Los Angeles – the City of Angels – blazes with neon nights and endless parties. At 2 AM, club lights fade and many young Angelenos are left with a familiar emptiness. We hype each other with “live your truth” and chase spiritual vibes in crystal shops on Melrose, yet something real is missing. It’s ironic: our city’s very name, Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles (“Our Lady the Queen of Angels”), honors the Virgin Mary , and L.A. still boasts the largest Catholic archdiocese in the U.S. . But on Sunset Boulevard on a Friday night, you’d hardly know it. We feel the chaos – in rave anthems that proclaim freedom even as we feel more lost, in social media feeds flaunting “best life” while anxiety and aimlessness skyrocket.
It’s time to rebel – not with another edgy trend or hedonistic fling, but with a return to Truth. This manifesto is a call to my fellow 18–21-year-olds surfing the LA nightlife: question everything you’ve been sold. The only path that leads from nightlife nihilism to genuine freedom is the one path most of our culture mocks or misunderstands – the path of the Roman Catholic Church. We’ve tried the others. They’re not working. In the spirit of every Gen Z subculture that ever thumbed its nose at the establishment, let’s challenge the biggest establishment lies: that all religions are equal, that moral truth is relative, that “whatever works for you” is good enough. We’re smarter and bolder than that. As one old catechism put it bluntly, claiming “one religion is as good as another” is basically saying Christ wasted His time coming here . That’s the kind of comfortable lie our generation must torch.
Rejecting the False Paths
We grew up in a world of options – every song ever recorded at our fingertips, every belief system a quick Google away. Society tells us to be “open-minded” about faith, which often means indifferent. But being truly open-minded means we test each path for truth. And when we do, something radical becomes clear: the Roman Catholic faith stands alone, proven by history and logic, while the alternatives collapse under scrutiny. Let’s break it down:
- Protestantism: Born of rebellion in the 1500s, it discarded sacred traditions and authority, claiming sola scriptura – the Bible alone – as the only rule of faith. Sounds liberating, right? Wrong. The Bible itself never teaches that it should stand alone . In fact, Scripture shows the Church (not the book) is “the pillar and foundation of truth” (1 Tim 3:15). By rejecting the Catholic Church’s guiding authority, Protestantism shattered into tens of thousands of denominations, each with conflicting doctrines. “Bible alone” turned into everyone their own pope, breeding confusion. Even core Protestant claims like salvation by “faith alone” contradict the Bible’s exhortation that faith without works is dead. We Gen Z-ers value authenticity, and it doesn’t get more fake than building Christianity on an incoherent principle. We reject the fragmentations and theological compromises – (how many Protestant communities caved on moral issues like contraception, divorce, etc.?) – that prove Protestantism’s claims false. The Catholic Church, despite human flaws in its members, has one consistent teaching authority for 2,000 years. No contest.
- Islam: We hear “all Abrahamic faiths worship the same God.” Vatican II did acknowledge Muslims profess to adore the one God . But let’s not kid ourselves: the differences between Islam and Catholicism are colossal. Islam denies the Trinity outright . The Qur’an explicitly rejects God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, reducing Jesus to a mere prophet and even bizarrely suggesting Christians worship Mary as part of God . Islam says God has no Son – a direct denial of Christ’s divinity and the entire New Testament. These aren’t surface differences; they strike at the very identity of God. If Jesus is who He claimed – the Son of God, God incarnate – then Islam tragically misses the boat. Muslims are often devout and disciplined (hey, respect for praying five times a day), but piety isn’t enough if it’s directed to an incomplete idea of God. History bears this out: Islam arose six centuries after Christ, and spread by the sword across Christian lands. The Crusades and battles like Lepanto weren’t just “religious squabbles” but defenses against an ideology that denied central truths of the Gospel. We reject Islam’s theological claims because truth matters – either Jesus is God or He isn’t. Catholicism says He Is, and proved it through His resurrection and countless miracles since. We won’t trade the fullness of truth for a half-truth wrapped in reverence.
- Judaism: Our Lord Jesus was a Jew, and the Catholic faith is the fulfillment of all that Judaism prepared. But those who continued in Judaism after Christ missed the Messiah they long awaited. The Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD (as Jesus prophesied), ending the animal sacrifices of the Old Covenant. Why? Because a New Covenant had come. The Law of Moses was always meant as a preparation, a shadow of the reality fulfilled in Christ. Modern Judaism tragically carries on as if the Messiah never came. To deny that Jesus is the Son of God is to deny God’s own revelation. Yes, Jews and Christians do share the same one God of the Old Testament – but Judaism without Christ is a story missing its climax. It’s like insisting on reading only the first book of a series and refusing to even acknowledge the sequel that resolves everything. We honor the Jewish people as our elder brothers and sisters in faith, but we reject the claim that Jesus is not the Christ. He fulfilled over 300 prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures (born of a virgin, of David’s line, in Bethlehem, healing the blind, dying for our sins, rising on the third day…). The case is closed. The only complete Judaism is Catholicism – where the promises to Abraham find their global fulfillment. Any other view leaves God’s plan hanging and the human heart ultimately unredeemed.
In a nutshell: Christianity without the Church (Protestantism) splinters and sinks; belief in God without Christ (Islam, Judaism) is noble but no cigar. The Catholic Church alone has the full package: Scripture and authoritative Tradition, faith and reason, grace and truth, justice and mercy. We refuse the diluted alternatives.
To those who claim “all paths are equal” – no, they’re not. Truth isn’t Netflix where you pick a genre to suit your vibe; truth is one and demands your allegiance. As an old Catholic lesson taught, saying all religions are equally good is absurd: if that were true, Jesus suffered and died for nothing . We Gen Z contrarians won’t swallow that nonsense. We’re here for the real thing, the only thing that makes the universe make sense: the Catholic faith.
Modern Myths vs. Eternal Wisdom
Rejecting false religions is only half the battle. Our generation is also bombarded with secular and “spiritual-but-not-religious” myths that promise enlightenment but deliver confusion. Let’s shine Catholic light on a few big ones:
- Psychology as Gospel: Mental health matters, absolutely. But too often modern psychology (or pop therapy culture) tries to explain away the human condition without reference to the soul. We’re told all our problems stem from childhood trauma or chemical imbalances. The result? Sin gets rebranded as “disorder,” and personal responsibility evaporates. As Pope Pius XII warned way back in 1946, “Perhaps the greatest sin in the world today is that men have begun to lose the sense of sin.” . How prophetic is that? Smother the sense of sin, and we lose the point of why we need God’s mercy. No doubt, therapy can help heal wounds – God has blessed us with knowledge of the mind – but if it ignores that we’re spiritual beings with immortal souls, it’s treating symptoms while the cancer rages on. The Church has always taught the truth about the human person: we’re a body-soul unity, created good but fallen, needing grace. Confession (the sacrament) does more for the psyche than any self-help book, because it actually frees you from guilt instead of just managing it. When psychology sets itself up against faith (as in Freud’s open hostility to religion), it becomes just another false gospel. We won’t find liberation on an analyst’s couch alone; we need the divine physician. So yes, take care of your mental health – but don’t let anyone tell you your yearning for meaning or your struggle with vice is merely a brain quirk. It’s a spiritual battle, and only Christ heals it at the root.
- Energy Work & New Age “Magic”: In LA, you can’t toss a rock without hitting someone who does Reiki, reads chakras, or dabbles in “manifesting” with crystals. It’s all the rage to say “I’m spiritual, not religious.” Translation: I want supernatural help, but on my own terms, without moral demands. Newsflash: trying to channel “universal life energy” without the Author of Life is a dangerous scam. The U.S. Catholic bishops flat-out condemned Reiki, for example, as incompatible with Christianity and with science . Why? Because Reiki claims a technique can manipulate spiritual energy to heal – effectively bypassing God. It’s neither prayer nor medicine, leaving it in a spooky no-man’s land of superstition . And that’s true of any so-called energy work that isn’t rooted in Christ. Best case scenario, it’s a placebo; worst case, you’re inviting dark spiritual forces (yeah, demons are real – just ask any exorcist) under the guise of “healing.” Our generation loves the supernatural – look at the obsession with astrology, manifestation TikToks, etc. It’s good to desire a connection to the unseen, but seeking it apart from God’s revealed truth is like drinking poison because you’re thirsty. The only safe and sure supernatural power is God’s grace. The saints call down miracles by calling on Jesus, not some vague “Universe.” Why settle for counterfeit spiritual highs when the real power of the Holy Spirit is available, the Spirit who created the universe? We reject New Age and occult practices. We choose the Holy Spirit over “spirit guides,” the Sacraments over séances, the Cross over crystals.
- Hinduism & Eastern Mysticism: Many of us experimented with yoga, meditation apps, or studied a bit of Eastern philosophy in college. There’s ancient wisdom in Eastern cultures, true. But Hinduism as a religion – with its millions of gods, caste system, reincarnations – is not the path to ultimate truth. Nostra Aetate, a Vatican II document, respectfully noted that Hindus indeed contemplate the divine mystery through myth and philosophy and seek release from suffering through asceticism and meditation . These practices show a groping for God. Yet the same text quietly admitted an open secret: “popular Hinduism often comes across as idolatry, error and superstition,” even if its high philosophies have noble ideas . Ouch. The point is, for all its colorful beauty and occasional insights, Hinduism does not have the full truth of God. It lacks the historical self-revelation of God that we have in Christ. In Hindu thought, “god” is often an impersonal force or one of many avatars; morality can be relativized through karma (you’ll just work it out next life… or the next… or a million lives later). There’s no loving Father who seeks you, no divine Savior who dies for you. That’s a huge loss! Why should we prefer an impersonal cosmic consciousness over the personal God who is Love? And let’s be real: the proliferation of Hindu-inspired new age gurus in the West has led plenty into confusion or cult-like dependency. Remember when the Beatles ran off to an Indian guru? That didn’t exactly end well – they left disillusioned. We’re not buying that every mystical practice from the East is automatically beneficial. Yoga poses offered to Hindu deities? Nah, I’ll stretch at the gym thank you very much. Buddhist-style meditation that empties the mind? Better to fill my mind with truth in prayer. We hunger for depth – so come to the Church that has contemplative mysticism reaching the highest heavens (read St. John of the Cross or St. Teresa of Avila sometime) but grounded in reality. The East has pieces of the puzzle; the Catholic faith has the picture on the box. We want the whole picture.
- False Ecumenism (aka “Coexist” gone wrong): Unity among people is a beautiful goal. Jesus prayed “that they may all be one.” But modern ecumenism and religious pluralism often degenerate into a feel-good fiction that differences don’t matter. How many times have we heard in college that “all religions are basically the same” or sat through interfaith services that celebrate a mishmash of beliefs with no mention of Jesus to avoid offense? This is spiritual surrender masquerading as peace. The truth is, real unity can only be founded on truth. The Catholic Church isn’t against dialogue – we’ll gladly work together for peace and charity with anyone. But we won’t pretend that believing in, say, the Trinity vs. rejecting it is a minor detail. Our generation hates fake stuff, and pretending we don’t have irreconcilable differences in belief is super fake. In 1928, Pope Pius XI cautioned that this attitude (religious indifferentism) leads people to think “one religion is as good as another,” which he called out as a grave error . Sadly, today even some Catholics shy away from claiming the Church as the one true Church for fear of offending. The result: watered-down witness, nobody converting, moral confusion as churches try to be ‘relevant’ by approving whatever the world approves. Enough! True ecumenism isn’t saying “we’re all equally right;” it’s lovingly saying: “We might agree on some points, but there is more that God wants for you – come and see!” Our goal is conversion, not the preservation of the status quo. Does that sound “supremacist”? It’s actually the ultimate charity. If we know where the antidote for death is, we’d be selfish not to share it. Our generation can handle this directness. Let others be embarrassed by the fullness of Catholic truth; we are proud of it and we propose it to all, unapologetically. The world’s “let’s just all get along by papering over differences” strategy has not built any lasting civilization – it’s built a shallow culture where no one rises above mediocrity because higher ideals are taboo. No thanks. We choose the path of authentic unity, which is unity in Christ’s truth, under Christ’s Church. Any other unity is built on sand.
Saints: Real-Life Superheroes (and How We Lost Our Standards)
Our manifesto wouldn’t be complete without receipts – real historical proof that the Catholic path produces actual holiness and miracles. Think of the saints as the Church’s “Avengers,” but way cooler because they’re real and their superpower is God’s grace. Saints show us what spiritual superiority – yes, superiority – looks like in action. And no, it’s not an arrogant boast; it’s objective reality proven by miracles and heroic virtue. Let’s talk about a few rockstars you need to know, especially the last ones canonized before the current era (more on why that is significant in a moment):
St. Kateri Tekakwitha (1656–1680) – Lily of the Mohawks. Imagine a Native American teen in the 1670s who encounters missionaries and boldly converts to Christianity, despite ostracism from her tribe. Kateri was that girl. She consecrated her virginity to Christ, suffered for her newfound faith, and died at 24. Centuries later, the miracles started piling up. The one that sealed her sainthood happened in 2006: A little boy in Washington state named Jake Finkbonner contracted flesh-eating bacteria on his face. Doctors were losing hope as the infection raged. Jake’s family and a religious sister invoked Kateri’s intercession, even placing a relic on him – and overnight, the infection stopped cold . This stunned doctors. Jake’s sudden healing was declared the miracle needed for Kateri’s canonization . She became the first Native American saint, canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012 . Think about that: modern science said “no chance,” but an invisible hand – the prayer to this young woman in heaven – reversed a lethal disease. That’s not just a feel-good story; that’s evidence that the Catholic Church holds the real spiritual power. Kateri’s life and miracle say to a cynical age: purity, prayer, and faith in Christ outshine anything the world offers. While LA clubbers slay with makeup and fashion, Kateri slays demons. Who’s the real queen? No contest.
St. Pedro Calungsod (1654–1672) – If you’re 17 and sometimes feel like you have no purpose, meet Pedro. He was a Filipino teenager who sailed with Spanish Jesuits to the Mariana Islands to preach the Gospel. That mission literally cost him his life – he was martyred defending a priest and the faith, killed by villagers who misunderstood Baptism as sorcery. He died with Christ’s name on his lips, far from home, at our age. Fast forward to 2003: a woman in the Philippines suffered a heart attack and was declared clinically dead for over two hours. A doctor prayed for Pedro Calungsod’s intercession. Suddenly, the woman’s heart started beating again – against all medical explanation ! This resurrection-from-death event was rigorously investigated and accepted as the miracle for Pedro’s canonization . Pope Benedict XVI declared him a saint in 2012, alongside Kateri. A teen martyr from 1672 reaches from heaven into 2003 to yank a modern woman back from death’s door. Tell me that’s not awesome. Tell me Coachella or Burning Man can top that vibe. Pedro’s message to Gen Z is clear: sacrifice for truth is not in vain, and God backs up His faithful witnesses with signs of power. You won’t find that kind of validation in any other religion or movement – only in the Catholic family of saints. Pedro gave his earthly life, and now he gives life back to others by God’s grace . That’s the paradox of our faith: die to yourself, and you unleash a power greater than yourself.
St. Marianne Cope (1838–1918) – Let’s bring it to American soil. Mother Marianne was a German-American nun who moved to Hawaii to care for lepers in the late 1800s. She literally lived among outcasts (side by side with the famed St. Damien of Moloka‘i) and never contracted the disease herself – almost as if Providence sheltered her while she sheltered others. Her “great works” included establishing hospitals and showing a level of compassion the colonial world had hardly seen. She was beatified in 2005 and, notably, was the last canonization that Pope Benedict XVI performed before retiring . In fact, she holds a unique record: she was the first person Benedict beatified and the last he canonized . The miracle that secured her sainthood involved the healing of a critically ill woman in 2005 – a case of multiple organ failure that reversed after prayers to Mother Marianne . Marianne Cope shows that true charity and holiness leave a mark on history. She’s now patroness of outcasts and HIV patients , a shining example that real love wins (not the hashtag version, but love anchored in Christ). When the Church declares someone a saint, it’s saying: here is a life worth emulating, stamped by God with miracles. Marianne’s canonization in 2012 (with Kateri’s) felt like a high point – the Church holding up heroic models one after another.
However, since those days, many of us sense a change. Canonization ain’t what it used to be. The saints above were recognized via the traditional, stringent process: detailed investigations, two confirmed miracles (or a martyrdom) required for full sainthood, etc. But in recent years, especially under Pope Francis, the process has been streamlined, accelerated, even watered down. Where’s the proof? For starters, Pope Francis began using equipollent canonizations (basically declaring someone a saint by decree without the usual miracle requirements) at an unprecedented rate – six times in his first 14 months . One notable case: Pope John XXIII was canonized in 2014 with only one miracle formally attributed to him; the second miracle was dispensed with on the claim that the holiness of his life (and the acclaim of Vatican II) sufficed . This was a break with the prior criteria outlined by Pope Benedict XIV centuries ago. It’s like suddenly saying an Olympic athlete can get gold with half the qualifiers waived. Even new categories were introduced: in 2017 Pope Francis added “offering of life” as a path to beatification , meaning a person who wasn’t strictly martyred for the faith but died in a selfless act could be beatified. Good intentions, perhaps, but it blurs what martyrdom means . The concern here is a lowering of the bar. When you make sainthood easier to attain (or appear to), you risk cheapening it. Some voices (even within the Church, like historians and traditionalist clergy) have dubbed this trend “the degeneration of canonization procedures” . They point out that John Paul II already canonized more saints in a couple decades than many previous popes combined (often simplifying procedures), and now under Francis, even the miracles can be set aside if convenient .
Why do we bring this up in a Gen Z manifesto? Because heroes matter. If everyone gets a trophy, trophies mean nothing. If in the past only truly extraordinary, miracle-working holy ones were raised to the altars, but tomorrow every other notable figure is fast-tracked, we lose the stark contrast that saints are supposed to provide. It’s like if the Hall of Fame started inducting good-but-not-legendary players – fans would feel something’s off. We feel it. Young Catholics scroll headlines and see names being proposed for sainthood that make us go, “Wait, really? Are they in the same league as a Kateri or a Pedro?” The decline in canonization standards since 2013 is a cautionary tale: even within the Church, there’s pressure to go with the flow of egalitarian thinking – to treat extraordinary holiness as not so extraordinary, to avoid implying that some lived the faith much better than others. But guess what? Some did live much better! And we need those bold contrasts to inspire us. Don’t give us participation trophies; give us real champions of virtue to aspire to!
Thankfully, the saints themselves still shine, undimmed by any bureaucratic tweaks. The solution is not to abandon our devotion, but to demand excellence – from ourselves and our leaders. We want a strong Church that unabashedly holds up the highest ideals and the holiest people, not one that dilutes its own heritage of holiness to appease modern tastes.
Rise and Fall of Empires: Lessons for Today
History is our teacher. Look at the story of the Roman Empire, whose name we bear as Roman Catholics. That empire rose from a city of exiled bandits (seriously, Romulus’s gang) to rule the known world. It created roads, laws, and even a sort of unity. But Rome at its peak grew complacent and decadent. The traditional narrative (and while some modern historians nitpick it, the lesson stands) is that internal moral decay and disunity weakened Rome, making it easy prey for external enemies. A Catholic commentator once noted that the breakdown of religion, morality, and family life in Rome spelled its doom . They stopped valuing marriage and childrearing (low birth rates), normalized sexual libertinism, and juggled a pantheon of imported gods that left people’s souls unsatisfied . Sound familiar? Our society is walking down that same road – family breakdown, demographic collapse, moral confusion, spiritual aimlessness. The Western world today is a lot like late Rome: powerful on the surface but crumbling within.
Rome fell in 476 AD, but here’s the kicker: the Church survived. Not only survived – it thrived in the long run, picking up the pieces of civilization. In the vacuum left by Rome’s collapse, a spiritual empire started to form. Simple monks in monasteries preserved literature and science. Bishops became the new civic leaders. By 800 AD, Pope Leo III could crown Charlemagne as a new Emperor, explicitly Christian, heir to Rome in a baptized form . The coronation on Christmas Day 800 was hugely symbolic: it said the torch of Roman greatness now burns in the Catholic order, under the guidance of the Pope. This “Holy Roman Empire” wasn’t perfect (history is messy), but it showcased a truth: when worldly might fails, God’s plan steps in. The Catholic Church built Western Civilization, period. Universities? Cathedral architecture? The concept of universal human dignity? All flowering from the Church’s influence. While secular historians babble about the “Dark Ages,” the real story is the rise of Christendom – a new kind of empire with the spiritual and moral superiority to actually elevate humanity, not just subjugate it.
Fast-forward to today: the secular ideologies of our time – whether extreme egalitarianism, moral relativism, or atheistic materialism – are in decline. They’ve accepted inferiority in a sense: many secular thinkers now essentially say, “Humans are no better than animals, virtue is subjective, no belief is superior to another.” That’s an inferiority complex toward truth and goodness if ever there was one. And proponents of other religions in our pluralist world often play along with the “everything equal” charade – deceiving even some Christians into a lukewarm faith. This egalitarian deception has weakened spiritual supremacy in the public sphere. We’ve been told no religion can claim to be the truth, that doing so is arrogant or dangerous. So people sheepishly say, “Well, whatever you believe is cool as long as you’re nice.” That lie has made us collectively weak. It’s why so many feel lost and unmoored – nothing solid is allowed to stand out as the beacon.
But in this vacuum, a hunger grows for authentic authority and leadership. We need a strong Pope and a strong Church to spearhead a new spiritual empire – one that doesn’t conquer lands with force, but conquers hearts with truth and love. Picture a Pope (and bishops and lay leaders) who fearlessly preach Gospel truth in season and out, who aren’t afraid to call sin sin, who challenge the youth to heroic virtue. A leader like that could rally an army of young people disillusioned with the fake promises of modernity. The Church has done it before: Pope St. Gregory the Great in 600 AD basically governed Italy when civil society broke down, and sent missionaries to convert England. Pope Urban II in 1095 rallied Europe to defend the innocent and reclaim holy sites (the First Crusade) – controversial, sure, but it ignited Europe’s faith and unity. Pope St. Pius X in 1907 took on the intellectual errors of his time (Modernism) with clarity and courage, safeguarding the doctrine that we now cling to. We yearn for that kind of leadership again.
Imagine a Pope today who unabashedly says: “Enough with the dilution. Return to God. Only in His truth is there freedom. All else is inferior.” And imagine him backing it up by raising up new saints (the real deal, not token figures) and restoring a sense of the sacred in worship (so hungry young souls feel the mystery and awe of God at Mass). It would be like lighting a beacon in a storm. Other religions would see it and (perhaps grudgingly) respect it – many would convert, seeing the real thing at last. Secular folks would at least know where to find an honest refuge from the meaninglessness out there.
Yes, some will oppose a strong Catholic resurgence. In the ancient empire, some emperors martyred Christians, thinking them a threat. Today, the woke authorities might not feed us to lions, but they’ll try to cancel, sue, or silence those who won’t bow to relativism. So be it. If God is with us, who can be against us? Our job is not to appease inferior ideologies or prop up decaying structures just to avoid offense. Our job is to build something new on the eternal foundation. We cooperate with God’s plan – that’s what builds civilizations. The Roman Empire had to die in the flesh so that a more glorious Rome (the Catholic Church) could rise in the spirit. In our time, let the false “empire” of consumerist, relativist secularism die. We won’t miss it. From its ashes will rise a new Christendom – not exactly like the medieval one, but a twenty-first-century version – global, multicultural (look at us here in L.A., from every ethnicity, united in creed), on fire with holiness.
A Call to Greatness
To my peers hitting the clubs on Saturday and feeling empty on Sunday morning: you were made for more than the inferior pleasures that only numb the pain. You were made to reign – not in a worldly sense, but to reign with Christ. The Church isn’t here to police you or ruin your fun; it’s here to elevate you to your true dignity as sons and daughters of God. True freedom isn’t doing whatever you want (that just enslaves you to your impulses or to others’ approval). True freedom is living in the truth of who you are and where you’re headed. And the truth is: you’re called to be a saint. Not a mediocre “good person by today’s standards,” but a Saint with a capital S. Nothing less will satisfy.
Look around: the idols of pop culture are crumbling. The rockstars who declared themselves bigger than Jesus? Gone or irrelevant – John Lennon once quipped that the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus” and that Christianity would vanish . Well, Christianity’s still here, John, and the Beatles broke up. Celebs push the next spiritual fad – Kabbalah bracelets, Scientology, manifesting – yet they end up in rehab or worse. Even our pop icons can’t escape the hunger for God. Case in point: actor Shia LaBeouf, a total Gen Z meme hero (“Just Do It!” guy), who had hit rock bottom with fame, found himself playing a Catholic saint (Padre Pio) in a film and actually converted to Catholicism. He said the traditional Latin Mass and the wisdom of monks “deeply” affected him, that it felt like someone was sharing a “profound secret” rather than selling him a casual product . If even a Hollywood star, raised with no strong faith, can discover gold in the Catholic tradition, what are we waiting for? The treasure’s right in front of us, in our tabernacles and our Bibles and our rosaries, and in the lives of the saints.
We’re not here to protect anyone’s feelings or inferior ideas; we’re here to throw a lifeline to our generation. The Roman Catholic Church is that lifeline – the ark in the flood of confusion. It’s the only institution on Earth bold enough to claim (truthfully) that it was founded by God-in-the-flesh and that it speaks with His authority. When we cooperate with the Church’s mission – when we live our Catholic faith authentically and share it – we are cooperating with the very power that built every great thing in the West. When we compromise or hide our light, we are guilty of letting our peers languish in darkness.
So here’s the challenge, my fellow young Angelinos: dare to believe you were born into the one true faith for a reason. God wants to use you to shake things up. It’s starting with small tremors – a young person returning to confession, another ditching horoscope addiction for daily Mass, a group swapping the afterparty for all-night Eucharistic adoration. Imagine those tremors growing into a quake that rattles L.A. culture. We could have saints emerging from these streets – future St. Miguels from East LA, St. Monicas from Santa Monica (there’s already a St. Monica, but hey, the more the merrier!). Why not? The Apostles took a decadent pagan empire and, with God’s grace, converted it from the bottom up. We can do the same in our world.
No more inferiority complex about our faith. No more polite nodding when someone says “all religions are equal” – we lovingly correct that lie, because souls are at stake. No more being timid that we believe in absolute truth – that’s our superpower in a world choking on relativity. And no more apologizing for striving for spiritual greatness. The world will accuse us of arrogance for saying the Catholic Church is the path to salvation. But it’s not our idea – it’s Christ’s idea. He founded one Church and prayed we be one in Him. We’re just being loyal to our King.
The ancient Roman Empire rose and fell. Now rises the new empire of the spirit, the kingdom that “shall never be destroyed” (Daniel 2:44). It’s here, in seed form, in each heart that yields to the King of Kings. Every time you choose virtue over vice, you tighten the bonds of this kingdom. Every time you share the Gospel, you extend its borders. Every Mass, every rosary, every small act of charity – you’re building the civilization of love that will outshine and outlast the glitzy empires of our day.
We’re not club kids anymore; we’re soldiers of Christ. Our weapons are truth and love. Our banner is the Cross. Our homeland is the Church. And our destiny is to reign with Christ forever, starting now by transforming the world around us.
This is our manifesto. We reject the lies. We embrace the truth. We will live not as slaves of the culture but as children of light. Like the brave saints before us, we’re ready to set the world on fire – beginning in the City of Angels, and from there to the ends of the earth.
Are you with us? The only thing greater than being young and alive in L.A. is being young and alive in Christ – fearless, free, and aiming for heaven. The old rebellion of sin is played out; welcome to the new rebellion of holiness. The empire of materialism is falling; long live the Empire of the Lamb.
“For the sake of His sorrowful Passion – have mercy on us and on the whole world.” And He will, and through us He will reign.
Amen. Let’s do this.
Sources:
- Benedict XVI’s last canonizations and their miracles ; concern over lowered canonization standards .
- Catholic critiques of Protestantism and religious indifferentism ; differences with Islam and acknowledgment of Judaism’s limits without Christ .
- Pius XII on loss of sin’s sense ; Vatican on New Age/Reiki superstition ; Nostra Aetate on Hinduism’s elements vs. errors .
- Historical parallels of Rome’s fall due to moral breakdown and the Church’s role in renewing civilization .
- John Lennon’s infamous boast and its rebuttal by history ; Shia LaBeouf’s attraction to Catholic tradition as modern cultural signs.
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