Opinion | Religion Has Been in Decline. This Christmas Seems Different.
Briefly

The monks of Norcia are not obscure; they brew beer, have a chant album, and are featured in stories about their region's recovery from earthquakes.
Christianity in Europe is declining, but here sits a thriving abbey with youthful monks drawing pilgrims, praying the ancient Latin of the Roman church.
Norcia is the birthplace of Western monasticism, offering a strange rhyming quality between death and rebirth amidst the decline in Catholic Italy.
As Italy's countryside empties and depopulates, the monastery’s resilience stands out against a backdrop of generational decline in Christianity.
Read at www.nytimes.com
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