When I read “studies show…” or “a recent study has indicated that…” I admit to having a healthy dose of skepticism. Depending on who does the “studying,” the conclusions of such a scientific pursuit could be worthless or even harmful. Of course, they could also reveal something true. So, my fellow skeptics, take it with as large a grain of salt as you like, but: A recent study has shown that “Nearly 40 percent of Europeans suffer mental illness.”
(Don’t be phased when you discover in the article that one of the experts cited is a fellow named David Nutt. I’m confident that his ironic last name does not detract from his expertise in neuropsychopharmacology.)
Let us suppose for a moment that the study is not worthless or harmful, but actually reveals the truth. What of it?
Americans probably have no cause to be smug here. We’re probably just as loony, and we have something that our Old-World cousins don’t: FAT, and lots of it. We’re horrifically obese, thanks to the frankenfood that we slop down our greedy gullets in gluttonous heaps. But even if we are, in the area of mental health, as superior as we like to consider ourselves in all other areas, there are reasons we should care about our crazy cousins.
Europe is the former Christendom. Most of us New-Worlders have our roots there, and the capital of Christianity is there. Further, we must not forget that Sister Lucy used to pray for several European nations by name, and for Europe in general. Which brings me to the much more important point: this horrible but not surprising news is an indication that the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary — and all that it implies 1 — has not been sufficiently established as Our Lord wills. Dysfunctional families produce dysfunctional children. That’s what we’re seeing here. The “family” of modern Europe has too many mental problem children because it’s not been sufficiently parented. Europe needs to be “mothered” back to sanity. There is only One who can do that, the maternal Mediatrix of all graces, who mercifully revealed her love for Europe and all mankind at Fatima in 1917.
Call me crazy, but the Fatima revelations cannot be ignored without these kinds of effects continuing.
There are things that the article — and probably the study — left out, namely, the causes of which the mental illnesses are the effects. These causes would include: the loss of the true faith, the infrequency of sacramental absolution, sexual hedonism with its various guilt-induced conditions (like post-abortion syndrome), and diabolical activity, more-or-less welcomed by the growing participation in Satanic cults, demonically influenced “art,” and the like.
While this sentence does not pretend to explain all mental illnesses, it is nonetheless true: Sin makes people crazy.
- E.g., The necessity of the Church, fidelity to Catholic dogma, loyalty to the Roman Pontiff, Eucharistic piety, intense devotion to the Mother of God, participation in the liturgical and sacramental life of the Church, penance, rich family life, and a vibrant Catholic culture. ↩
