Decades before secularism and atheism wrested control of our institutions and took to the streets, the late Cardinal Jean Danielou foresaw their ominous ascent. While most of the Church was reveling in the optimism of Vatican II, Cardinal Danielou courageously sounded the alarm over the rise of these twin evils and the damage they would inflict on the Church and culture.
Christianity, he argues, is in grave danger of being overwhelmed by the concurrent rise of seductive technologies, secularist doctrines, and atheistic ideologies. Modern society is allowing less and less space for the religious dimension of man, which is creating conditions that place the survival of the Christian people very much in doubt.
But the surging secularism of privileged elites is not what concerned Danielou the most. Rather, he feared the de-Christianization of the masses and the effect that would have on society -- and on civi