Faith and society

Rocco Buttiglione, Italy's minister of European affairs, has an interesting article in today's Wall Street Journal about faith, society, and the differences between Europe and the United States.

Signor Buttiglione last month had to withdraw his candidacy to become European justice and home affairs commissioner after he had expressed some of his Catholic views.

"Our struggling economy and ageing society can survive and be modernized only if we recover at least some of the values of the past--among them the ethics of hardworking and caring fathers and mothers.

"This is difficult to accept in Europe because our intellectuals were always convinced that modernity brings with itself the extinction of religious faith. Now America, the most advanced country in the world, shows us that religion may be and indeed is a fundamental element of a free society and of a modern economy."