What a poignant article to wake up to and I daresay there is something Tolkienian about. Tolkien is sobering, almost depressing, in his Catholic notion of the "long defeat" of history, which is the antithesis of Whiggery; defeats (Hastings, Manzikert, 1453, &c), fruitless victories (Agincourt? Lepanto?), it is in the nature of Christianity to be in retreat from this world. Things pass, hopes fail, communion is broken by the sin and scandal of schism, each of us is singly put to flight by the enemies of Christ under whatsoever guise; Turk, Jew, even our own godless countrymen. It's one thing to say that Saint Sophia is a shell of its former glory, it's quite another to say that that was inevitable from its first building. Trust rather that God set in our hearts this longing for Christendom and that in the End, when we have built Jerusalem, even the least of our desires will have fruit.
As Bombadil said, "till the world is mended."
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