I don’t think the author expressed herself very well. The Cardinal said that Western culture would be history if cut off from Christianity, and I think she was trying to say that rejection of Western culture, particularly as it relates to law and the individual, would lead to repression or possibly suppression of the Christian Church in Western society and an attempt to eliminate it.
It might go underground, it’s certainly not going to disappear! We have God’s promise on that issue.
I don’t think the author expressed herself very well. The Cardinal said that Western culture would be history if cut off from Christianity, and I think she was trying to say that rejection of Western culture, particularly as it relates to law and the individual, would lead to repression or possibly suppression of the Christian Church in Western society and an attempt to eliminate it.
The other problem here, when going down this line of thought is that somehow, some people think that "salvation" can be achieved (in some manner) by the nation being more spiritual or conservative or Christian or something like that. The nation is never "Christian" -- as it's only an individual who is.
Therefore, the main goal is to spread the Gospel of Salvation to all individuals as the matter of primary importance and that can be done no matter what the condition of the government is -- conservative, or liberal, or falling apart and coming apart at the seams.
It's getting the Gospel of Salvation to all individuals for them to accept the salvation that comes from accepting Jesus, as the Messiah of Israel, per the Gospel, which is the primary goal for all Christians (and not what the government is doing, although that would be a commendable secondary goal). But, I fear that the primary goal is being let go of, in place of a secondary goal.