A bestselling book about conservative Christianity has drawn national attention to the Hyattsville Catholic community.
American Conservative editor Rod Dreher’s book “The Benedict Option” calls for Christians to build enduring communities as a bulwark of what he views as a decadent American culture.
One of the communities he cites is in Hyattsville, centered in the Historic District around St. Jerome’s church and school.
In recent weeks, Hyattsville’s Catholic community has been featured on The American Conservative, NPR and The New Yorker.
The articles note that the prime mover in the local community was Chris Currie, a voluble public relations consultant who now works at St. Jerome Academy, who moved to the area in 1997 and persuaded like-minded friends to join him.
The community is small—the New Yorker article estimates that there are around 200 families, based on the size of two listservs (“Barn Raisers” for men and “Hyattsville Catholic Women”). But its tightly knit, with kids hanging out at each other’s houses, women praying the rosary together, families meeting up for Sunday potlucks and neighbors dropping in on each other unexpectedly. NPR notes that most of the families live within a two-mile radius.
“I mean, there are downsides,” Currie told the New Yorker. “The other day—it was seven-thirty in the morning—I was in the bathroom, and somebody knocked on the door. It was one of my Catholic neighbors. He didn’t apologize for it or anything. He was on his morning run, and he thought, ‘Oh, I’d like to talk to Chris about this.’”
The articles also note that Vigilante Coffee, a hip coffee roaster down the street, has become a key meeting place for Catholic families in the community.
Despite the national attention, Hyattsville’s Catholic community doesn’t necessarily see itself as a poster child for Dreher’s ideas. Several told NPR that they don’t view themselves as alienated or marginalized, and the article notes the community split its vote about evenly between Donald Trump and other candidates.
“For me personally,” Hyattsville resident Jane Murphy told NPR, “living in this community has strengthened my faith so that I can go out to the wider community, the secular community, and talk with confidence about my faith. I can be accepting of other people but still be confident about telling them about my faith.”
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