At the site of the Vatican Pavilion at the old World's Fair grounds in Queens, New York, where the late Veronica Lueken for years came to receive messages from the Blessed Virgin Mary, her followers still gather with apocalyptic expectancy before a portable statue of the Virgin. They areconvinced that virtually the entire world, including the great majority of Catholics, will soon perish in a horrible chastisement, and that they alone will be saved. In the theological underground of American Catholicism, mostly hidden from public view, the followers of Veronica are just a fewamong the many who regard both the broader society and the broader church as irredeemably corrupt. Now, Michael Cuneo's The Smoke of Satan brings these groups vividly to life, shedding valuable light on the current state of Catholicism in North America--and, more generally, on religion in oursociety. Images on television and in the popular media have made the Christian right a household concept--but what that usually means is the Protestant Christian right. Cuneo's insightful, provocative study highlights the equally vigorous though less well-known Catholic counterpart. Ranging from theMarianists, such as the followers of "Blessed Veronica" of Bayside, to picketers at abortion clinics across the United States and Canada (militant lay Catholics who believe that "public witness" is a vocational enterprise of the highest order, one which the vast majority of bishops, priests, andnuns are too lacking in faith and nerve to perform themselves); from separatists who believe that even Rome itself has fallen and that true Catholics should withdraw and form alternate communities, to Latin Mass advocates who believe the reforms of Vatican II are the work of Satan himself; theseAmerican Catholics are united by a common conviction: in the space of just three decades, the mainstream Catholic church in the United States and elsewhere has fallen into alarming decline, and the task of preserving authentic Catholicism (and thus Christianity itself) from outright extinction hasfallen to small bands of the truly faithful. As Cuneo draws striking portraits of these faithful few, he also provides some fascinating asides on contemporary issues, including an innovative analysis of the ideological relationship of right-wing Catholic groups with the militia movement and aprovocative assessment of militant Catholic pro-life activism. In 1972, speaking in the aftermath of Vatican II, Pope Paul VI said "the smoke of Satan has entered by some crack into the temple of God." In this first full-scale account of Roman Catholic fundamentalism, Cuneo details what these dissenters believe the "smoke of Satan" to be, and what they planto do to halt its spread. Cuneo's profiles of these right-wing groups and the various strategies they have adopted in attempting to carry out this task makes for one of the most fascinating stories in contemporary American religion.

Michael W. Cuneo's profile page

About the Author Michael W. Cuneo is Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Fordham University in New York City. Born in Toronto, he is the author of previous books on Catholicism and the sociology of religion.

"Michael Cuneo has spent endless hours with these folks and others and has produced a thoroughly readable and responsible portrait of a group of marginalized American Catholics at the end of this century. The Smoke of Satan is a marvelous read, deft and scholarly, clear and provocative,sympathetic and judgemental. The book is a pleasure to read..." --Mary Jo Weaver, Journal of the American Academy of Religion

"This study will be useful especially for academic religion, history, and sociology collections."--Library Journal

"Cuneo writes like a top-notch reporter, but his work is based on high-quality sociological research which cuts through the mundane and goes to the essential. A magnificently structured study of right-wing Catholic groups.... Cuneo tells it like it is, because he has done the painstakingfootwork needed to understand what this strange phenomenon is all about."--Jean-Guy Vaillancourt, Professor of Sociology, University of Montreal

"Carpenter's work is thoroughly documented, well written, and built solidly on the work of other historians of U.S. popular religion such as Ernest Sandeen and George Marsden."--Library Journal

"From CUFF to the Mystical Marianists and Apocalypticists, Cuneo has charted out the intricate relationships that currently exist among the groups on the American Catholic right.... Cuneo's interlacing of background information, descriptions of beliefs, and his personal interactions with hissubjects make for a fascinating account."--Sandra L. Zimdars-Swartz, Professor and Chairperson of Religious Studies, The University of Kansas

"A thoughtful, detailed exploration of three small but growing fundamentalist groups within post-Vatican II American Catholicism."--Kirkus

"Michael W. Cuneo...uses the Second Vatican Council and the seismic shift it unleashed as a framework for vivid profiles of the church's unnoticed players--Catholic fundamentalists. His well-researched, eye-opening book shows them to be a fascinating and, at times, bizarre and disturbingsubgroup, whom even faithful Catholics would have a hard time embracing. With crisp and concise writing, Cuneo uses colorful anecdotes to shine a light on a mostly unknown part of the church."--Diego Ribadeneira, The Boston Globe

"The Smoke of Satan dispels the haze around a world that is unfamiliar to many. Cuneo's book is well worth the time."--Fort Worth Star-Telegram

"Cuneo has given us a witty, even hilarious, and sometimes frightening study of the inner workings, the theological convictions and the major gripes of three different "factions" on the Catholic right: conservativs, separatists/traditionalists, and apocalypticists and mystical Marianists....The Smoke of Satan is a cautionary tale containing an important lesson."--America