No, I am not talking about military intervention, but intellectual intervention. Has it ever struck you that cultured American Catholics look to Europe for the basic elements of their intellectual and spiritual identity?

And yet, the great intellectual tradition which has given us Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Euclid, Dante and Shakespeare is dying here in Europe. More than that: the “great conversation” is nowhere more in danger of being silenced than in its own ancient heartland.

This is partly to do with the fact that Christian culture is under attack from secularism in a big way. Europe has gone a lot further down the slippery slope than has America. For example, on such controversial questions as abortion and gay marriage a faithful European Catholic is part of a shrinking and lonely minority. In the States, he is quite likely surrounded by like-minded friends who feel that the war on these questions is still not over.

You will be aware of how the situation for Christians in the Middle East has now reached the point of no return. I know Christians from Iran and Iraq who live in France now and say that they have accepted that Christianity in the middle East will be finished in the lifetime of their children. Perhaps in the case of Europe it is time act before it is too late; before the point of no return is reached.

It is interesting to note that when Joe Pearce and I were setting up St Austin Review with our friend Robert Asch we were doing something that no one else in England dared to do … and yet, 15 or 20 years on from my first publishing efforts, Joe is in the USA, Robert is in Spain and I am in France, running a school through the medium of English. This is because, as bad as things are in Catholic Europe in general, they are actually worse in the UK. It is getting better, but very, very slowly. Still the typical English Catholic attitude is to bury one’s head in the sand.

Englishmen like Joe, Robert and I are rare. Most of the dynamic and enterprising Catholic intellectuals are born and bred in the States. And all the best scholarship on CS Lewis, Tolkien, Shakespeare (all Englishmen!) is now done by Americans. The tradition of English letters, and particularly of the strong Christian witness within English literature is now carried on across the Atlantic, far from England, because Englishmen, even when they love culture, no longer believe in God or care about religious and moral questions.

But one might ask the question, “How long can the branch survive when the root is dying?” Not so long as one might imagine, I fear. Europe needs America, especially now when the first shoots of Catholic intellectual revival are tentatively poking out from the secular topsoil of our ailing culture. But America needs us too, because we are still, in a sense, something like your grandparents, or at least your elder brothers. And without us, you would quickly find the world suddenly a much lonelier place. So as those shoots of revival emerge in Europe, we need your help to feed and water them. The harvest, with God’s help, might well surpass our expectations, because with God anything is possible.

When one is tempted to sadness at the advance of secularism, it is always a good idea to reflect on how in God’s Providence there do seem to be patterns of rising and falling; of waxing and waning … just like in nature. In the mysterious interplay between our free will and God’s design, there seem to be patterns of revolution and counter-revolution in which generations are swept along, almost despite themselves. At the sea, it is only when the water has retreated to its furthest extent that the tide eventually turns. And then it can often be a formidable force of nature, truly to be reckoned with.

At our school in France, we are planning an exciting new initiative that we hope will play its part in turning that tide in Europe.

In the USA, Catholics, and many others, are familiar with the 20th century American idea of the “Great Books,” originated by American Catholic Mortimer Adler in the 1950s. There is also the increasingly popular concept of a Liberal Arts education, inspired by the medieval Trivium and Quadrivium. Many Catholic colleges in the USA are developing this kind of education for the young. This was the education of “Renaissance men” who were given a good grounding in the main branches of learning before specialisation. But in Europe, despite calls from Benedict XVI for the re-evangelisation of our continent through the reclaiming of culture (StAR’s motto!), we have nothing to compare with the States in the Liberal Arts.

But now, fifteen years after StAR’s launch in London in 2000, a kind of “StAR Academy”, peopled with a few of the old names, and a few new ones, is launching new degree programme from Chavagnes International College, at the heart of the old Catholic Europe, in France’s Vendée region (Remember? That was where the peasants rose up against the French Revolution to defend Altar and Throne). It has the merit of sponsoring the study of the culture and history of these ancient lands, right in the middle of them: history and literature suddenly come to life when you can sit and reflect in a real Greek temple, a Roman amphitheatre or a medieval cathedral! Our programme envisages visits to all these places and more as part of the cost of tuition. But any way in Europe, visiting the past sometimes only takes a 10-minute walk.

What is more, according to Bruce Fingerhut, StAR’s new publisher, it is “a wonderful program that will, no doubt, change for the better the lives of many … young men (and, later, young women) … the knowledge offered here is second to none in my experience in the States.”

Another advantage is that our fully accredited European Bachelors degree is concentrated into 2 years (8 10-week terms); that means it is going to be faster and cheaper than many other degree offerings elsewhere. Because we are also offering the Liberal Arts with French, taught LIVE in France, by French men and women, it is the real deal, as you Americans say …

Sorry, ladies, but to start with our programme will only be for young men, but once we get more than a dozen or so boys, we are planning to expand provision to girls too.

As for the young men, you’ll be the elder statesmen in our existing Catholic boys’ boarding school with its lively international culture. You will get separate classes, a special library, later bedtimes(!), your own separate house and much freer access to French food and wine; plus plenty of excursions and visits around France and Europe to supplement the taught classes.

And don’t worry about the lack of female company. We’ll be working in partnership with a local Catholic university college and you’ll have the chance to meet plenty of French girls, several days a week. And while your are studying hard at Chavagnes, the absence of the fairer sex will help you to focus on the very demanding study programme and also to gain the knowledge and strength you need to be a cultured and wise Catholic gentleman; one of tomorrow’s leaders.

So, if you’d like to be kept abreast of developments, send an email to studium@chavagnes.org or visit our website www.chavagnes.org/studium

We are going to need a few Americans to help us get this going; partly because you already know first hand how such programmes can be life-changing experiences for young Catholics.

You can help us by spreading the word about our plan, by keeping us in your fervent prayers, helping us with a small donation, or by enrolling on our programme as a pioneer student in 2016. You’ll be helping us to reignite the fire of Christian learning in Europe in its great hour of need!

Ferdi McDermott founded St Austin Review in 2000. He is Principal of Chavagnes International College, an international Catholic boarding school in France : www.chavagnes.org