“The West is not divided. What is collapsing is the ruling class distinguished by its false idols.”

In fact, Roberts began by painting a bleak scenario. He explained about the situation in the West: “Our churches are empty, our schools are closing, our art and architecture are ugly, politics has become our religion, and we treat children like adults and adults like children.” He added: “We have replaced marriage with porn, society with clicks, and the adventure of sanctity with virtual reality.” It is a situation from which countries cannot escape either, according to his standards. He noted that “once-proud nations – including this one in particular (referring to Spain) – built on clear visions of truth, goodness and beauty, are now unable, or even interested, in defending any of this, let alone their borders, sovereignty or culture.”

Thus, in a world that “seems to be eroding,” Roberts understood that “it is very appropriate that hope should be the theme of this conference and the jubilee of the Catholic Church this year.” A fact that does not mean that “our Church, our culture, our civilization were here before: on the brink of extinction, with barbarians at the gates or even within them.” He added: “But when the West seems closer to death, it is actually closer to glory.” To clarify the situation, he commented: “As Chesterton wrote, Christianity has died many times and risen again, because it had a God who knew how to emerge from the grave.”

Positive phrase soon qualified. “This does not mean that Christianity is not in crisis. In fact, we are facing several crises. He explained, “There is a crisis in the church itself, which is suffering from division and is still recovering from the global abuse scandal.” Thus, in the last two generations, “mass attendance and adherence to doctrine have declined, and the prestige of the secular church has suffered a severe blow.” Added to this is the fact that there is a crisis “in our culture, what we in the United States call the culture wars.”

He continued: “The West is under attack from within and from without.” Among the internal attacks, “our elites condemn biblical religion, objective truth, and even science,” while “they despise democracy, marriage, and the family, and fill our society with pornography, ugliness, and addiction.”

It is precisely on these “elites” that the responsibility for the problem is focused. “Throughout the West, ruling elites have more in common with each other than with the states they are supposed to serve,” he commented, denouncing that institutions they cannot take over are trying to usurp them in one way or another. This means that they “reject the basic concepts of human dignity, equality, national sovereignty and the rule of law.”

West and hope

In the face of this situation, he recalled that although it seems that Christianity is “heading towards extinction,” it has always been “like this” and the Church “has lived on the brink of disaster throughout its history, since the rooster crowed on the first Good Friday,” but in all cases, “resurrection” came “from the last place and from the last people that the world expected.” “The catacombs, the monasteries, the religious orders of the Middle Ages, the Counter-Reformation: they were led not by the great, but by the humble,” he gave as an example.

Now these secular elites are the ones who “run” the world, and control institutions, the economy, industry, culture, technology, education, and the media. But he pointed out that “it is not the West that is divided, decadent, and hopeless,” but rather that “the distinguished ruling class, with its false idols, false development, and empty materialism, is the one that is collapsing.” His wishes failed. These elites wanted to break the ties of faith and reason with their social, economic, and family policies… He continued: “Through their globalization and their “awakening” policies, but they “Our involuntary partners, they did the work for us, they discredited us.”

In the face of this, he noted that “the hope of millions of people of different nations, different religions and different cultures” is to remember that “even when darkness falls around them, “the tradition is not to worship the ashes, but to preserve the fire” and today, that ashes are “the secular world that is disintegrating” while “the fire is the revitalized West, which is rising from these ashes and spreading throughout the world.” In this sense, he pointed to “green shoots” such as the revival of vocations in many Dioceses in the United States, the increase in the number of young people in the Church, or that “the new generation of priests is the most Orthodox we have seen in generations” and also the “enthusiasm and pride” that accompanied the election of the first American pope.

He also recalled John Paul II’s role in the war against communism in the 1970s and 1980s as an example of that battle. He added: “If we want Christianity to rise again, it is up to us to bear the burden, as optimistic Christians have always done.”

After praising the policies of Donald Trump, whom he considered “the most important president since Ronald Reagan,” he issued a call to action on the specific situation in Spain. “The Sánchez government has clearly shown the Spanish people its priorities, who it truly serves and who it does not,” he commented. He explained, “A recent study indicated that two-thirds of your citizens feel that their country is on the wrong path,” adding that “the era of ‘awakened’ corruption is an open invitation for the forces of democracy, faith, law and order, and family values ​​to rise to the fore.” He added: “Every time a government abuses power, it opens an opportunity to defend the twin Christian values ​​of solidarity and subsidiarity.”

In conclusion, Roberts appealed to the Spanish Christian Community Union because “the building of Christianity is done in conjunction with unity.” “The good thing about the West is that it unites our nature. We can share and learn from each other. We must put families at the center of public life and fill the gaps with hope.”