Several events in the past few months have made clear that the Pope and the Church face an increasingly hostile secularism.

This outlook places no value on Christian morality and it is willing to ignore facts in its quest for a secular, valueless solution to any social problem.

As Europe abandons its Christian roots, it increasingly creates a future where religion has no place in the public square. Polling shows that a third or less of people living in Britain, Europe tends to relegate to the private and subjective sphere the manifestation of one's own religious convictions. Such a secularism excludes engagement with Europe's religious tradition thereby threatening democracy itself, whose strength depends on the values that it promotes.

In contrast to Europe's increasing hostility to the Church, Pope Benedict sees a more hopeful, less hostile secularism in America.

Speaking in the United States just over a year ago, Benedict noted: "It strikes me as significant that here in America, unlike many places in Europe, the secular mentality has not been intrinsically opposed to religion. Within the context of the separation of Church and State, American society has always been marked by a fundamental respect for religion and its public role, and, if polls are to be believed, the American people are deeply religious."

However, he didn't see the American model as free from secular attack either, and he added a sobering sentence: "It is not enough to count on this traditional religiosity and go about business as usual, even as its foundations are being slowly undermined."

Secular forces within the United States have become increasingly emboldened, seeking to marginalize the Church, and label its teaching on marriage and life as outdated at best, and bigoted at worst..

In the media too, hostility has increased. Just before Easter, the American media was confronted with two polls from prominent polling institutes. One poll, commissioned by the Knights of Columbus, showed overwhelming appreciation of Easter by Americans.

The other poll showed a modest decrease in the number of Americans who identified themselves as Christian.

The secular media chose to give widespread coverage to the "decline of Christianity," and far less to the high regard for Easter and remarkable number of Americans who planned to attend Church services.

It seems clear that Pope Benedict and the Catholic Church face an axis of secularism, made up of significant elements in the European Union, the United Nations, and, now, the United States as well. This latter addition is notable both because it is a recent addition and because the United States exerts a great deal of influence generally and in terms of its media.

We have also seen the effects. This mentality has shown itself unwilling or unable to accept anything but its own values. In the name of a radical commitment to reason alone, we have witnessed a rush to judgment against the Pope, despite scientific evidence. A so-called commitment to reason, cut off from faith, has proven unreasonable in its hostility toward morality and religious faith.

Such a trend is disturbing for the future of democracy. For a world that has already experimented with radical secularism in the form of Marxism and National Socialism, this trend is too familiar. Cut off from its moral compass, the world risks embracing a familiar dictatorship the "dictatorship of relativism."

This collective Madness poses an even greater threat: it suffices here to think of the atom bomb, or man as a ‘product.

Our response will require close cooperation between bishops, priests and the laity as the key to the success of the new evangelization. Nothing less will bring the Gospel effectively to these increasingly secular landscapes.