Centrum - Walk The Middle Way
©Prax Maskaren de Sangolda, 15th Marz 2003
In Religion, Politics, Lifestyle, Etc.
We are the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church has its fundamental as every other body has. But granted this, Catholicism is more about Centrism - the avoidance of Extremes - than about anything else.
For Centrism, Christ Jesus and His Doctrine is the reference - the Center.
Thus, as Centrists, we are told to avoid the extremes of heresies on either side of orthodoxy. One example of this is the advice to avoid extreme mortification - unless one is very certain that it is the will of God. This is because extreme mortification is the putting to death of our bodies - if overdone or done in the wrong spirit, it can become 'suicide', which is a sin. We are told to exercise moderation and to practice mortification under the guidance and direction of our spiritual directors. In the absence of such guidance, one should go for a prudent privation.
The same holds true for political questions. Many Catholics are enthusiastic Monarchists. This is an extreme. Human Monarchies, from the viewpoint of Catholicism, are no better or worse than other legitimate forms of government. And the Church recognizes that Democracies, Dictatorships, etc., can be legitimate.
A monarchy is not naturally programmed or biased in favour of Christianity. In the history of the Church, monarchs have perpetrated great damage to the Church. Before the Coming of our Lord, Solomon, by his marital alliances with neighbouring pagan nations, permitted the entrance and practice of paganisms in Israel, for which both he and Israel were punished, the Kingdom being broken into two. And when we study the history of the kings, we see that by and large, the kings have been a disaster for the faith. Only a small, very small minority of kings had been faithful to God.
In the time of our Lord, Constantinus Chlorinus, his descendants and successors caused a great deal of trouble and strife for the Church and the faith by their interference in clerical matters, and by their favouring of the Arian, Nestorian, Monophysite, Monothelite, Iconoclastic, etc., heresies. This countinued under the Carolingians and Ottonians. The latter even arrogated to themselves the right to nominate the popes without reference to the Church.
In more recent times, Phillip le Bel of France caused a great deal of damage by his supporting the recalcitrant Colonnas and by adopting their quarrel with Pope Boniface VIII (Benedict Caetan), making it into his personal vendetta, resulting in his brutal persecution of that holy pontiff, foisting his own nominees as Boniface's successors, the outrage against the Order of the Knights Templar and in the 'domestication' of the Papacy in Avignon, in France's backwater - the infamous 'Babylonian Captivity' that was fruitful of so many troubles, schisms and which, by destroying the social integrity of Christendom, paved the way for the successful rise of Protestantism.
Again, it was the princes of Germany and of the north who supported Luther against the Christians, and it was King Henry VIII Tudor, King James Stuart and the House of Orange that caused the secession of England, Scotland and the Low Countries from Christianity.
The House of Bourbon, ruling in France, Spain and Naples and descended from the protestant Henry of Navarre who became Catholic to gain the French throne, is directly responsible for terrorizing the papacy, as Philip had earlier done with the Templars, to disband the Jesuits - a move that opened the way for the success of anti-clericalism and led to the French Revolution that destroyed this very House - which had destroyed the very order that had saved them till date.
Even closer to our times, the Habsberg Emperor Joseph of Austria caused a great deal of lasting damage to the Church by his Regalist heresy. (Josephinism).
And lastly, the House of Savoy teamed up with the Freemasons to perpetrate the outrage of 1870 - the overthrow and robbery the Papal States.
Protestants are very eager to claim that it is they who revived Democracy and that modern Democracy is a Protestant idea. That is an utter lie.
Long before the rise of the Protestants, Catholic states rising out of the rubble of the Roman Empire, constituted themselves deliberately as Republics or democracies, and these lasted down to our age. The most famous of these were Venice, Genoa and Switzerland - which commenced as a Catholic state and was partially encroached upon by the Calvinists during the Deformation and completely during the Sonderbund. Nor were these republic marginal to the Catholic community. On the contrary, Venice and Genoa were the superpowers of their day!
While not a truly independent republic, the Hanseatic League was also a de facto Catholic republican state.
These republics lasted for more than a thousand years, long antecedating Protestantism.
Nor is Protestantism specifically republican. On the contrary, it is acutely monarchist.
Aside from the short-lived Dutch Republic, there was no Protestant Republican state for a very long time until the rise of the United States - or for long since then. It was only the fall of Germany in the First War that made it a republic - and even then, Germany is half-Protestant, half-Christian, and the republic is secular! Even the USA is and has been officially secular since its foundation! So, which is the first true Protestant republic? I can't think of even one!
Diet
As with Religion and Politics, so with Diet: The Church advices moderation. Now moderation is the avoidance both of defect and of excess. Both are harmful. One must strive for the happy mean.
Excessive consumption of food, or a particular class or type of comestible or component of foods, such as sugar, fat, etc., damages our health. Therefore we must avoid unhealthy habits and addictions that distort our health.
The only exception to this rule is the need of imposing privation upon ourselves in order to mortify our bodies so that our spirits can be weaned off the things of this world, be cleansed and turned and attuned to God. Even this should preferably be undertaken only under the guidance of a properly authorised spiritual director. In the absence of one, one can seek the advice of prudent elders and members of the community of faith, good books, and the like, to form one's conscience and for guidance.
Lifestyle
As with other matters, in our lifestyles too, we must practice moderation. We must exercise - necessarily, but again in moderation and with prudence. It is neither moderation nor prudence to avoid exercise or some kind of sport or physical exertion altogether. Nor should this be restricted to nominal exertion.
Catholic educationists advice sports involving a great deal of physical exertion as a means of overcoming temptaions and impure thoughts in growing youth.
One should avoid excessive or obsessive involvement in any activity - including in one's employment. One must avoid greed and overreaching and anxiety.
Women should know that childbearing and homemaking are their natural, though not exclusive vocation - but even in this they should not allow themselves to get into a rut. Certainly, the raising of children is a fulltime vocation, but even so, the mother should make time for relaxation and to be away, to be refreshed, to interact with other people and to keep her mind fresh thereby. Otherwise, women tend to dumb down being exposed only to growing children - which can become a tragedy and the basis for a disaster. So, atleast, is my understanding.
The television is an indifferent instrument. As the world is corrupt, so does it pour its corruption into your home. Catholics should avoid television, not because television in itself is bad, but because it is more often than not, an instrument for evil. This is true even for science or other specialised channels. Immodesty and false ideas, such as evolution, are hawked everywhere.
The best means of resisting the all-pervading vileness of the world of today is to retreat into exclusively Catholic communities, and to create their own little worlds where Christ alone reigns. Then it would be possible to have our own television, without impieties.