A sobering and chilling inside look at the workings of the Communist Party USA in the early to mid 20th century

School of Darkness, by Dr. Bella Dodd, is a thoroughly riveting account of a young girl who was born into a nominally Catholic family and hungered for meaning and direction, only to get sucked into the empty, destructive, and ultimately self-destructive, Communist path. The Party chewed her up and spit her out when she began to realize that it was not what it pretended to be. She dared to ask questions, which was unforgivable. Bella Dodd was a true believer in the Cause for many years only to realize that she had given her life to a phantasm. Nothing about Communism is real. Except its aim of total domination and its resulting (and inevitable) soul-crushing despair. But the Lord is always searching for His lost sheep and no one is beyond the reach of His helping hand. (Links to the ebook and to the Angelico Press edition at the end of this post.)

Bella was living in a “world of men who were determined to create new types of human beings who would conform to the blueprint of the world they confidently expected to control.” (Page 162. See note below for more.)

After immersing myself in that tale of unions, violence, and strikes, delusions and deceits, nihilism and other things I’m not used to, I felt shaken and sad. Glad that Bella’s story ended well. (Imagine receiving instruction in the faith from–oh, wait. If you don’t already know, I don’t want to spoil it for you.) Sad that so many thousands, tens of thousands–who knows how many?–were and will be so profoundly misled. But my study of this nightmarish cult of the collective has had one good result: my studies of the apparitions at Fatima have received new energy and urgency. I am more convinced than ever that Fatima holds the key to defeating Marxism. And that the only remedy for godlessness is God Himself. (I’d like to take credit for that wonderful line, but I think I read it recently. I’ll let you know when I track down the source.)

Update: Silly me! The line is from School of Darkness, though not the way I wrote it. Here’s the proper quote with context.

 “Those devoted to progressive education and to preparing youth to live in the “new socialist world” are abstractly sure of what they want, but they seem not to know that they work with human beings. Aside from teaching that children must learn to get along with other children, no moral or natural law standards are set. There is no word about how our children are to find the right order of harmonious living. I, too, had to learn by hard experience that you cannot cure a sick soul with more buildings or more playgrounds. These are important, but they are not enough. Abraham Lincoln, schooled in a one-room log cabin, received from education what all the athletic fields and laboratories cannot give. All his speeches reflected his love for his Creator. He knew that God is the cure for godlessness.” Bella Dodd, School of Darkness, end of page 136.

Much more on this and related subjects in the works.

Note
Dodd, Bella (2014-12-16). School of Darkness. The Kindle edition I quoted from is no longer listed on the Amazon site. Here are two other links for the book.

School of Darkness: Paperback. (Amazon affiliate link: I may make a small commission at no cost to you if you buy the book using my link. Thank you for helping support the site and to spread the word about the threat to the Church.)

School of Darkness: ebook in various formats at archive.org.