was still to come [That is, of course, not true, since the Terrorist Age began at the Munich Olympics in 1972 when Palestinian assassins killed Israeli athletes, and Palestinian terrorist attacks in Israel were not uncommon. Except that until 9/11, most terrorist acts were by Palestinians against Israelis. Islamist terrorism involving larger non-Palestinian groups like AlQaeda and the Taliban, and against Western targets on general, did take a quantum leap in degree and frequency with 9/11, even if that, too, had been preceded by major terrorist attacks against US military facilities and embassies in Lebanon, Kenya and Tanzania and the USS Cole] whereas the Soviet Union had just collapsed thus bringing an end to the Cold War, leaving some hope for a peaceful New World Order. Of course, all too soon, events would take on a different turn, and therefore we can for more reason appreciate how prophetic John Paul II's words were in 1993, and not just about the Islamic invasion. Just as Benedict XVI's words in Regensburg were prophetic when he exhorted that both the West and Islam must unite faith and reason. Today, however, it seems that the principal concern in a significant part of the Catholic world is to silence such prophetic words. Riccardo Cascioli Editor
Europe will either become Christian again or it will become Muslim. What seems to me without a future is the 'culture of nothing'. Of freedom without limits and without content, of skepticism vaunted as intellectual superiority, which seems to the largely dominant attitude among the European peoples, who are more or less all rich in means but poor in truth. This 'culture of nothing' (fed by hedonism and libertarian insatiability) [nihilism?] will not be able to stand up against the ideological assault of Islam which is inevitable. Only re-discovering Christianity as the only salvation for man – and therefore, only a decisive resurrection of Europe's ancient soul – can offer a different outcome to the inevitable confrontation.