Where Is the Laughter? by Carrie Gress

By Carrie Gress, The Catholic Thing, March 18, 2024

Carrie Gress has a doctorate in philosophy from The Catholic University of America. She is the editor-in-chief of Theology of Home and the author of several books, including The Marian Option, The Anti-Mary Exposed, and co-authot of Theology of Home.  …

A few years ago, I read a series of World War II novels with rather unsatisfying endings. After epic stories of war, bloodshed, human cruelty, and the strong hand of fate, these novels concluded with men who returned home from the war, abandoning their childhood faith. In its place, they embraced a kind of cynical maturity, thinking they were all the wiser than the superstitions of old. While frustrated by these books, I finally realized that they ended this way because this is actually what happened to so many veterans of the Second World War. Their scars and brokenness created a vacuum in the culture where ideologies could grow wild like Virginia vines, pushing out what many came to believe was tired and wanting.

For nearly three generations, as most of these World War II veterans have now gone to their eternal rest, these ideas have gripped families, leading children and grandchildren to grasp at any and every whim of the heart while avoiding the tiresome rituals of an age-old Church. …

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