I recently returned from the Defending the Faith Conference at Franciscan University of Steubenville (@FranciscanU) and what I encountered there surprised me.
Steubenville is a struggling Rust Belt town marked by decades of economic and demographic decline. And yet, in the middle of it, something remarkably Catholic is taking shape: families, schools, apostolates, businesses, friendships, and institutions creating a genuine culture of faith and community.
It reminded me of Benedict XVI’s argument that Christians in a declining secular civilization must become a “creative minority”, not by obsessing over political or institutional power, but by building communities capable of preserving and embodying what our civilization has forgotten.
Maybe the future of Catholic renewal won’t begin in Washington, Rome, or some major cultural center.
Maybe it begins in places like Steubenville.
Timestamps
00:00 When the online Catholic world becomes real life
00:55 My experience at Franciscan University
02:42 Something is different about Steubenville
03:10 A dying town with surprising new life
04:25 What monasteries did after Rome collapsed
05:40 What can Catholics actually do about cultural decline?
06:48 Benedict XVI and a civilization Without Roots
08:00 Christians as a “creative minority”
09:46 What intentional Catholic community actually looks like
11:08 The idea of a Catholic “takeover”
11:51 Why God chooses unlikely places
12:56 A defense of Catholic influencers
14:54 The imperfect people God uses
