Localism and Federalism

Solutions that haven't been tried, because... inertia. Upholding the state? Not the proper job of a bishop.

Lebanese Cardinal Bechara Rai, criticizing his country's politicians over their failure to form a new government as Lebanon veers closer to collapse, asked, "Don't you fear God?" https://t.co/Xu63iLoYLc

— Pontifical Oriental Institute (@theorientale) January 27, 2021

A Response to Bronwen McShea's Book on the Jesuits in New France

The Jesuit mission to New France does not provide a good historical template for models of Christianity that distinguish sharply between power and humility, or the state and the faith. From the print edition:https://t.co/OSithYzfXw

— First Things (@firstthingsmag) December 8, 2020

Speaking Beyond Their Competence

Texas bishops urge governor to reconsider refugee resettlement

Texas Bishops Oppose Governor’s Curb on Refugee Settlement

An Adrian Vermeule Lecture

Church Life: All Human Conflict Is Ultimately Theological by Adrian Vermeule

Émilie Tardivel-Schick, Christian Citizenship: A Paradox?

How would the modern-day patriarchate of Rome respond

If the Aztec Empire were still around today? Interfaith dialogue? Issuing statements from afar?

Feeding the gods: Hundreds of skulls reveal massive scale of human sacrifice in Aztec capital https://t.co/nm29zrfFn9 pic.twitter.com/GwKmA7USWB

— The New Science (@NewScienceWrld) June 21, 2018

You see the carnage that the empire wrecked upon others and you may conclude that punitive wars are right and just, maybe even wars of conquest. Maybe the Spanish conquest of the "New World" could have been handled better. If it were avoided, what would prevent some other group from replacing the Aztecs and then implementing the same system of horror? A Spanish military force to police the area? Coupled with evangelization by the Church? But otherwise leaving the natives to manage their affairs on their own?

What sort of united political front can the Roman Catholic churches really offer?

Crisis: Christian Passivity is Not an Option by Stephen Baskerville

Mr. Baskerville overestimates the power of the Latin churches. The Latin churches, severely compromised on issues such as gun control, feminism, multiculturalism, egalitarianism, immigration, and statism, can offer no resistance to the attacks of the state on other issues. They have been too complicit too long in the state's destruction of traditional norms.

Albania... and China

CWR: “The smaller cage is the better cage”: What has China to do with Albania? by Ines Angeli Murzaku

The decades-long persecution of the Catholic Church in Albania by the Communist government provides a significant case for the Holy See to ponder.

Gone Too Far, Or Not Having Gone Far Enough?

Accomodationism v. radicalism. Too much esteem for empire, and not enough knowledge of politics?

James Kalb, What is the Church's Political Role

The Ugly Legacy of Latin Church-State Relations

Latin America: The Un-Evangelized Continent?

Like the Modern Nation-State?

Post by Vatican Radio - English Section.

Will the bishops be willing to acknowledge the challenge of the secular powers?

Post by Vatican Radio - English Section.

Post by Vatican Radio - English Section.

I Like Him, But Is This Appropriate for a Bishop?

As Bishop, rather than a "private" citizen? From yesterday: Cardinal Zen joins Occupy Central protests.

Daniel Larison, Another Foreign Protest, Another Pointless Demand That the U.S. “Speak Out”
Hong Kong's Fight Against Neoliberalism

Should a Bishop's Opinion on This Matter?

Post by Vatican Radio - English Section.

Illiberal Catholicism

John Zmirak, Illberal Catholicism

Thought about it, but I won't be wading into this discussion...

Rejecting Zmirak’s Rejection of ‘Illiberal Catholicism’ by Andrew Haines
Illiberal Catholicism, the Moral Self, and the Political Community by Aaron Taylor
Discussion of Zmirak's piece at WWWTW.

Related:
Liberalism is a Sin
CDK, On Tolerance, the Benignity of the Christian
Why are U.S. conservatives so obsessed with monarchies?
Tocqueville on Keeping Our Countercultural Churches

The Assault of the State on Marriage

The Revenge of Religious Liberty by Thomas Storck

I think Mr. Storck attributes too much to [Lockean] liberalism as a cause - rather it is the predicament of an "immigrant" Church (rather than a "missionary" Church) in conflict with a growing, centralized state that is no longer Christian. Mr. Storck still adheres to a nationalist understanding of the founding - the federal government is national government and the ultimate authority in all public matters.

The impossibility of gay marriage and the threat of biopolitical control by John Milbank (Patrick Deneen comments)

Homosexual Activist Admits True Purpose of Battle is to Destroy Marriage | Illinois Family Institute

What Few Deny Gay Marriage Will Do

Related:
UK: 'New law will compel churches to offer same-sex marriages'

Homosexuality: Yes, I Am Surprised

Oz Conservative: Abbott's scheme

Loss of Community Means More Power for the State

Raimondo vs. Rauch: The Marriage Debate You Haven’t Heard Before

The Failure of Bishops

From A New World Pope (Some National and Social Context) by Timothy J. Cullen:

This writer has lived in South America for nine years now, and began spending “non-tourism” time on the continent more than twenty years ago. Persons unfamiliar with South America—regardless of how many films they have seen that are set in it—cannot easily grasp the social conditions in even the more prosperous nations, let alone in those marked by a very high degree of social inequality. The Church—Her hierarchy in particular—has long been perceived by the poor as allied with the wealthy and powerful families that have dominated the region for centuries but have now lost political power to the “resuscitated” revolutionaries of the Sixties and Seventies who to a certain extent have put the promises of Liberation Theology into practice. Traditional Catholicism in particular is often viewed as “elitist” and out of touch with the masses if not with the Mass. The SSPX, largest of the Traditional Catholic priestly fraternities, has no presence in Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia, the three South American nations with the most left-leaning governments, and precious little presence outside of the major cities of the others. In my own rural village, to go no further, outside of one family, there is no interest in the old Mass and nearly no one has heard of the SSPX or has any interest in it, dismissing it as either “the rich people’s Church,” or worse, “the oppressors’ Church”. A goodly number of the villagers reject the Church entirely for this same reason, although they claim nearly to a man to be Catholics.