The essays that comprise this collection offer a penetrating examination of the spiritual condition of 21st-century society and the modern Catholic Church. In a witty but soundly reasoned manner, the moral weakness that epitomizes the contemporary era is berated. Examples from the lives of figures from early and recent church history serve as parables for current cultural crises, and the voices of frustrated parishioners around the world give these situations immediacy. Each chapter vividly demonstrates that the moral dangers of post-Vatican II life are often disguised as mere alternatives rather than threats to the soul. This proposal offers an authentically Catholic way of responding to these ethical challenges and exhorts the faithful to move beyond romanticism about Vatican II and strive for lives of virtue that respond to the Church’s call for effective evangelization.

The essays that comprise this collection offer a penetrating examination of the spiritual condition of 21st-century society and the modern Catholic Church. In a witty but soundly reasoned manner, the moral weakness that epitomizes the contemporary era is berated. Examples from the lives of figures from early and recent church history serve as parables for current cultural crises, and the voices of frustrated parishioners around the world give these situations immediacy. Each chapter vividly demonstrates that the moral dangers of post-Vatican II life are often disguised as mere alternatives rather than threats to the soul. This proposal offers an authentically Catholic way of responding to these ethical challenges and exhorts the faithful to move beyond romanticism about Vatican II and strive for lives of virtue that respond to the Church’s call for effective evangelization.