A Word About My Book, The Smoke of Satan in the Temple of God

Recently, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, who focuses on Catholic issues, authored a collection of opinion articles titled “How Catholics Became Prisoners of Vatican II” and “How Vatican II Failed Catholics.” In the time following their publication, the contentious debate surrounding the interpretation of Vatican II has resurfaced within the Catholic blogging community. In response, the Jesuit America magazine released an article asserting that “Vatican II didn’t fail. It’s just getting started.”  Taking this as an invitation to reignite my former pastime as a small-time blogger, I offer this blog dedicated current discussion of The Second Vatican Council in the United States, having written a book on the topic.

Having taught High School Theology courses from 1978-2000,  I wrote for those Catholics born and perhaps catechized before Vatican II or immediately thereafter who as yet are unaware of the true teaching of the Council. I contend that as a result of this reality, there are still American Catholics whose lifestyles do not differentiate them all that much from those who are not Catholic and/or Christian. Moreover, many Catholics of the “baby-boom” generation are alienated from the Church all together because their only 

exposure has been to a superficial, cultural Catholicism, impotent in the face of an American culture increasingly without faith. Many other of these have left the Church—hungrier, as they say, for a more “biblically-based church.” The book was also intended for orthodox young Catholics of the “JP II” generation, born long after the council but perhaps not fully aware of the turmoil spawned by dissent in the Church which is still with us today. These young people, especially those attending authentically Catholic colleges (Franciscan, Christendom, Aquinas, Ave Maria, etc.) will be the Church of the twenty-first century, and in my experience have an interest in this recent history of the Church.