“A crucial turning point…occurred when men and women of good will turned aside from shoring up the Roman imperium….
what they set themselves to achieve instead—often not recognizing fully
what they were doing—was the construction of new forms of community
within which the moral life could be sustained…..we ought also to
conclude that for some time now we have reached that turning point. What
matters at this stage is the construction of local forms of community
within which civility and the intellectual and moral life can be
sustained through the new dark ages which are already upon us. …This
time however the barbarians are not waiting beyond the frontiers; they
have already been governing us for quite some time. And it is our lack
of consciousness that constitutes our predicament. We are not waiting
for a Godot, but for another—doubtless very different—St. Benedict.”
A.C.