A Church burns in Ohio

A large fire destroyed a historic church that was beloved by the community – St. John the Baptist Church in Maria Stein(!). It was one of a number of Catholic churches in that region of Ohio which were built by German immigrants.

Steeple collapses after fire rips through historic Catholic church (WHIO -TV 7, 5/29/2025; with many photos)

Is this not as potent a symbol of the Catholic Church today as was the 2019 fire in Notre Dame cathedral in Paris? Particularly when the Catholic clerical, liturgical establishment is mustering its forces in and outside the United States for a decisive battle with both Traditionalism and “reform of the reform.”

Coincidentally Charles Coulombe has just published in Crisis an acccount of the crack-up of traditional American culture taking as its starting point the burning of historic Nottoway plantation in Louisiana.

Coulombe, Charles, “The Burning of Nottoway and the New Pope: American Identity and the Future of Catholicism,” Crisis Magazine (5/30/2025)

For the destruction of this magnificent 1859 mansion was greeted with indifference by most people, with equivocation by local poltical and cultural leaders and even with satisfaction by others. For to them this house was a symbol of an evil American past.

Mr. Coulombe thinks the end of our inherited Protestant American society and culture may open the door to a new Catholic revival. But how is a Church also at war with its own culture, history and beliefs going to accomplish this? For the Church of the Council is not an alternative, but the mirror image of Western, secular society – which it tries so hard to emulate. That is the ultimate origin of the liturgical war recently launched by the hierarchy in the Charlotte diocese. The burning of St. John the Baptist church in Ohio is a most telling sign – an “ideogram” (Ezra Pound!) – of Catholic disarray.