On my final Sunday afternoon in Budapest, I went to a meeting of some young Christians — mostly, but not exclusively, Catholics — who are organizing networks for the resistance ahead. This was the organizing meeting for a Budapest chapter of an established pan-European Christian fraternity. I’m not going to give any detailed information, because I don’t know how closed this meeting was (it was invitation-only), but man, did it ever lift my spirits. Here are believers taking the message seriously, and getting active now, while we still have the freedom to do so.

Our hosts were an older couple (that is to say, they were about a decade older than I, and I was about two decades older than everybody else in the room) who had escaped communist Hungary for Canada during the Cold War. They have an apartment here now, and split their time between Canada and Hungary. They read Live Not By Lies, and told me that it exactly captured their experiences.

“We thought when we arrived in Canada that we would never have to lie again,” said the wife, in a tone that conveyed, and here we are today, having to live by lies.

The husband told me that he expects that the United States will become the first liberal democracy to turn into a police state. His wife took slight issue with that, saying that there is a deeper spirit of resistance in the US than in Canada, “where it is wafer-thin.”

I had several conversations with the younger attendees, a few of whom were from other European countries. They all see very clearly where things are headed. One French man with whom I spoke said that a quiet exodus out of the cities has begun by French Catholics, all of whom are seeking some form of the Benedict Option.

This is not a political group. It’s religious and cultural. It’s about standing firm in the faith, even in a time of persecution and hardship. The leader of the group gave an inspiring talk in which he said that we must not confuse patriotism with nationalism. He defined patriotism as a love of what is one’s own, but said that nationalism implies defining oneself primarily against others — that is, not so much out of love for what one has as rather out of resentment for those not like oneself. Nationalism, he said, brought so much destruction to Europe in the last century. Patriotism is what we should stand for. And, he said, there will be so many people of other religions and creeds vying for the souls of Europeans in the years to come. We Christians have to be present to make a strong case, by our words and through our deeds, for the truth of following Christ. The leader urged us to establish real fellowship with each other, throughout the networks now being built, and to deeper our understanding and practice of the faith.

Like I said, an inspiring afternoon. They asked me to say a few words. I told them about Father Kolakovic, and how he is a model for us in our time. As I establish e-mail contact with some of these folks, I hope I can have permission to tell you more about their mission. For now, it’s enough to say that I had a feeling this afternoon of what it must have been like when Father Kolakovic first started organizing the Slovak underground Christian resistance. It’s the kind of thing I’ve hoped to see, and now it’s here! If you are a Christian in Europe and would like to know more, e-mail me at rod — at — amconmag — dot — com, and I’ll pass your letter along to the organizers.

Wherever you live, don’t wait to get started building the networks. I hope to be able to tell you more about this particular group before much longer. One of the Europeans present asked me what’s happening in America along these lines. I told her I had no idea. Maybe nothing. If you, reader, are involved in something, let me know either by e-mail or in the comments — if you want me to publicize it, that is.