worldview

My Catholic World View

      It really is not as complicated a subject as one might think, in fact, my Catholic view of the world actually took me rather by surprise. I was not raised in the Church, and converted after I had already formed, for the most part, my idea of how things do and should work. I had begun to find, study and accept many of my current principles before I realized, "these are all Catholic principles". In many ways, one could say I put the cart in front of the horse, but, better late than never, I have arrived at the Truth.
       First of all, I will say that I believe there exists definite and eternal concepts of good and evil. Good is ultimately represented by God and evil by Satan, both of whom I believe are very real living, thinking and acting beings who have a direct impact on the lives of all humanity. I see the world in terms of those who are good and those who are evil, or as St Augustin so eloquently put it, those who occupy the City of God and those who occupy the City of the Earth.
       Probably the best example of my world view was seen during the reign

HH Pope Innocent III

of His Holiness Pope Innocent III, when the Church and Christendom were at their height of power and unity. All the nations of Europe recognized the same Christian religion as the basis for their values, beliefs, and society and culture in general, though there were definite and beautiful differences in tradition between the Latin and Byzantine influenced areas of Europe. All nations recognized that true authority came only from God and that the Pope was His Vicar and their feudal lord. The supremacy of the Church was so accepted that Pope Innocent III was able to depose rulers who behaved in an immoral or unChristian way. I can admire this because, I believe in God, I believe in the original true Church founded by Christ and spread by His apostles, that the Church is the highest and most glorious institution on earth and that, as Christ said, "the gates of Hell will not prevail against it".

Furthermore, I believe that God is eternal and that His principles and commandments, His mercy and His authority are likewise eternal, and that no earthly power, no body of thought and no wave of popular opinion can ever override Christian principles. I am fully confident of, and in fact glory in, the truth of the words of His Holiness Pope Boniface VIII who wrote in the Papal Bull Unam Sanctam, "By our faith we are compelled to believe and sustain one holy Catholic and Apastolic Church. This We firmly believe, and We make simple confession that outside the Church there is no salvation or remission of sins....Therefore, We declare, affirm and define as a truth necessary for salvation that every human being is subject to the Roman pontiff."
In short, there can only be right or wrong, there is no third option. Some people may seem to live good lives outside of the Christian religion, but they are in fact doing no more than attempting to silence their own souls by doing the "right" thing without recognizing the authority which has taught us all the difference between right and wrong. In this way, they can feel a little better

HH Pope Boniface VIII

without submitting to other aspects of God's wishes which they do not want to follow. At heart then, there is some sin which they refuse to give up, so they try to compensate with deeds to quiet their pained souls.
I believe that all morals come from God, but I also believe that everything good, true, legitimate and proper also comes from God, through His body the Church. Unlike many people today, I extend this to include the realm of government and politics. Therefore, my Christian faith also makes me a monarchist at heart, even a legitimist in the best tradition of the Jacobites, Carlists and Bourbon loyalists. The Church has stated on numerous occasions that monarchism is the best of all governments. I oppose revolution almost on principle, though I realize that when one is forced to choose between obeying God and obeying an earthly ruler, rebellion is certainly the only option. I believe that the only true authority is authority which comes from God and that legitimacy and illegitimacy are just as important as good and bad governments. History has shown that wherever monarchy has died the Church has also been under the most dire attacks.
However, living in the United States, I am perfectly at peace with the republican system, recognize it as a "power" to which I must submit, and am content to "render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's". I am loyal to my country because God commands me to be a good citizen and support my community, though my first loyalty is always to my God and to His "nation" on earth, the Church. Despite these beliefs though, I cannot consider myself as simply a conservative, at least in the modern sense, because I also find that capitalism tends to glorify greed, justify materialism and the exploitation of many people. Every effort at Communism has proven it to be a cure worse than the original illness, so that cannot be an option, rather I

look to the example of His Holiness Pope Leo XIII for my ideal. He was no radical socialist, in fact he stated openly that he was a monarchist and was often called Il Papa-Re, however he also championed the cause of the poor working class.
I believe that capitalism allows for the wealthy to exploit the poor, yet the socialist system only increases class hatred by forcing the rich to give money they have earned to the poor. I believe that only through support of the Christian principle of charity can the solution be found. If they wealthy can be prevailed upon to realize the joy of charity they can help the poor and their soul through giving cheerfully. It is only in this way that both the rich and the poor obtain some benefit. Greed must be forced to take a back seat again to religion, as it had during the High Middle Ages, before the era of the Renaissance brought a love of money that led to massive corruptions.
The Church has long insisted that Communism is one of the greatest

H.H. Pope Leo XIII

threats faced by the modern world. However, we must also be quick to guard against materialism and the greed of rampant capitalism. God wants us to care for the less fortunate, help those who are in need and to remember that many people have entertained angels without being aware of it. Jesus said, 'as you do to the least of these my brothers, you do to me'. Right and wrong are the same things no matter what name they may go by. The world would be a much better place if we stopped looking at things in terms of simply "us and them" and started looking at "right and wrong".
I think everyone needs some firm belief upon which to base their lives if they intend to have any peace of mind at all, to say nothing of anything more. I am content to let my base, my rock as it were, be the one, holy, catholic and apastolic Church. For over two thousand years, the Church alone has endured and prospered. Jesus said that all things would pass away but that He would remain forever constant. Over vast centuries, countless catastrophies, heresies, wars and captivities the Catholic Church has remained and not backed down from her teaching. The power of the Church may rise and fall, but the Church always remains. Since the time of Christ and the founding of the Church, every single other human institution which existed at the time has been destroyed or fallen away, except for the Church; perhaps one of the greatest arguments for the fact that it is not really a "human" institution at all.

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