A friend sent this note:
Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Granada, 1492.
The Battle of Granada involved a siege of the Spanish city of Granada and was fought over a period of months leading up to the city’s surrender on January 2, 1492.
The city was captured by the combined forces of Aragon and Castile from the armies of the Muslim Emirate of Granada. Granada’s forces were led by Sultan Boabdil (Muhammed XII).
Since the spring of 1491, Granada had been all that was left of the former Moorish state when the Spanish forces of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile laid siege to the walled city. After several attempts to disperse the besiegers had been defeated, Boabdil attempted to raise support from the Islamic Marinid state in Morocco. He negotiated a four month truce with the Spanish whereby he would surrender if no help was received by the expiry of the truce. This failed to materialise and, on the agreed date the city capitulated.
This relatively small campaign was of momentous consequences as Granada was the last outpost of Al-Andalus in Spain and its fall brought to an end 780 years of Muslim control in the Iberian peninsula. It also marked the final act in the Reconquista, the campaign by the medieval Christian states of Spain to drive out the Moorish invaders.
Granada still celebrates the 2nd of January.
Now that Spain is more and more a part of Eurabia, I wonder if Granada still celebrates this day.
There is a massive shift taking place in Europe. People are jettisoning their last vestiges of cultural Catholicism even as there is a huge uptick in the Islamic population.
Has Europe lost its soul? This was a great concern for Pope Benedict.
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The situation Europe faces is as simple as it is dire: failure to reproduce results in extinction.
You are much better disposed to know, Father, but my understanding is that the Spanish bishops are in the aggregate doing a better job than their north European counterparts.
Still, demographics are perhaps the most real statistic we can observe and southern Europe is not much different from the rest of the continent. Either Europe has embraced Josephite marriage (uh, yeah, right…) or a certain teaching of Paul VI is being completely ignored.
I don’t know, but I think (Christian) Europe’s window closes in about ten years. After that point, repopulation cannot happen fast enough in order to maintain Christian political control. (Of course in practice, the majority of Europe is secular and not Christian.)
This means a couple of things.
First, the Church will be led by those who have large families: typically traditionalist/esque Catholics. So, we will be a small minority, but the Church will increasingly have less of the ‘weirdness’ we see now.
Second, we must already be working on a great effort of converting Muslims to the Church. Archbishop Sheen wrote that we have a framework to use and this was given to us by Mary. Muslims, despite their warped understanding of Scripture, do acknowledge the Virgin Birth and do have deep respect, far moreso than Protestants, for Mary. Furthermore, Mary chose to appear at Fatima, a town which was named for a daughter of Muhammad.
Not a grandslam, but a passed ball on a strike out and a bloop single is a start.
I believe Muslims will receive their Lady of Guadalupe only after we try to evangelize them (and geopolitical tinkering in the Middle East certainly does not count).
From the Calendar of the Breviary of Compostella, published at Salamanca in 1569.
2 Jan. Exaltatio fidei, videlicet, festum Granatae.
Based on demographics alone, western Europe is nearly lost to Christianity. Christians are at risk of becoming a persecuted minority. The situation will decline more rapidly if and when Turkey is admitted to the EU.
Is this the “springtime” that the Vatican II fathers had in mind? I doubt it. Our true hope lies in reunification with the Orthodox churches, many of which have long experience with persecution by Godless governments and muslim majorities. Benedict is the Pope of Christian Unity. Let us pray for his intentions during the New Year.
methinks its time for every Catholic to start having large families again ,that and start processions of the Blessed Sacrament through the ‘mohamaedan’ ghettos of europe, getting the Orthodox and the SSPX back in line won’t hurt either.
Eh, you all do know that mainstream academia has debunked the Eurabia hypothesis, right? If anything, most of the young immigrants are less religious than their elders. If Europe is suffering any deluge, it is one of unbelief, not wrong belief.
That’s not true, Francisco. In France, Sweden, and other European countries, there are huge set-asides in the suburbs where muslims are being warehoused by federal governments, in an effort to control them for the time being. They receive the dole and are not expected to convert or even adopt a European language.
If you visit a large European city like Paris, you must take care not to inadvertently wander into these sectors. The unemployment level is enormous–virtually no one works for a living. They can be very violent and burn cars by night.
Actually, I worry for Rome. As long as you stay on the tourist track and within the Christian community on your vacation, you don’t see the REAL Rome–what Rome has become outside that track/community.
American tourists are not very good at “looking around”–looking past their own interpretations even in the face of facts. When the obvious smacks them in the face, they take pains, like the European elites, to rapidly and somewhat subconsciously explain these observations away. Bad move.
As a Catholic who actually lives in Europe, I would like to say that the Eurabia scenario is horribly one-sided. It is true that there is a serious decline in Christianity in Europe (and the western world as a whole), but that does not mean that the Christians are replaced by Muslims. People of any faith are a minority, and it is much more accurate to draw a line between religion and secularism. These are the two sides, so to speak that are facing each other in western Europe, or will do so soon.
European culture, be it Christian or not, is not being replaced by Muslim culture. In my country, the Netherlands, Christmas and Easter are public holidays. Muslim feasts are not. We celebrate St. Nicholas’ eve and in the south of the country the annual carnaval is a big event (we northerners are too down-to-earth for that ;)). It is true that for many the Christian elements of these days is gone, and that is a very serious concern.
But the idea that many people outside Europe seem to have, that the Muslims are taking over, is simply incorrect.
Granada hosts a big cultural festival today, according to the city’s website. The name of the theatre where it takes place? “Isabel la Católica” municipal theatre.
Muslims in continental Europe (mostly north African) tend to be far more moderate than Muslims in Britain (who are chiefly of Asian extraction). 35% of French Muslims believe homosexual acts are acceptable, half say they find fornication acceptable and the vast majority of French Muslims are non-practicing; Muslims of Algerian descent (the predominant French Muslim demographic) tend to be the most secular (only 6% practice). The Institut National Etudes Démographiques reports that just 23% of Muslims in France join public prayer at least five times a year, which isn’t much different from the proportion of Catholics who attend seasonal high services.
Islam has no problem with birth control and birth rates in Islamic countries have been steadily declining. Iran now has a TFR of only 1.7 (compared to 6.5 at the Revolution) which is lower than many European countries. In the UAE, Tunisia, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Lebanon, the TFRs have already sank to near-European levels. Algeria and Morocco have TFRs of 2.4, but are also quickly dropping to European levels. The UN World Population Prospects Report predicts that TFR in Indonesia (the world’s most populous Islamic country) for the years 2010–15 will drop to 2.02
I certainly hope you’re right, Shane & Marq. I’m not sure of it, however.
Marq, you live in Holland. What do you know about Ayaan Hirsi Ali–believable about her own culture, or not?
Also, Waris Dirie–believable or not?
Isabel and Ferdinand should be made saints.
Amen, Supertradmom.
And so should my patroness and their daughter, Queen Katharine.
I think sometimes that it’s too bad F&I didn’t use some of that wealth from the new world and continue the Reconquista into North Africa.
Hans, Spain did continue into North Africa and did reconquer a good bit of it in the early 1500s. It was subsequently lost.
King Fernando will not be canonized. There are too many things he did wrong in his life to prevent him from ever being considered for canonization. According to Warren Carroll’s book, Fernando arranged for his eight year old illegitimate son to be made Archbishop of Zaragoza.
Queen Isabel is worthy of continued consideration of canonization. Queen Isabel completed the Reconquest, reformed the Catholic church in Spain and it was under Queen Isabel that the New World was discovered and the Catholic faith brought to the Western Hemisphere – including the present day USA, where the Catholic Church was firmly planted before Jamestown or Plymouth (see St. Augustine, Florida, and Santa Fe, New Mexico for two examples).
Spain seems to be on a death wish. Zapatero and his Socialists are dedicated to removing the Catholic faith from public life and replacing it with mindless secular trash. However, Spain is one nation that won’t disappear, if only because there are countless people from Latin America who speak catellano, are Catholic and would emigrate to Spain if given the chance.
catholicmidwest: I’m afraid I know too little about either Ayaan Hirsi Ali or Waris Dirie to say anything of consequence. I’m not a Muslim, obviously, so their criticism of Islam is not one I can counter any better than any other non-Muslim.
My previous comments stem from my overall experience of Dutch culture and politics as a whole, rather than an in-depth knowledge of Islam. Dutch Muslims will be just that: Dutch and Muslim. We shouldn’t forget that the history of Islam in the Netherlands (and other parts of Europe) is a veryr ecent one. Most of it is post-WW2. Yes, before that there was a long and bloody history with the Ottomans on the Balcans and the Moors in Spain, but between that and our time is an important gap, one that can not be overlooked. My point is that, to an extent, society is still looking for a balance. And that will take decades, in part because of cultural differences, but also because politicians and religious leaders on both sides sometime sthrow spanners in the works: The aforementioned Ayaan Hirsi Ali, but also Geert Wilders who, pardon the expression, is a one-trick thug.
For the near future I believe the answer lies not in combatting Islam, but in reasserting the visible presence of the Church.
“Hans, Spain did continue into North Africa and did reconquer a good bit of it in the early 1500s. It was subsequently lost.”
I wasn’t aware of that, Penguins Fan.