Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) and Marcello Pera Can a civilization exist without any sense of the sacred? That is the question at the heart of Without Roots, which was born of a dialogue between Joseph Ratzinger—now Pope Benedict XVI—and Marcello Pera, president of the Italian Senate. On May 13, 2004, Cardinal Ratzinger addressed the Italian senate on the state of the West. The day before, Marcello Pera gave a lecture at the Latern Pontifical University. Though the juxtaposition of the talks was pure chance, the two leaders arrived at strikingly similar conclusions about the spiritual, cultural, and political crisis facing the West. Now Without Roots takes on even more importance as a window into the mind of the Pope, who, as George Weigel explains in his forward to the American edition, “was elected in part, because of his long experience with, and profound understanding of, the current crisis in European civilization”. Bringing together their unique vantage points as leaders of Church and State, Ratzinger and Pera challenge us to examine anew the fate of a civilization that has abandoned its spiritual roots. The question is urgent not only for the United States and Europe but for all democratic cultures.