Quandary

The Catholic Church has stepped back of late from the concept of confessional countries. Secular atheists are vigorously dedicated to national confession of areligious humanism. Muslims, and not just radical ones, believe in national confession of the supremacy of Allah as revealed through Mohammed. So here’s the problem: secular atheism as a political force is reaching the end of its limited shelf-life. What should be the Church’s response to the rising influence of an Islam that is waiting for the chance to replace it with an official policy of Islam? The idea of a religiously neutral state dedicated only to temporal matters but recognizing freedom of religion doesn’t seem like the answer. Islam rejects it, and Christians aren’t entirely sold on it themselves. When we’re the only ones left, I don’t see it lasting. (I am, however, willing to be proven wrong by the continued success of the American experiment.) It is, of course, entirely unacceptable to roll over and let our countries become Muslim. So what’s left? I wonder whether, in the years to come, the Church might not revisit the question of confessional countries. If, that is, there remain any countries able or willing to step up to the plate.