In his insightful address to the German Parliament, after thanking them for their invitation, His Holiness Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus, began by saying that although he is German and followed closely and with great interest the state of affairs in his native country, he had not been invited as a German citizen, but as the Pope and the Bishop of Rome. He added that the invitation carried implicitly the recognition of the role of the Holy See as a partner within the community of peoples and states.
The West denies its Christian roots
Drawing inspiration from the cultural, religious and humanist inheritance of Europe, from which have developed the universal values of the inviolable and inalienable rights of the human person, freedom, democracy, equality and the rule of law… Preamble from the Official Journal of the European Union (2004)
This same recognition was absent years earlier when the former President of France, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, presented to the French people the ill-fated Constitution of the European Union (EU) in his bid for a referendum. If it had been approved, it would have been voted on in the rest of the EU national parliaments. In his preamble cited above there is no explicit mention of God or Christianity.
Throughout history, Christianity has been the soul of Europe. Even if it is secular now, Europe cannot fail to recognize the role of this religion as mater ed magistra – mother, teacher and pedagogue – of the continent and its peoples. It may be politically correct not to mention the role of Christianity in the lives of Europeans over the centuries, but this action is biased, prejudiced and politically oriented not to mention a denial of historical facts that have written much of Europe’s history in the last two thousand years. To rise above the ground, trees must grow downwards first by deepening their roots; a people who ignores and denies its roots is a people without identity, a reed easily shaken by the wind.
What the preamble showed was a mixture of contempt and plagiarism: contempt because it categorically ignored the contribution of Christianity, and plagiarism because it appropriated a “religious heritage” without acknowledging and citing it rightly. Another very common mistake among politicians which is also present in the preamble is the distinction between religious and humanism, as if the religious were a superstructure that can be dispensed.
Christ did not come to found a new religion, Christ came to teach men to be men. That is why Christianity is in itself humanistic; hence it is also incorrect to say Christian humanism – because Christianity is either humanistic or it is useless. Christ is not one of the ways, one of the truths, and one of the lives to follow, but rather the only way, truth and life (John 14:6). There is no other equally viable alternative to Christ, as he himself said, “Whoever does not gather with me scatters” (Luke 11:23). Apart from Christ, there is no other model of humanity; therefore, humanism and Christianity are one and the same.
It is in this sense that when politicians, philosophers and humanists proclaim themselves agnostics or atheists, they are actually appropriating parts of the Gospel without acknowledging it, they are pretending to reinvent the wheel as they affirm as new and originally their own, ideas that are taken from the Gospel written almost two thousand years ago.
In his reflection entitled, “Jerusalem, Athens and Rome, City – Symbols of Christian Culture”, Chilean Benedictine monk Mauro Matthei (2004) refers to the altercation between Pilate and the chief priests over the inscription that he had ordered to be hung above Jesus’s cross, indicating the reason for his condemnation.
The inscription which read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews” (John 19:19-22), was written by Pilate to mock and pay back the chief priests for forcing him to condemn an innocent man to death. In so doing, however, he unintentionally affirmed prophetically a bold objective truth contrary to what the chief priests wanted which was to inscribe that Jesus said that he was the king of the Jews, and as such would count as mere subjective opinion.
With his solemn “Quod scripsi, scripsi”, Pilate gave his writing an absolute value that the chief priests wanted to relativize, and by writing it in Hebrew, Latin and Greek, the languages of the three pillar cities of the European culture, he gave it a universal validity. According to the author, the politicians relativize the absolute and absolutize the relative. They relativize, mock and despise all that concerns Christ and his words of eternal life, in order to absolutize their policies of the moment which sometimes expire even before they are implemented.
The Fertile Crescent as “prehistory” of Western civilization
The Western civilization has as its cradle the cultures and civilizations of the Fertile Crescent, the dependents of wheat and other cereals that were cultivated there. Sumer, Crete, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Israel, Syria, Phoenicia, Babylon and the Persian Empire are at the base of the Greek culture and the religious worldview of Jerusalem.
In the Fertile Crescent, cultures, civilizations and the dominance of one people over another people occurred in succession, and thus the center of power and culture was passed from hand to hand and generation to generation, like the baton in a relay race. Each new culture and civilization inherited and incorporated the advances of the previous culture as heritage, proposing its own renovations, as the proverb says, “Libris ex libris fiunt” – books are made from books.
From east to west, from south to north
In this succession of empires and displacement of centers of power, we note a slight geographic movement from south to north and a much more appreciable movement from east to west. Greece assimilated all the cultures that preceded it by defeating the Persian Empire. Rome assimilated Greece, expanding further north and approaching west to the ends of the known world – “where the land ends and the sea begins” quoting The Lusiads by Portuguese poet Camões.
When the power and culture had already shifted to Rome, and to the ends of the known world, and just when it seemed that the East no longer had anything to offer, Jesus of Nazareth was born and, with him, the city of Jerusalem became the third pillar of the European culture. The destruction of Jerusalem by Emperor Titus in the year 70 AD forced the Jews to disperse throughout Europe. However, as they lived in ghettos, they had little or no influence on Western culture.
It was Christianity which began as a sect of Judaism that influenced Western culture and civilization from the moment it was made the official religion of the Roman Empire by the Emperor Constantine in the 4th century. With the fall of the Empire in the 5th century, caused by the invasion of the barbarians especially the Goths and Germanic tribes, the political power passed to the North, but the Church inherited the entire Western culture since the Nordic peoples were primitive. These peoples recognized and respected the role of the Church and so Europe plunged into the Middle Ages.
Towards the end of this period, the Portuguese and the Spanish, followed by the English and the French, globalized the Western civilization after conquering two large territories: the Americas and Australia. Today, unquestionably, Europe, America, Australia and New Zealand are part of the Western civilization.
The difference between North and South America is that in North America the settlers (so-called pilgrims) thought that they had reached the Promised Land and like the Jews of Joseph’s time, they carried out ethnic cleansing, almost wiping out the natives whom they regarded as savages. In South America the indigenous Indians had formed civilizations, and were stronger and in greater number; furthermore, the colonizers were of a different nature and were not interested in wiping them out, but in enslaving them.
Russia, from both the cultural and historical point of view, does not have a defined identity, although most of its population live west of the Urals mountains, that is Europe. While Gorbachev was European in his way of thinking and acting, and spoke of Europe as a common home, Putin is totally Asian in the tyrannical way he governs and in his opposition to Europe and to the values of European culture.
Muslim countries, despite having much in common with Western civilization, are not part of it because they do not share the same values, and because they have not given up their often failed dream of conquering it. Today since they cannot confront the Western world in open fields, they antagonize it by terrorism. The weak narrative of the Koran compared to the narrative of the Gospel, as well as Muhammad’s lack of humanity when we compare him to Jesus, makes them feel inferior and afraid of disappearing from the map, making them therefore more aggressive.
Western civilization is the most successful to date, which makes us believe that there is only one model of development; just as Jesus of Nazareth is the benchmark of what it means to be human, the standard of measure for humanity, Western civilization seems to represent the only possible model of development, that is, there is no other alternative model that would not pass through some inventions like the mill, moved by running water, by the ocean tide or the blowing wind, horse, agriculture, steam engine, train, electricity, radio, television, petroleum, car, plane, landline phone, mobile phone, computer, internet, etc. Globalization globalized above all the Western civilization, because it was the first to bring the world into communication. Today, cultures differ from each other in small and insignificant nuances, everything else is common.
Europe – the cradle of Western civilization
Africa, Asia, America, Australia, and Antarctica – the continents that form our planet have in most languages feminine names that begin and end with the letter A. The Earth itself is feminine in most languages.
In Greek mythology the continent Europe is named after the Phoenician princess Europa whom Zeus, the king of the gods, fell in love with on seeing her walking with her friends by the sea. When asked what Europe was, the French writer Paul Valéry answered in three words: Athens – Rome – Jerusalem. From Athens came to us the love of political freedom, democracy, philosophy that seeks to educate man in the use of reason, and the search for the truth, the good and the beautiful.
From Rome came to us the law, the organization of the state, the primacy of law above everything and everyone whether rich, poor, slaves or masters. The state is not at the service of the ruler, but at the service of the “Res publica”, literally a public thing, that is, what belongs to everyone; the republican system of government is derived from this.
From Jerusalem came to us Christianity by way of Judaism, monotheism that replaced polytheism which reigned in both Athens and Rome. Monotheism served to support Western values, the primacy of law, for example, where everyone is equal before the law because all are children of the same God, creator of heaven and earth, who is a good and loving personal being and not capricious like the gods of the Greek and Roman mythologies.
Let us look in more detail at what we owe to each of these three cities, the pillars of Western culture and values that the Western world seeks to instill into the rest of the world, and which are enshrined in the United Nations’ Charter of Human Rights.
Contribution from Athens
The Hellenic culture influenced the Western civilization in countless ways; certainly in many more aspects than the other two pillar cities.
Philosophy – Philo-sophos (love of wisdom); it was the art of thinking without any practical or pragmatic objective beyond to devise the meaning of the cosmos, and of things and life in general. It is a rational, reflective and critical way of thinking. Above all, Greek philosophy challenged the mythical view of the world. Myths are the first attempts to explain realities and phenomena to give them meaning and understanding. They are symbolic narratives where the characters are gods. According to this explanation, each reality was dominated by a god, therefore there was a god of time, Cronos, a god of war, Mars, a goddess of love, Venus et cetera.
Philosophy looks at the world in a rational way and seeks reasonable and rational explanations for natural phenomena, without resorting to myths or ghostly legends. Some famous and well-known philosophers include Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and a large number of pre-Socratic philosophers like Heraclitus, Parmenides, Zeno, Democritus, Anaxagoras and many others.
All I know is that I know nothing – This is the Socrates maxim that tells us never to be content with what we know and to always maintain the humility that is so important to learn more and more. In addition to his method of knowledge, Socrates immortalized himself with his concept of maieutic, the art of helping to give birth based on the principle that wisdom is already within each of us, and we just need someone to help us enlighten it. This principle is still valid and is applied in psychotherapy in Carl Rogers’ non-directive psychology, and also in sociology by the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire.
Democracy – The city of Athens is considered to be the cradle of democracy. The Athenian citizens (free male adults born in the city) were those who could take part in voting that took place in the Agora (public square). They decided, in a direct way, the directions the city-state was to take.
Science – The abandonment of beliefs and myths is important for the emergence of empirical and scientific thinking. In this sense, philosophy is the mother of science because it is from it that rational thinking emerged, free of legends, myths and beliefs, in order to analyze realities and natural phenomena.
On the other hand, the Socratic attitude of “all I know is that I know nothing” is also important to keep on exploring the mystery that surrounds any fields of science: the more one knows, the more there is to know. The proof that Greece is the birthplace of science comes from the fact that to this day, technical and scientific terms derive from Greek and new concepts are formed from the Greek.
Medicine – Hippocrates, regarded as the father of medicine, was the first to understand that diseases are not caused by gods, but by bodily imbalances. Hippocrates left us his oath which is still recited today by doctors during their graduation ceremony.
Mathematics – Thales of Miletus and Pythagoras left us their theorems, interesting enough revolving around the triangle, the simplest geometric figure with all other shapes being made up of series of triangles.
Architecture – Certainly inherited from the past, Greek architecture was immortalized by the introduction of columns that made buildings more elegant and less monolithic than the earlier ones in Egypt and Mesopotamia. The Greek columns were differentiated by the shape they took at the top, with three different styles: Doric, Ionian and Corinthian.
Art – The concept of beauty and harmony portrayed in sculptures and paintings. The sculptors sought to depict the human body in maximum detail, a principle that was later repeated in the European Renaissance, which gave us such famous masterpieces as the Pieta and Moses by Michelangelo.
History – The Greeks were the first to treat history with a scientific overtone, separating facts from legends, myths and religious beliefs, differentiating between human action and interference or divine intervention. The very word History came from a Greek term to mean research, investigation. Historians that stand out include Herodotus who is considered the father of history, Xenophon and Thucydides.
Literature – Homer stands out with his epic poems: Iliad which describes the war of Troy, and Odyssey which recounts the travels and adventures of Ulysses. The legend has it that the latter founded the city of Lisbon, or Olissipona, the city of Ulysses, when the hero left Troy after the war.
Theater – In the different modalities of tragedy and comedy, theaters represented not only a diversion for the Greeks, which was quite different from the violent entertainment of the Romans with the gladiators in the arena, but it was also a form of education for the youth. The most famous writers included Aeschylus, Sophocles, Aristophanes and Euripides. As the stage was in the open air, Greece built numerous theatres, both north and south of the Mediterranean, and their ruins can still be seen today.
The Olympic Games – They had a sacred character; it was as if the name alone indicated a tribute to the gods of Mt. Olympus. The Greeks invented competitive sporting events and the strenuous physical training that was required; the Olympics were Pan-Hellenic games, that is, between Greek city-states. They were held every four years and lasted five days.
Contribution from Rome
Senatus Populus Que Romanus (SPQR) – The Senate and the People of Rome. These are the initials that the Romans carried on their banners, flag, military expeditions, and in public buildings. If this insignia or emblem of Roman power is shown, it conveys the idea that the democracy that the Greek people enjoyed has been assimilated by the Roman people. Democracy in Roman means republic, which is governed by the senate, the representative of the people.
The Romans were a more practical and pragmatic people, who assimilated the legacy of Greece and did not try to impose their culture. On the contrary, they were very tolerant of the peoples they conquered, not even forcing them to learn their language – as long as they paid tribute to Rome they were even allowed to keep their customs, religion and kings.
The Romans were aware of the superiority and greatness of the Hellenic culture, and in fact in many areas they did not make much progress themselves. But there were, however, some areas in which the Romans had surpassed the Greeks, and these are the ones we mention. As we have said, this evolution is linked to its more practical than theoretical character.
Law and the organization of the state
This is without doubt the most important Roman legacy given to the modern world. The Roman law is the basis of the law of all the nations on our planet.
The division and separation of power that must function freely and autonomously without mutual influence came from Rome. Interestingly, this power is composed of three parts: executive, judicial and legislative. The principle of control has been established among them so that none would exceed its competence.
The Romans distinguished three classes of law: Political Law which regulated the relationships between the state and its citizens; Private Law which oversaw the relationships between citizens; and International Law, or the People’s Law, which regulated the relations between different peoples.
Legal ideas such as trial by jury, civil rights, contracts, personal property, legal wills, laws governing business etc., were influenced by Roman law and the Roman way of looking at things.
Let us look at some Latin maxims still commonly used by people today in the context of both the law and the courts.
Dura lex sed lex – The law is hard and difficult to comply with, but it’s the law; it is stipulated and provides security because harder would be the arbitrariness and unpredictability of a dictator. This maxim establishes the rule of law and that no one is above the law.
Sumum ius summa injuria – Excess of law, excess of injustice. This legal axiom warns us against overly rigorous application of law, which gives rise to great injustice. In order to avoid this, jurisprudence or epikea is required. It is one thing to be fair, another to be self-righteous.
Excusatio non petita accusatio manifesta – It is more a psychological principle than a legal one. When someone apologizes without having been asked by anyone to do so, he is implicitly and unconsciously accusing himself.
In dubio pro reo – On the side of the defendant, in case of doubt; it is an expression based on the presumption of innocence; also referred to as the benefit of doubt. Whenever there is uncertainty about the commission of a crime or about some circumstance relating to this, the verdict should favor the defendant.
Conditio sine qua non – The condition without which it cannot be; it is used to say that a condition is indispensable for the validity of something, such as a theory of equivalence of causes. A classic example of conditio sine qua non is the willingness of the bride and the groom as an assumption for a marriage to be valid.
Patria potestas – The power of the father; it is the power that the head of the family exercises over his children and most remote descendants on the male line, regardless of their age, as well as those brought into the family by adoption.
Habeas corpus – That you have the body; it is a judicial action that protects the right to freedom threatened by an abusive act of authority, that is, an action to prevent someone from being unlawfully detained or imprisoned.
Architecture and Engineering
The Greeks were far superior in these two fields, but with the invention of the Roman arch, the Romans built large temples, palaces, stadiums, aqueducts and bridges, amphitheaters and public buildings that integrated arches and vaults so efficiently that many of the works are still standing today. The Roman coliseum, the Pantheon of Rome, the Segovia aqueduct and numerous Roman bridges are still being used today.
The Romans are well-known for their roads. In the ancient world, it was they who built roads. The main roads that exist in Europe today were built over Roman roads. The Romans invented bridges to cross rivers and the aqueducts to bring water into their cities. The Caesarea Maritima aqueduct, which can still be seen today along the beach of this city, was six kilometers long.
One of the reasons why the Roman Empire outlasted all the rest, by almost one millennium, is because it was well connected by the roads and bridges it built across Europe. The construction of roads and bridges were so important to the Romans that even the title of the Emperor reflected this endeavor, indeed he was called Pontifex Maximus which means the supreme Bridge engineer. Ironically, this is now the title of the Roman Pontiff, the Pope, meaning that he as the representative of Christ is the bridge between the people and God.
Roman alphabet
It is the alphabet that is used in neo-Latin languages: Castilian, Portuguese, French, Italian and Romanian, Catalan, Galician and Provençal. English, which has become the world’s first lingua franca, or second language, is derived 60% from Latin and Greek, and the remaining 40% is of Saxon origin.
It is still today the most used alphabet in the world, and even in non neo-Latin languages such a German and English, and all the languages of Western Europe, as well as Turkish, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Somali, Swahili and other African languages, as well as Tagalog.
We have said previously that Greek is still used for scientific terms, although there is an exception – for scientific names of plants and animals, Latin is used instead of Greek, the otherwise universally used language. The Romans also possessed a numbering system that we still use today to designate sporting events like the Summer and Winter Olympics, and to number pages in introductions or appendices in books. However, since this system has no designation for zero, it is not useful in mathematics. The numbering system used worldwide is Arabic.
The 365-day, 12-month calendar we use today was invented by the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar. The Church later changed the Julian calendar still used by the Orthodox Church to the Gregorian calendar, introduced by Pope Gregory, and is now used universally. The names of the months are also of Latin origin.
Contribution of Jerusalem
Philosophy seeks for the meaning of the world, science tells us how the world works, technology facilitates our lives, law regulates relations between people, but only religion can answer the questions that every human being asks when they reach self-consciousness, around the age of seven: where do I come from, where am I going, and what is the meaning of life.
Some men have reconciled their religious activity with science and social issues during their lives; some well-known ones include Gregor Mendel, Augustinian friar and father of genetics, Georges Lemaître, Jesuit priest and father of the Big Bang theory, and Martin Luther King, Jr., pastor and prophet of race equality in United States. Other respected personalities of the Western civilization who also found in faith the driving engine of their life and political or social action; notably the three pioneers of the European Union: the Italian Alcide de Gasperi, the German Konrad Adenauer, and the Frenchman Robert Schuman. All three were practicing Catholics. The European Union is in fact a Catholic project because from cradle Catholics are aware that they belong to one country and certainly also to another entity or institution that is supranational. In this way, only Catholics are truly universal.
Monotheism
The idea that there is only one God the Father, creator of heaven and earth, is perhaps Jerusalem’s greatest contribution to the Western civilization. Both the Greeks and the Romans were polytheists; polytheism does not lead to union or harmony among peoples, nor to the unification of concepts such as truth and justice. The idea that there is only one God leads to cohesion of peoples and unity in diversity. The prime rule that all are equal before the law would be very difficult to maintain in polytheism since this rule can only be true when we are equal before the one God who is the creator of everything and everyone and Father of all.
The concept of equality is better explained from a religious point of view by the fact that we all have the same God the Father and by the commandment to love our neighbour as ourselves than by the concept of equality spun by the French Revolution. The value of individuality and dignity of the human person is a direct consequence of Christianity.
The universality of rest
For six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even in ploughing time and in harvest time you shall rest. Exodus 34:21
For six days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work – you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore, the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it. Exodus 20:9-11
We don’t know who invented work, probably it has no inventor or founder. However, rest does have an inventor, it is the invention of the Jewish people. The idea of a day consecrated to God, the Sabbath, the origin of sabbatical rest and also the sabbatical year (a period during which one does not work, but studies or does any other activity), belongs to the Jewish people.
Of course to justify this before the people, the anthropomorphism that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh is used. It is not that the peoples before the Jewish people did not rest, they certainly did, but only the masters rested, the slaves were always working. Rest was not democratic or universal; what is exceptional to the Jewish people is that rest is given to everyone – masters, slaves, foreigners and even the working animals, like donkeys and oxen.
The Gospel, the best narrative of all time
Christianity in the New Testament, especially in the gospels that relate to the life, attributes and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, has the most fascinating narrative of all times. The worldview, ethics, philosophy of life, human rights, what is truly human are all contained in the Gospel.
The Gospel is the magna carta of human life, the benchmark, the ultimate criterion of humanity that serves as a genuine and authentic reference for each individual. There are no other narrative in the world that surpasses the Gospel in humanity. The gospels have been the inspired text of Western civilization, the beacon that enlightens it.
Eclesia mater ed magistra
In the fourth and fifth centuries, with an intense and general preaching, the Church in a short time converted the conquered peoples of the Roman Empire to Christianity. In an era of wars, breakdown and fragmentation of power, as was in feudalism, religion was the only factor of unity among peoples. It was also the only institution in the ancient world capable of confronting the hegemony of the new barbarian rulers.
It was the Church that ensured peace and defended the peoples from the excesses of the barbaric invaders, opposing injustices not by the power of weapons which it did not have, but by the power of reason, decency and ethics. The barbarians respected the Church for the ascendant it had before the people and for being the heir apparent of the great Roman Empire that in fact still existed in the East. With the subjugation of the population in the more rural areas, the only power belonged to the bishop; at the level of Rome, on the other hand, the Pope was the only representative of the Roman West. In this way, the Church became a political powerhouse and as such also made some errors.
Monarchism
Europe during High Middle Ages was divided into so many unstable kingdoms that the Church was the only strong and efficient institution, instructed, rich and present everywhere. In the cities, the bishop was frequently the only existing authority. In the rural world, the presence of monasteries is affirmed with the rule of ora ed labora; in other words, the monks must not only pray, but also work to support themselves and those in need. Throughout Europe, Benedictine and Cistercian monasteries were built which became economic centers where through agriculture and animal farming, food was produced for the people.
These monasteries were seen as the havens and stockyards of culture since it was there that the ancient Latin and Greek texts were copied and kept. Without these copies, these texts would have been long lost. The barbaric invasion of the Roman Empire seemed to have made the culture go backward, but the Church however preserved this culture, since it was the sole heir to the last memorable civilization: that of Greece and Rome.
Americans call this period the Dark Ages. It is hard to believe, however, that precisely at this time the most beautiful buildings the world ever built were constructed: the Gothic cathedrals. Each stone was carved to occupy an exact place, without cement and without iron, with arches, columns, warheads, and vaults, a truly harmonious and elegant ensemble, illuminated by multi-coloured stained glass windows, indeed, a heaven on earth.
Liberation of women
Minority rights in relation to majority rule, respect of the sexual orientation of each person, the liberation of women, the very values of the Western civilization that place human rights at its forefront, all this cannot be explained without the Gospel.
Jesus was the most feminist person the world ever knew; the only head of a religion who never made a statement against women, who treated women as equal to men, and who had women disciples – something never seen before or after him (even today the rabbis have no female disciples). It is true that his disciples followed the patriarchal mentality of the world they lived in more than the behaviour of their teacher.
However, we cannot deny the importance of the Gospel in the conversion of minds and hearts on the issue of gender equality, which began in the Western civilization, and which little by little is being assumed by other civilizations, with the Islamic being the most reluctant in this matter.
It is true that even in the West women do not yet enjoy full equality, but it is certainly in Christian countries that women enjoy more rights. What makes the degree of gender equality vary is not the wealth or poverty of the country; in other words, it is not necessarily in the richest countries that women are treated as equals. Saudi Arabia, for example, is a very rich country and yet there women are treated as second-class citizens. The determinant factor is culture, not wealth.
Japan and the Philippines are two Asian countries not far from each other; the former is much richer than the latter and yet gender equality is more prevalent in the Philippines than in Japan. As both are Asian countries, they have cultural elements that are in common. The big difference is that the Philippines has been a Christian country for over 500 years, while in Japan, Christianity was never able to penetrate deep enough to influence its culture. Restaurants in Japan where the food is served on the naked bodies of teenage girls do not exist in the Philippines and it is absolutely unthinkable that they could ever exist.
Three cultures have contributed to the Western civilization: from Athens we inherited the state of reason, from Rome the reason of state, and from Jerusalem the reason of reason.
Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC
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