Not since the decades of the infamous Black Death has the indigenous population of Europe been threatened with such depletion. And this isn't a historical article from an encyclopedia in a library. It's an event that's happening even as you read.

As children, many of us played Ring Around the Rosey. You probably remember how it concludes: "... ashes, ashes, we all fall down!" It sounds harmless until you recognize its full ramifications. This ancient children's' rhyme dates back to the horrific time of the 14 th century epidemic of plague called "The Black Death."

It was a time when one fourth to one third of Europe's population was decimated by disease. Many an inhabitant "fell down" never to rise again as children do when reciting the rhyme. Many a family name became extinct. European society did not recover for nearly a century, not until the time of the Renaissance.

Today Europe is in the grips of another demographic decline that only now is beginning to appear in the back or middle pages of newspapers. But present day Europeans are vanishing—one person at a time.

Many European headlines grab our attention, such as the widespread opposition to the War in Iraq; concerns over America's approach to the Kyoto Treaty dealing with global environment; the role of the United Nations in relationship to sovereign states; or how nations are dealing with potential nuclear powers like Iran.

But another powerful story is in the making in Europe. It's simply this—not enough babies are being born to sustain the current population. This presently healthy, wealthy and peace-secure continent is de-populating itself by not giving birth to enough children to maintain the next generation at current levels.

George Wiegel, author of The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America and Politics Without God (Basic Books, 2005) projects the haunting picture "... that by the middle of the 21st century, 60% of Italians will have no personal experience of a brother, a sister, an aunt, an uncle or a cousin; Germany will lose the equivalent of the population of the former East Germany; and Spain's population will decline by a quarter."

Different analysts present various compelling reasons for this looming melt down of Europe. Some suggest the cause is economic, due to the high costs of raising children. Others suggest it is sociological, due to current social attitudes. Others suggest that the ideological rise of feminism has put a damper on Europe's procreative drive.

But Weigel, in his op-ed piece "The Spiritual Malaise That Haunts Europe" (The Riverside Press-Enterprise, May 1, 2005), suggests that there is a much larger problem. He defines it as "spiritual malaise."

Simply put, Europe has chosen that the public square of life must be completely secular. The most profound realization of this "choice of being" is found in the recent 70,000 word European Constitution that is currently up for ratification. It never once mentions Christianity or God as the historical roots of the modern European civilization.

Weigel illustrates the effect such spiritual malaise has in society. He says, "Europeans can only debate grave issues in biotechnology in utilitarian terms; 'will it work?' completely trumps 'is it right.'"

European high culture's conviction that to be adult, mature and free is to be radically secular has led to a vast and withering spiritual boredom—"a drastic shrinkage in personal and social aspiration." He further comments, "... that spiritual boredom is why Europe is depopulating itself. Europe, bored, "asks only to be left alone with its pleasures."

But history teaches us such demographic vacuums are not left alone. The ancient Romans came to a point in their history where their self-imposed and self-inflicted de-population attracted vigorous and dynamic tribes from outside the empire to fill the void of a people engrossed in a "crisis of civilization morale." Today's Europe faces a clash of civilizations with the increasing tide of vibrant immigrants from Islamic peoples to fill the current depopulation void.

Will Europe, as we know it, just completely melt away? Is it going…going…gone? Or is something even more significant coming…coming…emerging?

Consider this! Pope Benedict XVI has laid down the gauntlet regarding Europe's "unrenounceable Christian roots." Who will hold sway over the 21st century European mind set—the public square of secularism or the man who speaks at St. Peter's Square?