The Train Wreck

In a recent installment of the video blog Vortex, Michael Voris addresses a looming cultural disaster and forecasts we will see tough times ahead. Looking to the historical record he observes, “when the lights were going out across the Roman Empire, men and women who were heirs of nearly a thousand years of global superiority had to sober up fast.”

Voris’ message is unsettling but I fear his prophecy is all too accurate. The important message, however, does not have to do with the shape and speed of approaching dark clouds but rather with his call for us to prepare to rebuild.

He explains that as the Roman Empire collapsed Catholics realized they could not allow the same fate to befall the Church. Facing an onslaught of barbarians many Catholics formed new types of community and new subcultures. Saint Augustine, anticipating the collapse, wrote the City of God assuring Catholics their future was not tied to the city of man but rather to the city of God.

Beginning with the French Revolution there has been a relentless attempt to undercut the pillars of Christendom and collapse western civilization. We are beginning to suffer from the cumulative effects of this ongoing attack on our economic, religious, and political institutions. Ample evidence that the pillars of society have become shaky can be found in the daily news cycle.

Voris explains that Catholics do not have a duty to preserve the state “no matter what the cost.” He argues governments come and go while the Church is eternal and thus we need to place attention on that which is enduring. He encourages Catholics to look to the uncertain future and consider how we might go about building new communities. The broader Christian community will need to play a role in this task as well.

In the past, the new communities that formed in the face of cultural breakdown were typically monasteries. We must ask what the new communities might look like in our age. What forms of community will meet the demands of surviving in a new Dark Age?

Voris warns we that “ordinary” Catholic families will be insufficiently prepared to meet the looming civil disorder. The crisis will overwhelm their ability to respond. He predicts that only “extraordinary” Catholic families will be sufficiently prepared to weather the trials and tribulations ahead, and to accept martyrdom should that be the outcome.

It is unpleasant to imagine we are passengers on a runaway train headed for a demolished bridge, a bridge that has been blown up by cultural saboteurs. Nonetheless, it makes sense to anticipate future events and formulate contingency plans. Taming the Wolf Institute was incorporated to address just such an unsettled future.

Catholics, as well as all Christians, must be skilled in peacemaking if there is to be hope of bringing order out of disorder. As noted in my exploration of the Face of a Franciscan the charism of a peacemaker is a vital component of the new evangelization. Thus, the communities we form in the face of cultural decay will need to be, first and foremost, communities of peacemaking and reconciliation.

If dark clouds take shape on the horizon as Voris predicts, we will be busy healing a wounded society for generations to come. It is time to prepare diligently for this vocation.

Related Posts

• The Coming Train Wreck
• Mosque in Manhattan
• Healing Wounds at Ground Zero
• Resolving Unintentional Immigration Insult
• Saint Peter’s Dilemma