Hawzah News Agency (Vienna, Austria) - In an interview with Austria's "Kronen Zeitung" newspaper, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, aged 71, was asked "Will Islam conquer Europe? And are we going to lose our Christian values?"
The cardinal, once considered in the running as a possible Pope or "papabile", said: "When we see that the mosques are well visited and the churches are badly visited, we can not blame Muslims for wanting to Islamise Europe. But we must reproach ourselves for not doing enough to maintain a Christian Europe."
"But we already have 200 Islamic places of prayer in Vienna. We have mosques in cathedrals in Spain, and we have, for example, in Damascus, the cathedral, where John the Baptist is now a mosque, and we have Hindu temples in India, which were formerly mosques, and vice versa .
"That religions are in competition with each other is as old as the world. I am pleased that Muslims can freely exercise their religion with us, but I also wish that Christians in Saudi Arabia were able to practise their religion freely, and in other Muslim majority countries."
It is not Muslims' fault if Europe is being de-Christianised, the cardinal added.
"Fear of the Islamisation of Europe is nonsensical if one does not contribute something to the fact that Europe remains Christian. But, of course, if a church is sold in the Netherlands and transformed into a supermarket, when the supermarkets are more important to us than the Christian roots of Europe, we must not be surprised that Europe de-Christianises. But it is not the fault of the Muslims."
He admitted that most of the terrorist attacks of recent times have been associated with the call: "Allah is great."
Schönborn said: "That's a problem. But I also say that religions are always at risk of terror being committed in their name. Just think of the Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland, who killed each other - And the name of their religion."
He said his hope for 2017 was for more peace, more silence, more thoughtfulness, for less talk and more listening.
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