The Catholic Church in America has largely lost its distinctive flavor and with it, its ability either to retain the faithful or to evangelize the infidel. The problem precedes Vatican II: in the Tridentine 1950s, many Catholics, eager for mainstream respectability, had already adopted a bourgeois spirituality.

In his first book, The Prodigal Church: Restoring Catholic Tradition in an Age of Deception, Brandon McGinley calls for Catholics to return to the essence of the faith, rather than to a previous era of Catholic "success", and so find creative ways to restore a robust and evangelical Catholic culture in the unknown years to come. 

Contents

[2:03] Fr. Ratzinger’s famous quote about a smaller and more spiritual Church

[8:30] Catholicism an embodied faith

[12:32] Incompatibility between American and Catholic principles?

[19:10] American Catholicism in the 1950s—incipient worldiness

[27:15] The importance of small habits in living out the reality of faith and Christ's passion

[33:04] Spiritual corrosion caused by immoderate anger towards the hierarchy

[39:44] Remembering the Church Triumphant

[43:05] “Third places” and the importance of the parish as a community space

[51:05] The need for community among nuclear families

[55:05] Catholic hospitality and vulnerability

[1:00:04] Why we shouldn’t separate “moral” from “social” teaching

Links

The Prodigal Church https://www.sophiainstitute.com/products/item/the-prodigal-church

Brandon McGinley https://brandonmcginley.com/

Brandon McGinley on Twitter https://twitter.com/brandonmcg

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