Richard Fernandez on Europe

Richard Fernandez has a gloomy piece on the decline of Europe, linking the economic problems to closing churches and low birth rates. It quotes a dispatch from Der Spiegel about a liquidator who specializes in selling pews and other surplus items from shuttered churches: "in the Netherlands, Christianity's retreat from society has been particularly drastic. The Protestant Church alone loses some 60,000 members each year. At this rate, it will cease to exist there by 2050, church officials say."