Issue: January 2024

Letter from the District Superior

One of the inventions of our revolutionary times was a new way of organizing society: the secular state. Such a state is notable in three of its characteristics: firstly, it considers that authority comes from the people composing the state, not from God; secondly, it relegates spiritual matters to the private sphere and forbids that they have any direct influence in the framing of laws; and thirdly, it refuses to judge whether any religion is right or wrong, good or bad, but rather allows all citizens to practice the religion of their choice or no religion at all...

Church and State in Medieval Christendom and Today

The Catholic Church, chosen by God to lead all men through this fleeting life to eternal salvation, provides moral guidance not only for individuals but for society as a whole. Political actions, since they have moral qualities and consequences, thus fall under the general teaching authority of the Church...

A Right to Be Tolerated? Church and State and “Religious Liberty”

While he was created cardinal in 1953 by Pius XII, Fr. Alfredo Ottaviani would not be consecrated as an Archbishop until 1962. On Maundy Thursday, April 17, John XXIII personally laid hands on the man who had been the head of the Holy Office for three years, and a member of the same Congregation for nine years.

The Aims of Separating the State from the Church

We know that ultimately the driving force behind modern atheistic politics is Satan, who wills to damn the maximum number of souls and seeks this end by creating a political climate hostile to the spiritual health of souls, as Pius XII taught: “The good or evil of souls depends and seeps in from the form which is given to society, in conformity or no with the divine laws"...

Merciful Justice and the Church of the State in Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure”

The solution to Adam’s pride is Christ’s humility; the solution to man’s injustice is God’s mercy. This Augustinian dictum is the kind of chestnut you will find roasting in the blushing embers of Shakespeare’s oft-forgotten play, Measure for Measure. Peel back the story’s husk, and you will find both church and state within the kernel’s core...

Propaganda in Paint: The Coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte

There may not have been a more complete, more rapid, more shocking destruction of the autonomy and power of the Catholic Church in history than the events which took place in France between November 1789 and July 1790. In nine months, the Catholic Church in France had gone from a curious confusion about the new government of the Third Estate to utter shock that their naiveté had been utterly violated.

Concordant Church-State Relations and Estado Novo in Salazar’s Portugal

A more in-depth study of Salazar’s life, including his background, writings, and actions, however, reveals that there is more to this much-maligned man than merely half-substantiated sobriquets. Rather, Salazar’s Catholic faith shaped his governance of Portugal, enabling his country to work in tandem with the Catholic Church and so cause Portugal to flourish under his rule...

The Separation of Church and State: Theocratic at Best; Nihilist and Totalitarian at Worst

by John Rao, D.Phil. Oxon. Given the fact that the human person is a unified being of both spirit as well as flesh and blood, it is utterly impossible for either Church or State to command...

Sermon on the Two Cities

In this sermon, the author fuses Pauline metaphors of spiritual combat with Augustine’s epic narrative of salvation history in the City of God, depicting history as a pitched battle between the City of God (Jerusalem) and the City of Man (Babylon), between Christ the King and that rebel without a cause, Satan. The battle rages. Both armies field champions. Whose side are you on?

My Path to Tradition

I grew up in a radically liberal, neo-pagan environment in Ann Arbor, Michigan, home of the prestigious University of Michigan. My parents held ferocious anti-Catholic sentiments; however, they were good-natured, conservative people and I am sincerely grateful for all they gave me. My father was an immigrant from the Netherlands and my mother grew up in a Dutch area of Michigan where her father served as a Calvinist Reformed pastor...

Pope Leo XIII, the Sun, and the Moon

Knowing the right questions to pose is already a mark of wisdom. Perhaps this is why the boy Jesus let Himself be found in the temple by Mary and Joseph not only listening to the doctors of the law, but also asking questions. Putting a question in the wrong way, on the other hand, like putting one’s shoes on the wrong feet, may cause us to stumble the more we try to advance...

Bureaucratic Incompetence and the Abolition of Pre-Lent

Even amidst this diversity of opinion, though, we can see that the majority of the group had already decided that Pre-Lent was to be abolished in one way or another, with only one member (Rembert Van Doren) thinking otherwise...

Errors Regarding the Union Between Church and State

President Salazar of Portugal was accused of Caesarism. I heard this accusation from the very mouth of the apostolic nuncio at Lisbon. Nevertheless, at the beginning he had admired Salazar, who as a good Catholic, helped the Catholic Church in every field—in the Universities, in the missions—and who thus, in Portugal, in Angola, and Mozambique, helped the Church to expand considerably...

Questions and Answers

How can I combat scrupulosity?

The Last Word

“All good things come to an end” is not universally true. Heaven is a good thing and it will never end. One thing that will is my time in Canada, as I will soon be—God willing—saving souls in my homeland and in another biggish neighbouring island...