The Catholic Book Club discussion

1. This book depends on a specific diagnosis about Western, and especially American, society. What is that diagnosis and do you think it is accurate? Are things as dire as Rod Dreher makes them seem?

John wrote: "1. This book depends on a specific diagnosis about Western, and especially American, society. What is that diagnosis and do you think it is accurate? Are things as dire as Rod Dreher makes them seem?"

I think they are, especially in the European Union.

Manuel wrote: "John wrote: "1. This book depends on a specific diagnosis about Western, and especially American, society. What is that diagnosis and do you think it is accurate? Are things as dire as Rod Dreher m..."

Yes, I agree. It is hard not to see current trends in Western society as the fulfillment of Sr. Lucia's warning that the final battle is war by Satan against the family.

John wrote: It is hard not to see current trends in Western society as the fulfillment of Sr. Lucia's warning that the final battle is war by Satan against the family.

I'm seeing more and more families broken apart along political lines, including my own. And another branch of my family turned against us when my mother-in-law passed away. She was the saintly one who held our family together, and those who had broken from the Church turned on my husband and me. Talking to friends (we are at the age where funerals are more common than weddings or baptisms), this seems to be a very common story. I believe the devil loves messing with families, and of course the Marxist/social/one worlders see religion as a threat to their power. The Church, too, is a family, and we see what the devil is doing there. All this was prophesied. But difficult to discuss without someone slapping a negative label on you in lieu of rational discourse. It makes me sad and scared.

Dreher points out that Jesus promised that Satan will not prevail against the Church, but He did not say "against the Church in the West".

This is a very important book. He may have overstated his case in some ways, but we are buying a copy for each of our children who are parenting. They are all serious Christians but not sufficiently alert to the threats facing our grandchildren.
My husband and I (and our oldest son and his family) belong to the People of Praise, an ecumenical charismatic covenant community (like Alleluia Community in Augusta, GA, which Dreher mentions) that has been around since 1971. (You may have heard exaggerations about it because one of our members is Amy Coney Barrett, on Trump's short list for the Supreme Court.) We are active in our own churches of different denominations but gather weekly for praise and fellowship and live as much of our lives together as we can. That includes small groups that meet weekly, youth ministry for our children, founding Trinity School (grades 6-12) with single-sex classes and a strong emphasis on the classics, reading primary sources and discussing them in seminars, and a unified curriculum where every student learns music, art and drama as well as history, literature, math and sciences. We have clustered in some neighborhoods and there are some community businesses. We have evolved in many ways over the years. Since we began doing more missionary and practical outreach in poor neighborhoods, many more of our youth have decided to join us.

I think he may be too pessimistic about post-Christian Europe. I studied in Paris in 1964-5. The parish church across from the apartment where we lived had Masses attended by a handful of old ladies. When I returned 50 years later, I was astounded to walk into a weekday Mass there with active participation by many young adults. Surely "cultural Christianity" has declined, but that leaves room for genuine vibrant faith.