It is said that in the depth of the Dark Ages, after the various barbarian hordes had done their best to destroy classical culture, it was the Roman Catholic Church that— here and there in lonely, out-of-the-way monasteries—kept the fragile flame of learning alive. Decade after decade, century after century, anonymous monks busied themselves transcribing and preserving sundry fragments of an endangered tradition, ad maiorem dei gloriam. Of course, it was not until the Renaissance that the rediscovery and embrace of our classical inheritance really burgeoned. But we all owe the Church an enormous debt of gratitude for preserving the rudiments of literacy at a time when intelligence and culture were everywhere besieged.

What happened? The Church itself may still be a force for tradition and literacy, but certain prominent elements within its fold seem to have apostatized, at least on the matter of cu ...

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