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This was posted quite a while ago. Or maybe it was a different interview of the same author regarding the same book.

The point made by several posters back then still stands: this is absolutely ludicrous. The vast majority of young people 18-35 are so totally clueless that they don't even know what they don't know. I worked with several people in my last position who were late 20's supposed Catholics. They knew nothing, nada, zip, zilch about their faith. They didn't even have a clue about where to start to look.

They themselves recognized that their lives were shallow and empty and meaningless. There was a lot of alchohol and sex to cover up for a lack of any real purpose. They were even interested in finding out why they were so unhappy. But they were so lacking the mental categories to think about something like religion that it was impossible to talk with them about serious subjects. It was like discussing algebra with a primitive tribesman whose language only has words for "one, two, many."

It's nice to know that there may be a tiny cohort of serious committed Christians. But first of all, look at the indifferentism of the author. She lumps fallen-away Catholic who have become evangelicals, traditional Catholics and born-again Christians into one big category of the "new orthodox" (with a small "o" she emphasizes).

It used to be considered standard operating procedure for the Catholic Church to teach and convince an ENTIRE generation. It wasn't considered good news that maybe 1% were getting the message. The adults of the 1950s were all children at one time. Somehow they got the message, and a very large majority went on to become believing and practicing Catholics. Have we become so innured to failure that we praise a random victory now and then but are blase to the millions of souls being lost?

I know I probably sound unduly pessimistic. But it's like an alchoholic -- they can't begin to get better until they admit they have a problem. Let's start by being realistic. An entire generation of souls has been lost for all eternity. More of the same from the Church is going to result in more of the same in the lost souls category.

The adults of the 1950s were all children at one time. Somehow they got the message, and a very large majority went on to become believing and practicing Catholics.

Or maybe not. The adults of the 1950's were the ones who subjected us to the juvenalia of Vatican II. It wasn't a bunch of 17 and 18 year olds who chaged everything.

Many of us feel that the failings of the present are to be laid directly upon the feet of the so-called "Greatest Generation" who generally ran things into the ground from 1940-1970.

These were also the adults who provided such poor catechesis to their young that most of the youth (Baby Boomers) simply dropped out of the Church like leaves from a tree in fall in the 1965-1980 period. The shallowness of the Baby Boomer generation originated in the upbringing they had from their parents, the genesis of which can be traced to the end results of World War II, and the wave of social libertinism (epitomized by the likes of Dr. Spock, the emergence of Playboy, and the Kinsey Report) that swept through the world after that. This period was also the origins of the ugly architecture movement, and the mindless materialism we are now subjected to. Lastly, the planning of Vatican II and the revolution occurred mostly in the ten years leading up to it - 1952-1962.

Lets not be blinded by the dazzling failure of the 1965-1980 period. Lets keep a focus on the causes. That will help us have a better grasp on the present, and also evaluate the so-called orthodox revival being claimed, especially as regards the pertinent question of "Where is the revival in morals if there is a revival in faith?"