The Once and Future Christendom

However, Fr. McTeigue is careful to balance this sense of loss with the realization that not all was healthy in what we once called Christendom. This is a difficult thing to admit for anyone with a heartfelt love of tradition and a reverence for the past, but acknowledging it is necessary. No age of the Church is untouched by evil, and though Fr. McTeigue is careful not to make the opposite mistake of rejecting “Christendom” as if it were devoid of any good, he pinpoints one of the problems that this older configuration of the Church’s life certainly exacerbated—something he calls “Churchianity.”