Realignment

Catholic Culture delivers one of the most spot-on surveys of 'the general-state-of-things-right-now' available currently. No single part of it ought to go unread, but here is the denouement that sums up the whole article, which you can and should read at this link:

The truth is that when you believe, deep down, that this life is your only shot at happiness, you are willing to justify any imposition on others in order to create paradise now. This is the situation for a great many who have either lost their faith entirely or been seduced by the phony release from moral responsibility promised by the dictatorship of relativism. The same ideological tendency that is explicit in Marxist totalitarianism is necessarily an implicit component of all secular states, whether in the Roman Empire or in our own day.

A fundamental realignment is gradually taking place between Church and State in America; the same sort of realignment is overdue throughout the West more generally. Expect, then, that the negotiating room will diminish. Bishop Kagan has it right when he says the free space in which the Church has been able to operate in American society “may go down as an historical anomaly. It may end sooner than we imagine.” It is very important for our bishops, and bishops throughout the world, to recognize this fundamental insight, regardless of its immediate material consequences.

The heavenly and earthly cities are never the same; they will only very rarely even be comfortable with each other. Grasping this point is as essential to the formation of an authentic Catholic culture as it is to an effective Catholic spiritual renewal.