The latest edition of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger's "Introduction to Christianity" (Queriniana) has recently been published in Italy. In it, he notes how, "After the fall of the Marxist ideologies, there has been no rediscovery of ethics, but rather contempt of it and refuge in pragmatism."
He points out something I had never thought of before. "Cardinal Ratzinger believes that 1968, the year of student revolutions, and 1989, the pivotal year for Marxism's decline, are key to understanding the late 20th century." I've always thought that during the 90's, much of Western society went kind of looney, but I could never really put my finger on why, until now.
"The year 1968 is linked to the rise of a new generation, which not only regarded the work of reconstruction after the Second World War as inadequate, full of injustice, egoism and the urge to possess, but conceived the whole evolution of history, beginning with the era of the triumph of Christianity, as an error and a failure," he writes.
"Wishing to improve history, to create a world of freedom, equality and justice, these young people thought they had found the best way in the great current of Marxist thought," the cardinal continues.
"The year 1989 witnessed the amazing collapse of the Socialist regimes in Europe, which left behind them a sad heritage of destroyed lands and souls," he laments.
"The Marxist doctrine of salvation, in a word, was born in its many versions articulated in different ways, as a unique and scientific vision of the world, coupled by an ethical motivation and capable of supporting humanity in the future. Thus can be explained its difficult demise, even after the trauma of 1989," Cardinal Ratzinger explains.
