The Catholic State

The Coronation of Blessed Emperor Charles of Austria and Hungary in Budapest in 1916 - the last Catholic coronation held following the Roman Pontifical.

According to the owner of the prominent progressive blog, "The Counter-Enlightenment", the ideal of the conservative Catholic state based on an alliance between throne and altar was consigned to the dustbins of history with General Franco's death in 1975. I say, on the contrary, it lives, and will continue to live, in the minds of those who believe in it, which is the entire plenitude of the Catholic Church, for the ideal of the counter-enlightenment Catholic state is founded deeply in our faith, in the teachings of the Church, and in the magisterial documents right up to and including the Second Vatican Council (cf. Dignitatis Humanae, 1).

There is no moral alternative in a Catholic country except a state that functions on Catholic principles as a confessional state where the government accepts as valid all the doctrines of the Catholic Church and implements them as much as possible in society. When Catholic countries are ruled otherwise - they end up in a disastrous state. All Catholic countries must be ruled by leaders who believe in Catholicism, in all Catholic doctrines, and uphold the exclusive right of the Catholic Church over society. It is an oxymoron, or at least is should be, to speak of a "Catholic country with a secular government", for a Catholic nation by its very nature must have a Catholic confessional government.

There is no other way. As Juan Donoso Cortés said: "The doctrinal intolerance of the Church has saved the world from chaos" because "The Church has defended liberty against those who aspired to convert authority into tyranny, and authority against peoples who aspired to an absolute emancipation." The Church, always mindful of her obligation to "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation" (Mark 16:15), calls the world to conversion, and it is properly the role of the state first and foremost to assist the Church in her salvific mission in every possible way. The Catholic Church categorically rejects, and always will, the liberal Enlightenment ideal that somehow the state should profess secularism, rather than the true religion.

Outside of the Church's conception of the world - there is only chaos and confusion. Within it - there is hope, justice, mercy, and "the peace of God, which passes all understanding", which keeps our "hearts and minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:7).