Cardinal Ratzinger attacks 'secular' Europe

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has made a strong attack on 'secular Europe', which he sees as increasingly anti-God in attitude. "Secularism is no longer neutral," the German Cardinal said in an interview with the Italian daily La Repubblica. "It is beginning to transform itself into an ideology that imposes itself through politics and does not leave room for the Catholic and Christian vision." In the past Ratzinger, a powerful conservative voice in the Roman Curia, has also talked of European 'decadence', 'intolerance' towards Christianity and 'ostracism' towards God. Recent debate on the role of Christians in Europe has been heightened by the row over Rocco Buttiglione, the Italian politician rejected by the European Parliament as EU Human Rights Commissioner, because of his castigation of homosexuality and his ultra-conservative views on the role of women. Catholics and a number of Protestant and Orthodox churches have so far failed in attempts to get mentions of God and Christianity in the main text of the European Constitution.