Thanks again for presenting clarity.
Forever, it seems to me, the Catholic church has honored the principle of subsidiarity.
I would like to make a comment also about “globalization”.
Born in the 1920’s, I can remember a time when it would have been surreal to imagine that one could take passenger international flight. It was enough just to think about air warfare in WWI and WWII (prop engines). It would have been surreal to think that you didn’t have to go to the wall to lift the receiver off the hook and call someone—IF you could get them off the party line first. I still remember my grandmother’s phone number, which I had to ask the operator to dial for me. (it was 74K !) It would have seemed surreal to think that I could talk to my son on another continent on a cordless phone, or that I can do so now by looking at him on the computer monitor as we speak. I can even go to google earth and see where my son is at this moment.
Much younger people can’t imagine such a world as I knew in my youth.
All of these highly technical things have been the impetus for global communication, global commerce, global posting of realtime news, global transit. By the very nature of the time we live in, we can’t escape the global situation anymore.
But that does not, nor should not, eliminate sovereignity of nations. Every sovereign nation wills—or should will—to be self-governing. That is the whole meaning of the importance of the law of subsidiarity.
The concept of sovereign nations governing and protecting themselves as opposed to international global terrorism, is a whole other concept of what happens when there is abandonment of national self-governance.
We can’t turn back the clock on the world gone global. But we are certainly called to bring Christ to it, as we’ve been called to do in every era since the Resurrection.
Do you, as a conservative, believe along with Joseph Ratzinger, that the U.N. should be strengthened and that U.S. sovereignty should be put under the control of a “global authority” given a power of enforcement “with teeth?”
Your religion has taken subsidiarity and found a way to make it sound good to you guys...
Main Entry: sub·sid·i·ar·i·ty
Pronunciation: \ˌsəb-si-dē-ˈer-ə-tē, səb-ˌsi-\
Function: noun
Date: 1936
1 : the quality or state of being subsidiary
2 : a principle in social organization: functions which subordinate or local organizations perform effectively belong more properly to them than to a dominant central organization
1 a : furnishing aid or support : auxiliary b : of secondary importance 2 : of, relating to, or constituting a subsidy
Main Entry: 1sub·sid·i·ary
Pronunciation: \səb-ˈsi-dē-ˌer-ē, -ˈsi-də-rē\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin subsidiarius, from subsidium reserve troops
Date: 1543
Reserve troops, under A central command...
Sounds good, kinda...
It's a pyramid...There is no sovereignty outside of the central authority...No more sovereignty of nations as we know it...
Within the US, Washington is the central authority...We are a sovereign nation...We used to have sovereign states but that is long past...
Under your popes' subsidiarity, they want to run the world like they do your religion...One guy at the top...Everybody follows the central rules...You're allowed to go about your business, make your little decisions, even elect your local officials AS LONG AS they don't veer away from or conflict with the framework of the Central Authority...
Just like the former Soviet Union...Just like your religion...
No Thanks...
Someday we'll be able to do a fist-bump across the continent :o) --- for now, I'll just say Amen.