Benedict Option? Nope

There has been more talk recently about Rod Dreher's Benedict Option book. I remain unimpressed. Quietly stepping out of public life and and peaceably going about our business will not work. The Devil will not leave us alone in our little country enclaves and neither will his servants on earth. Ask the laypeople, nuns, monks and priests who were martyred by the Tudors, the Communists and the Nazis.

Instead of trying to hide out let's look at what St. Benedict actually did. He worked to save souls. He built. He preserved learning. Let's look at the history of Spain. From Pelayo to Isabella is a long time. Nobody who was with Pelayo and saw the first victory against the Moors lived to see Isabella finally drive them out. There will not be instant gratification but Catholics, instead of bleating to the world, "Look, do as you please, just leave us in peace!", how about going on the offensive?   It took the evil people who infested our church and schools, and politics decades to get things to where they are now. Why do you think --without a miracle that a correction would be instant? It takes much longer to build than it does to destroy.

Someone is muttering, "Okay Dymphna, what do we do?" Well for a start, let's stop feeding the beast. Stop following the crowd. Go home after work instead of getting bombed at happy hour. Get married and have children. Reject feminism and any other ism that isn't Catholicism. Refuse to give to any heretical groups or disobedient, modernist orders. Don't give to Catholic Charities. Don't give to anything run by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Refuse to give money to a parish that has a prima dona priest or leave the parish. Read old Catholic books. Do not allow immorality in your house. If that means  telling your elderly mother than no, she can not come to your place with her new "husband" and sleep in the same guest bedroom then so be it. Be polite to your brother and his boyfriend at family events do not have them at your place. Live your life in such a way that your children will not be able to look back and remember that you preached a lot but backed down whenever it was inconvenient or painful.

Don't send your kids to Catholic-in-name-only high schools and colleges. In fact, don't demand that your kid go to college at all if he or she has no interest in the medical, legal, architectural or scientific professions. Community college and trade schools won't leave them in debt until they are 50 and will actually give them skills that will make them employable. None of these things require that you move to a compound in the backwoods and wait for the FBI to show up with a flamethrower.