You’re welcome!
No, haven’t read the Novak book, but will look into it. Might make a good shelfmate for my copy of The Black Book of Communism.
My background in Lib Theo is courtesy of having the Jesuits for high school, including one who had barely made it out of el Salvadore (or maybe it was Hondouras) alive. My opinion then, as now, is that while the Jesuits had a good handle on what the problem was (including the culpability of the Church in creating it), their solution for it - particularly throwing in with Marxist-Leninist thugocracies - was just as bad as the problem itself. And that they tried to broadbrush something that was really only applicable to the Third World to the US and West as well.
Your experience(s) have been much more informative than mine and we need to hear more stable critique or assessments such as yours, that do inform. Crisis brings common reactions immediately, rather than more thoughtful, informed considerations that are not based on sheer panic. We are in truly a new age from what I grew up to trust. Thx, very much.
I hope you do get the book. The exerpt I read sounds like you I would think.