Fr. John Fullerton
District Superior, USA

Dear Reader,

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.

Our own country was a first experiment in this new type of nation where Church and State would be separated. In light of their success in the USA, American Catholics were tempted to hail the secular state as being even more favorable for the growth of Catholicism than the Catholic nations of medieval Christendom, and to think that the secular state is the ideal.

Pope Leo XIII reminded the bishops of the United States in 1895 that, while it was good that the Catholic Church was free to spread her message in the USA, “she would bring forth more abundant fruits if, in addition to liberty, she enjoyed the favor of the laws and the patronage of the public authority” (Longinqua Oceani, n.6). American Catholics must not be content with the secularism of their country, but rather must pray that, one day, the United States will be a Catholic nation.

Sadly, the only two Catholic presidents in our history pledged their total allegiance to secularism by promising to let the will of the people guide their decisions rather than God and the religion He founded. John F. Kennedy once famously said during a presidential campaign, “I do not speak for my church on public matters—and the Church does not speak for me.” And President Biden has stated, “I accept my church’s position on abortion...I accept it in my personal life. But I refuse to impose it on equally devout Christians and Muslims and Jews.”

This issue of The Angelus seeks to reiterate the authentic teaching of our Catholic Faith that the State has a duty to be subject to its King, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the one religion that He has authorized to lead souls to Heaven, His own Catholic Church. We must pray that His rights be acknowledged as broadly as possible by the nations of this world. And we must strive to make Him reign in our own homes and communities such that they, at least, may give Him His due.

Fr. John Fullerton