I have a theory that when people in the future look upon the downfall of western civilization, they won't look on the twentieth or twenty-first century as being the zenith of the culture. They may, of course, appreciate the technological advantages of our time, but I think they will look at our culture and see a hopelessly degraded thing. They'll mark the highpoint of our culture instead at an age when there was unanimity in the practice of faith.
To me, our culture's highpoint may well have been the thirteenth or fourteenth century. I think, at any rate, it was before the discovery of American and the invention of the printing press.
It's just a theory.
UPDATE: That's not a criticism of America, by the way. I think that the period from 1492-1700 was one of terrible instability in Europe, with nearly endless wars, some of them religious in nature, and the result was chaos. I think America represents Europe's last best effort, and if our culture is reformed, it will come from America, not from Europe. I'm reading Eamon Duffy's account of the Easter traditions of the English churches and how central religious life was in the Middle Ages, and I'm just struck by the terrible loss of it all in the modern world. As the Cathechism points out, of all of man's gifts, it is not reason that is the greatest, but faith. We live in a world in which there is a tyranny of reason. To me, Faith leads to Christmas and Easter celebrations, while Reason leads inexorably to the police state and the death camp. We let Reason off its leash a few centuries back.
I think that whole decision needs to be revisited.