Professor Urges Defense of Christian Values

From Zenit:

RIMINI, Italy, AUG. 23, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Jacobinism, Nazism and Communism have not succeeded in banishing God, and "Christ is the greatest revolution of history," a sociology professor told a mass gathering in Rimini.

Rosa Alberoni, writer and professor at Milan's IULM University, was summarizing the content of her latest book, "La Cacciata di Cristo" (The Expulsion of Christ), published by Rizzoli. She made her presentation Sunday at the weeklong 27th Meeting of Friendship among Peoples.

Alberoni referred to words of Pope John Paul II, according to whom "history has amply demonstrated that to make war on God to extirpate him from men's hearts, leads a fearful and impoverished humanity to options that have no future."

The sociology professor contended that "the Enlightenment, Nazism and Communism tried to eliminate God, to deny Christ, thus legitimizing dictatorship, doing away with individuals and spreading paganism."

Illustrating the second part of the book, the author analyzed the great revolution in history presented by Christ, and how "the Christian message is essential to address challenges such as the Islamic and Chinese -- which exert pressure today on our borders -- and the scientific atheist spirit on the domestic front."

No "Our Father"

"Christianity is the only religion in which God becomes tangible, becomes man to speak to men, and is Father of brothers to whom he also gives the freedom to rebel against him," Alberoni said.

She continued: "In Islam, instead, Allah is not proposed as Father. For Muslims, the 'Our Father' is a blasphemy. Free will is not contemplated. And all, from animals to men, including the hand of a killer, are a mere instrument of Allah's power.

"We must not await, passive and inert, the destruction of Christian civilization. The moment has come for believers to raise their heads, to speak out, to defend Christian values by practicing them, re-consecrating them in our gestures, because only in this way can modern challenges be faced."

"Why don't we have the courage to speak openly of Christ?" wondered Alberoni, noting the media's relative silence about him. "Instead, we must not be afraid to speak of Christian civilization, not simply of Western civilization, because, the Soviet system having fallen, we are one Christian people in Europe, Russia, America, Australia and part of Africa and Asia."

(emphasis added)