The Christian West is threatened by an internal decay that is paving the way for posthumanism and Islam, and the only salvation is for us once again to proclaim Christ, says the German cardinal Gerhard Müller.

The statement by the Catholic prelate, who is a former Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was made in Assisi, Italy, last Sunday, where he took part in an annual conference in the spirit of Francis of Assisi (1182–1226), focusing on conservative Christian thought, which has been frowned upon in the Vatican since Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation in 2013.

The cardinal began by giving a gloomy diagnosis of the state of the West:

Today we are facing an unprecedented crisis of identity. The Christian West is no longer merely threatened by external forces, but is afflicted by internal apostasy. We are witnessing the triumph of posthumanism, an ideology which, in its attempt to liberate man from God, ends by destroying man himself, reducing him to manipulable matter, to an algorithm among algorithms, and depriving him of his dignity as created in the image of God. On the other hand, we are witnessing the powerful spread of Islam, a religion which, unlike our secularised West, is ashamed neither of God nor of the transcendent, but which advances a view of man and revelation that is radically different from the Christian one.

In Müller’s view, it is precisely the boldly evangelising example of Saint Francis that shows the only way forward for the West:

The lesson of Saint Francis of Assisi, who 800 years ago sought out Sultan Malik al-Kamil and urged him to convert to Christ, remains valid. There is only one valid answer from Catholic theology and right reason, and it is indispensable.

Our own age portrays Saint Francis, the founder of the Franciscan Order, as a relativist, Müller believes:

Today, unfortunately, a certain sentimentalist and relativist tendency has presented Francis of Assisi as a precursor of modern syncretism, a prophet of a pacifist dialogue that goes so far as to regard all religions as equal and none as possessing the truth. This is a historical and theological falsification.

The opposite is the case, he continues:

Francis did not go to Egypt to initiate a diplomatic meeting or to affirm the Sultan’s faith. Francis went to the Sultan driven by love for souls and by the unshakeable certainty that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour of all mankind. True love for the other does not consist in allowing him to remain in error, but in proclaiming to him the truth that sets free. The call to conversion is neither a hostile act nor a relic of medieval intolerance; on the contrary, it is the highest act of charity.

Posthumanism can lead people to Islam, the cardinal believes:

If we look at posthumanism, the West has lost faith because it has lost reason. We believe that we can redefine human nature, marriage, life and death. Faced with this insubstantial world, Islam appears to many as a solid rock, but the answer to Western nihilism cannot be submission to a conception of God that separates faith from reason or that conceives divine omnipotence as pure arbitrariness.

Dialogue between religions cannot erase one’s own identity, Müller states.

Muslims do not respect a weak Christianity that is ashamed of the cross and is reduced to charity or environmental protection. They respect those who believe. Saint Francis showed respect for the Sultan precisely because he spoke to him with the boldness of the Holy Spirit and gave his own life as testimony.

This is also our task, he exhorts:

We can do the same by offering Muslim believers who come to our countries the most precious thing we have, namely conversion to faith in the one true God – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Dear friends, the West will save itself from posthumanism and avoid being assimilated by other cultures only if it recovers the courage to engage in mission. We must not be afraid to proclaim Christ’s social law. We must say again, with the same humility and the same fervour as the poor man of Assisi, that outside Christ there is no salvation.

It all begins with converting ourselves, the cardinal concludes:

The conversion that Francis asked of the Sultan is the same conversion that today we must ask first and foremost for ourselves, for a Europe that has denied its roots, and for every human being who seeks vanity. Only if the West once again places God at the centre will man once again become a true human being.

Gerhard Müller’s words are unlikely to go down well with Pope Leo XIV, who has continued along the same woke path trodden by his predecessor.

The Catholic Church tolerates free thinking and dissent as long as these tendencies do not make too much of themselves. Müller has also warned against Islam before. But when the dissent is confined to a conference at a hotel in Assisi that receives minimal media coverage, it remains in the Church’s doghouse.