Posted on 08/27/2010 11:45:13 AM PDT by Hank Kerchief
It’s nice that you acknowledge it.
Sadly, the Catholic Monarch never worked - well, Isabel of Spain was probably about the only one who even came close - even though the idea of a ruler informed by Catholicism is not a bad idea. However, even a “Catholic Monarch” is not a representative of a theocracy, but simply a monarch who subscribes to Catholic principles. Such monarchs are pretty thin on the ground, though, and I don’t think you can build a political theory on their existence.
Fer pete’s sake, go and find out what a theocracy is. It is NOT an established church. By those standards, England would be a theocracy, which it is clearly not.
Go back and review your terms and then try again.
Was he (Constantine) responsible for the building of St. Peter’s Basilica? And the first ecumenical council at Nicea?
"Catholic civilization is the structuring of all human relations, of all human institutions, and of the State itself according to the doctrine of the Church." The other name for this is called "totalitarianism," the complete rule of every aspect of life.
All one has to do is read Ratzinger's "global authority" enclyclical to understand the truth of what you've written.
The counter Reformation never ended.
Nice website, too.
What a load of tripe! Now, why don’t you engage with what the Church officially teaches:
Restored Holy Roman Empire? Put me down for an earldom or at least a barony (or their continental equivalents). It doesn’t have to be big. Just so long as I’m an elector.
The Vatican City is not a “nation” in the sense of a self-governing people — it’s not big enough to have any substantial permanent population, but an independent sovereignty allowing the Holy See to be independent of other sovereign powers. And this helps preserve the independence of the Church from the state. Henry VIII and Stalin are what you get when the Church is at the mercy of the state and is not ultimately independent. It is not remotely similar to Islam and its ideal theocratic state, a caliphate, where religious law is the sole supreme law for all.
When Rome lifts the anathemas against all Protestants maybe Rome will have some credibility.
In a free society, the Church, as does any religion, including Protestant churches, has the right to say what it believes and what it does not believe. It has the right to tell Protestants where their beliefs are wrong, just as Protestants have the (civil) to say where the Catholic Church is wrong. I don’t see the problem here.
Louis IX, of St. Louis, Missouri fame, whose feast we celebrated on the 25th springs immediately to mind. Monarchists get all misty eyed about Charles I of Austria as a "modern" example. Actually there's quite a herd of "good" Catholic monarchs pre-reformation but since then certainly they're rather a rare breed.
To me Catholic monarchists are a bit like Star Trek fans... or Civil War reenactors... or sports nuts. As long as they don't show up at the office in uniform they're pretty benign. I'm all in favor of the occasional harmless eccentricity.
sorry: meant to say “(civil) right”
When the Vatican sends representatives to other countries, are they representing the political arm of the Church or the religious arm? THe same thing with treaties, concords, etc.?
Indeed. He donated several basilicae to the Church to use for worship and personally gave the Church land and finances to build a new basilica as a monument to St. Peter.
And the first ecumenical council at Nicea?
Hosius Cordubensis, a Spanish bishop, proposed the idea - due to the fact that the Arians were gaining ground in Spain.
After consulting with the bishops (who had already held a number of local synods regarding these matters), Constantine offered both a venue and safe passage to to Nicaea for all the bishops able to make the journey. Such a gathering was never possible before - the last time such a Council had been held was in Jerusalem during the time of the Apostles.
Constantine attended, but did not interfere and seated the bishops before he sat down - a breach of royal protocol to demonstrate that he was not in charge: the bishops were.
The Church is not going to pretend false teachings aren't false.
It must get tiring deliberately misrepresenting this paragraph every other week.
Do you really think that no one's heard of international law before?
Ambassadors and treaties help to protect the rights of the Church and its members in the various countries involved. Not really much different from the Mormon church, say, or the Baptist church, sending lobbyists to Washington to protect the interests and freedoms of those religious organizations and their members. It just so happens that in this case, the head of the religious organization involved is an independent sovereignty. Back in the 19th Century and before, when the Papal states were extensive and had true subject populations, your Islamic analogy would be more persuasive, but a few acres in the city of Rome is hardly the same thing.
You've actually hit on something that causes a great deal of annoyance within the Church. I think it was Paul VI who elevated the Secretariat of State over the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith as the highest ranking curial department.
We've had difficulty focusing ever since.
It takes a special kind of idiot to buy this garbage. Definitely ZOT worthy.
Ive been a Catholic for close to 80 years and no one has dictated to me ever.
A worse dictatorship is in the process of stepping overtly on the global stage.
The added horror is that it appears likely that the UFO incidents that constituted Fatima as well as the weight and leadership of the Vatican will be placed behind & in support of the global dictatorship from hell.
This document hints of elements that could be in play in such an eventuality.
It is hideously horrific.
Folks do not realize how movements and pressures can be brought to bear along these lines.
The average person is moved more by memes, themes, images, symbols, emotions, idolized authorities placed higher than God etc. than by well thought out facts and realities—Biblical and otherwise.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.