Matthew,

Forgive me if I mention this again too soon, but I remember you telling me a long time ago that before Vatican II, there was a break through just beginning for evangelizing India. Then Vatican II happened and messed it up. What was that break through?

It might have been another Asian country, but I don't remember that detail now.

The breakthrough wasn't anything sudden, it was more like reaching a culmination of decades of work, approaching a critical mass where enough families were willing to convert (which would allow other families to convert, etc.) -- but then along came Vatican II with Lumen Gentium and its various heresies "oh, you don't need to convert", "just be a GOOD buddhist", etc. Those initial revolutionaries were not just indifferent to conversions, they were all excited about the new religion and actually went so far as to discourage conversions. Plus many people were shocked/scandalized at the new religion and its new Mass.

In most Asian cultures, they are more group-focused or "hive minded". Americans, meanwhile, are more individualistic. Remember the Japanese proverb, "The nail that stands out is hammered down." So converting in a culture like that is not just embracing the Gospel, it's suffering a complete excommunication from society. Until you get a critical mass of existing converts, a support network for your social and economic life, it's almost impossible to convert -- at least humanly speaking.

But imagine working at it for years, working on leaders on different levels, pillars of the community, major families (all inter-connected), and seeing that they're all ripe for the plucking, or "about to fall" (if you can call conversion a "fall") -- and then something like Vatican II destroys the whole thing, and scatters all your work.