The hardening of positions in the Middle East in the last few
weeks only adds to the growing sense that sometime in the
not-too-distant future there will be a bloody confrontation between
radical Islam and Western civilization. Pope Benedict XVI, formerly
Cardinal Ratzinger of Germany, is visiting the Catholic country of
Spain. His timing is significant.
The hardening of positions in the Middle East in the last few weeks only adds to the growing sense that sometime in the not-too-distant future there will be a bloody confrontation between radical Islam and Western civilization. Pope Benedict XVI, formerly Cardinal Ratzinger of Germany, is visiting the Catholic country of Spain. His timing is significant.
Spain has historically been at the nexus of Muslim expansion into Europe and the containment response of European Christians. In recent months, the Vatican position with regard to interreligious dialogue with Islam has hardened over the treatment of the Christian faithful in countries with Muslim majorities. On the other hand, Muslim influence in Spain and all of Europe is on the rise while the Spanish commitment to traditional Christian values is on the wane. The role of Catholic Spain in the dialogue is viewed as crucial. What role will Christianity play in the gathering storm?
The battle of Tours-Poitiers in 732, and the battle of Lepanto in 1571 are the two decisive and historic battles between invading Muslim forces and European Christian defenders. The Visigoths controlled the Iberian peninsula – Spain and Portugal – from the fifth to the eighth century. To the North of the Visigothic Kingdom lay Acquitaine, a coherent area of Southern France that was generally under the control of the Frankish army. In 711, a North African Muslim army defeated the Visigothic rulers of Iberia, and established the authority of the Umayyad Caliphate of Damascus over the region. During the period of Muslim rule the Andalusian region of Spain was firmly in the hands of North African invader/settlers. In 730, the Muslim leader Abd ar-Rahman prepared an expedition aiming to take Acquitaine to the North from the Franks.
After early successes the Muslim forces moved toward Tours. The Frankish leader of Acquitaine, Charles – later know as Charles Martel – became alarmed at this challenge to Frankish governance. Specifically he was alarmed by the threatening move of Abd ar-Rahman in the direction of the most sacred – and richest – shrine in Latin Christendom, the Shrine of St. Martin of Tours. In 732, Charles’ large army met the Muslim invaders in a cataclysmic battle near the city of Poitiers. The Christian forces of Charles Martel decisively defeated the Muslim invaders and killed Abd ar-Rahman. This battle was the start of the roll-back of Muslim control of Iberia. The final re-conquesta was completed in 1492 – the same year that Columbus set sail for the New World on behalf of Spain.
The Spanish armada also played a key role in the second great incursion into Europe by Muslim armed forces in the sixteenth century. Muslim leadership in the 16th century came from the Ottoman Turks under the reign of Sulieaman the Magnificent. Eastern Christians in Constantinople had held out against the advancing Turkish forces until 1453. Finally, the Byzantine capital fell in August of that year. By 1571, Muslims were firmly established in Europe and exercised complete control over the Mediterranean Sea. In 1571 Pope Pius V enlisted Christian forces throughout Europe to resist additional incursions by the Muslim forces into continental Europe.
Spain had built a massive empire in Europe under the rule of Emperor Charles V. A large fleet was assembled and put under the leadership of Charles’ son, Don Juan. Better know as Don John of Austria, he assembled a massive naval ensemble that included the Spanish fleet and a large and important contingent of vessels from Venice. The battle of Lepanto was joined on Oct. 7, 1571, near Lepanto, Greece. Don John’s fleet routed the Ottoman naval forces and liberated some 10,000 Christian galley slaves that were chained to the oars in the Turkish ships. The battle is immortalized in G. K Chesterton’s riveting poem, “Lepanto.” Muslim hegemony on the seas was broken.
The Catholic Church in Spain is in decline. Eighty percent of young Spaniards say they distrust the Church. Since the election of Jose Zapatero as prime minister in 2004 abortion and divorce have been legalized. Churches are emptying. Spanish Catholics criticize the Church’s stance on premarital sex and gay marriage. Christianity in all of Europe is in decline. And so Pope Benedict visits Spain. Will the European Christian Church have the vitality to provide spiritual leadership in the clash of civilizations that more and more seems inevitable? Let us pray.
Al Kelsch is a Hollister resident who writes a weekly column for the Free Lance.
