Are we the last Christians?

Fr. Livio Tonello, director

As we can all see the traditional religious practices are in decline. Our churches are becoming empty, people attending religious services are older and older, parents do not succeed in passing on their faith to their children, young people do not participate in church activities... and we could continue to speak about this situation that we know so well. The decline of religious practices concerns Italy and all the European countries. During the Covid pandemic religious observance declined even more. We reflect on these matters when we celebrate the central mystery of our faith: the death on the Cross and Jesus’ resurrection three days after. In 2019 a catastrophic and very symbolic event took place: on 15 April a fire broke out and quickly spread through the building of Notre Dame church causing the famous spire to collapse. Many people considered it as a symbol of the implosion of the European Church. This does not only concern the decline of religious practices but also the decrease of priestly ordinations, religious consecrations, marriages, baptisms, suppressed parishes... The crisis of faith also concerns worshippers of other religions. So we continue to ask to ourselves if we are the last Christians of the…