Miniature of God creating animals and birds

IN his 1925 encyclical Quas Primas, in which he designated the last Sunday of October as the Feast of Christ the King, Pope Pius XI explained the doctrine of the Social Reign of Christ the King. God has rights not just over the individual conscience, but over society at large. The separation of religion and politics, particularly the one true religion and politics, is a world disaster:

17. It would be a grave error, on the other hand, to say that Christ has no authority whatever in civil affairs, since, by virtue of the absolute empire over all creatures committed to him by the Father, all things are in his power. Nevertheless, during his life on earth he refrained from the exercise of such authority, and although he himself disdained to possess or to care for earthly goods, he did not, nor does he today, interfere with those who possess them. Non eripit mortalia qui regna dat caelestia.

18. Thus the empire of our Redeemer embraces all men. To use the words of Our immortal predecessor, Pope Leo XIII: “His empire includes not only Catholic nations, not only baptized persons who, though of right belonging to the Church, have been led astray by error, or have been cut off from her by schism, but also all those who are outside the Christian faith; so that truly the whole of mankind is subject to the power of Jesus Christ.” Nor is there any difference in this matter between the individual and the family or the State; for all men, whether collectively or individually, are under the dominion of Christ. In him is the salvation of the individual, in him is the salvation of society. “Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given to men whereby we must be saved.” [Quas Primas, Dec. 11, 1925]

Most people today obviously do not accept this proposition. Secular democracy is considered the height of enlightenment. God is too spiritual to be involved in the temporal affairs of government. He is no universal and absolute Monarch, but a kind of supreme personal therapist. It is best for government to proclaim religious neutrality and pluralism so that all can be free to practice their beliefs in private.

There are many problems with this thinking, as the Holy Father explained. First and foremost, society itself is the creation of God.

Now God has endowed man with a nature such that he cannot live otherwise than in society. As a social being, then, man must have God as his final and supreme end. Unless we hold this we must hold that man finds the end of society in society itself, which would be to make of society an idol. Societies are not eternal. It is clear then that their ultimate end lies in this — that, in and through them, the intellect and will of their members should attain to God. [The Social Rights of Our Divine Lord Jesus Christ the King, adapted from the French of the Rev. A. Philippe, CSS.R. by the Rev. Denis Fahey, C.S.Sr.; 1932]

Societies as much as individuals have two choices: to recognize God or reject him. Societies are either atheist or religious. There is no such thing as a neutral government. Fr. Robert Mader wrote in his book Cross and Crown:

Religious neutrality is an impossibility.  No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be subject to the one and despise the other. That is God’s word and therefore an article of faith… There are no neutral governments, no neutral schools, no neutral press, no neutral clubs, no neutral families … This applies to the life of nations. Periods of neutrality are periods of transition, of groping indecision. They are time of twilight between day and night. After the time of neutrality comes the time of service of one master, in which either Christ or Satan will be king. After the liberal twilight comes either the Russian night of persecution or the new Sun-Day of the Kingdom of Christ.

Secular government is never truly secular. Secular democracy deifies the people, asserting that power and authority come from the people when in reality they come from God. The people can only select their leaders, not become the source of authority itself. No human being can rule unless God allows it and every human being is subject to his moral authority.

“Hear ye therefore, ye kings and understand; learn, ye that are judges of the ends of the earth. Give ear, you that ruleth the people, and that please ourselves in multitudes of nations; for power is given to you by the Lord, and strength by the most High …” (Wisdom 6:2-4)

See further reflections on this great feast in defense of the supernatural order on earth by Dr. Thomas Droleskey. Every traditionalist should be a supernaturalist, someone who abhors the pretense in public life that there are no divine realities that are meaningful and no civil obligations to God. In the end all the serious social problems of our day are affected by the immense, overarching problem of institutionalized naturalism, which says that this world is all, and the systematic dethronement of Christ the King. “Wherever the breath of Naturalism has passed,” wrote the great Cardinal Pie of Poitiers, France, “the very source of Christian life has dried up. Naturalism means complete sterility in regard to salvation and eternal life.” In the face of almost universal naturalism, we must, at the risk of ridicule, indifference and scorn for our supposed backwardness, uphold Christ’s ancient and everlasting dominion over the entire social order. As Saint Pius X wrote:

“That the state must be separated from the Church is an absolutely false thesis, a very pernicious error … This thesis inflicts grave damage onto civil society itself; for it cannot prosper or last a long time when place is not given there to religion, which is for man a supreme rule and sovereign mistress for the protection of his rights and duties. [Vehementer Nos, 1906]

Do you think you will “win friends and influence people,” as Dale Carnegie liked to say, if you uphold this doctrine? No way! It is sheer heresy against our civil religion, which falsely holds that civil authority comes from the people, not God. So what! Go ahead and be backward. Influence yourself by openly proclaiming it, without the slightest illusion that secularism will be defeated in your lifetime. Save yourself from the social nihilism — that atomizing, dispiriting spirit — that surrounds us.

Secrets d’histoire naturelle Centre ouest de la France; 1480

[Images courtesy of It’s About Time blog.]

Ozzie and Harriet, twenty-first century edition

A lesbian interracial couple moved into a suburban St. Louis neighborhood last spring and all hell broke loose almost instantly. In the past six months, the police have been regular visitors to the home of Maritha Hunter-Butler and Melanie Anthony, a couple that would be banned by any normal, middle class neighborhood in any normal society, even if they had not exhibited the sort of aggressive, bullying behavior they have been charged with since they moved in. But, as we know, the monstrous Id of the Sexual Revolution rears its fiendish head throughout the land. The women have, if the reports are correct, brought a toxic mix of racial resentment and homosexual entitlement to the neighborhood. This is the cultural reality of normalized lesbianism — not Ellen DeGeneres glamor, but two psychologically disabled and cruelly misled women pooling their resources to partake of the suburban dream. Hunter-Butler was previously convicted of murder-for-hire and has been charged with punching a neighbor in the face. Anthony recently exposed herself to neighbors while making obscene gestures in the presence of children. The women are together raising three boys. (Their very worst offense is perfectly legal!) Their dogs are allegedly out of control.

I feel sorry for anyone trying to sell a house in this enclave. The NAACP is involved and Ferguson protestors are on the alert. Neighbors should start boarding up their windows now. Read More »

THE Russian writer Nikolai Starikov says the United States government has abetted the migrant invasion of Europe. The goal? To weaken its own allies and prevent a strong alliance between Germany and Russia. This is a must-see interview. Whether Starikov is correct about the U.S. role in the invasion, and the reasons for that support, he convincingly argues that the migrant crisis has been directed from above. Read More »

A Kenyan woman at Henry Makow’s site offers six reasons why careerism is a bum deal for women. She writes:

I would like to tell you of some of my conclusions I have come to from observations and experiences at employment, for males and females. God created us differently and to do otherwise is to upset nature.

First of all, there can be no equal treatment at the workplace for males and females in terms of pay. How can you compare a female ( single – has fewer bills, married – has husband to also support her) to a male who has to provide for himself and his family?

Second, women should not be given managerial positions in mixed gender employment settings.  A  woman commanding a man is against nature and God. The man can’t talk back to the boss because he has a family to feed. He feels anger and that is directed against other females in general. I think that’s something very wrong! Yet society is encouraging this to be the norm and calls it progress. Read More »

ROBERT M. writes:

A few thoughts on Paul C.’s comments in the entry, “What Happened to Those Urban Enclaves:”

1.The WASP establishment already lived in the suburbs or in private places in the city. So this urban redevelopment wasn’t going to affect them at all. If anything it was going to bring cheaper gardeners, maids, etc. closer to their doorstep. And enable them to get out to their country homes faster.

2. The public sphere was destroyed. Because of the so-called “rights of the oppressed” you didn’t have to be polite anymore. Any person began having the right to barge into a social situation, no matter how customary, and just demand “free-speech,” “rights,” “acceptance,” ”recognition,” etcetera. So everybody retreated indoors and watched television. But the same cultural manipulators were waiting for them on the tube, lo and behold! Including a picture of suburbia presented by Leave it to Beaver. No wonder they soon moved. Read More »

Introibo Ad Altare Dei reports on the plan for female deaconesses. Read More »

“And they call us Catholic!”

PAUL C. writes:

How do you respond to those who say we should not be worrying about the synod in Rome because Jesus will not let anyone change dogma?  They say the person would be struck dead. Read More »

THE SCENE last week at the Cathedral of Mar de Plata in Argentina as feral bands of women, some masked and half naked, observed the pro-abortion March for Women by attacking Catholics praying and standing watch. From Lifesite News:

The women tore down the outer gate of the cathedral and hurled glass bottles and feces at the young men standing guard. When they  attempted to burn down the Cathedral the police began taking measures to  disperse the hordes.

Father Gabriel Mestre, the “Vicar of the Cathedral,” reportedly gave this shocking statement:

“[O]ne has to accept the dynamic and the dissent, and in fact in the Church we have to accept it because I think that more than half is in favor of legal abortion, and for that there are proper avenues, within a pluralistic and democratic society to generate policies which each from his ideological frame of reference considers as an appropriate way to progress, just like happened with ‘marriage’ equality or with divorce.” Read More »

Reynier Hals (Dutch painter, 1627-1671) Women Peeling Apples

A BIT of apple lore and more paintings can be found here.

AS more supermarket jobs become mechanized (which should be a good thing in the long run as human beings can be freed up to do better things), the people who work for the large supermarket chains foreshadow the change. More and more of them appear to have been trained to act like machines.  Social interaction in the store is a scripted experience. A friend wrote to me yesterday:

Shopping has become less human. The insidious music and the robotic employees—in the sense that they have a script:  “Did you find everything you need?”  [“No. Let me hold up the line so I can fetch the things I forgot.”]

My new favorite is the way they are now trained to answer the phone at Joann Fabric:  “Joann Fabrics and Crafts. How may I inspire you?” Nauseating. Whatever happened to the small talk one occasionally participated in at the register, or bantering with shop employees?

While I’m on the subject, the most awful thing (to me) is the way businesses don’t have “customers” anymore, rather “guests.”  There was nothing wrong with being a customer, as in bringing one’s custom to a shop.  It was a dignified human relationship, that of customer and shopkeeper.

I loathe the way consultants/advisers, whomever, tamper with our beautiful language. It is a form of warfare. Read More »

FROM The Daily Caller:

Two NASA supervisors were criminally indicted Tuesday under U.S. espionage laws for “willfully violating” national security regulations while allowing a visiting Chinese foreign national to gain “complete and unrestricted access” to the space agency’s Langley Research Center, according to the U.S. Attorneys office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The indictments of NASA Langley supervisors Glenn A. Woodell and Daniel J. Jobson cap a federal investigation into the two supervisor’s decision to permit Bo Jiang unrestricted access for two years at Langley. Bo Jiang was deported back to China in 2013.

A society without divorce is not a society without marital conflict. It is not a society without martial unhappiness. It is not a society without marital separation. Conflict is inherent to marriage, just as it is to life itself. For some it is much worse than others.

A society without legal divorce is beautiful not because it is easy but because it is idealistic. Loyalty is super-human. Loyalty is beautiful precisely because it does not suit us. It infuses society with the transcendent in the same way a palace beautifies the lives of the poor who live nearby. Marriage is art, not instinct. Marriage is will when not feeling.

At Crisis, Anthony Esolen reflects on the traditional Catholic view of divorce, in light of the family synod in Rome. His essay is nice, but it is unlikely to move the hearts of revolutionary “bishops” in Rome who fulfill some of the worst stereotypes of male clergy who know nothing about marriage. Of course, it is difficult! The vow itself is a sign of difficulty and obstacles, you committee crunchers! We don’t vow to eat lunch everyday. We don’t vow to take a shower. We vow to do things that are impossible. All times have been “challenging times” when it comes to marriage.

Imagine standing at the gate of a medieval town and saying to a group of invaders, “But look how beautiful our houses are!”  They would not be there if there wasn’t something to destroy.

FROM an essay by the Catholic author John Rao:

Americanism makes us men without a country, just as it makes us men without an authoritative state, a network of real institutions with traditions and esprit de corps, men without a history. Americanism seeks to replace the nation with an ideology, patriotism with an ideological, fideisitic religion. But ideology cannot take the place of faith, the state, the city, the family and everything else of importance to national life. It cannot take the place of a real nation. And, hence, it leaves the American suspended in a limbo which the Americanist would have us believe is a model for the cosmos as a whole.

HURRICANE BETSY writes in response to the post about a Korean-American wedding:

I know a businesswoman who dealt with east Asian women who emigrate to the U.S.A. and Canada to work, and marry white men.  She told me that these women have an agenda that would curl your toes.  And it ain’t “love.”

THOMAS F. BERTONNEAU writes at the Sydney Traditionalist Forum’s Symposium 2015 that a “conservative” is:

A historyless, cultureless person who believes that life today is normal, and that things have always been normal; and who judges that Globalization must be good for people because it is merely an improvement on what is normal – that is, the subjection of everything to Economy. A Traditionalist, by contrast, grasps Globalization as the exportation of crisis not only to every quarter of the world, but to every city, town, and village of every niche of every quarter of the world. A Traditionalist grasps that Progress is deeply abnormal, globally existential in its implications, and that its crisis-mongers cannot be bought off. The price of stopping them is much higher than any simple bribery – and there is no room for hedging.

A POET from Indiana offers compelling proof of discrimination by publishers against white male literary artists. From The Federalist:

The literary journal Prairie Schooner published “The Bees, the Flowers, Jesus, Ancient Tigers, Poseidon, Adam and Eve” by Yi-Fen Chou in its Fall 2014 issue, and the poem was referred to the Best American Poetry 2015 anthology, which accepted it and published it this fall. Then the earth shook to see the heavens on fire, because “Yi-Fen Chou” was actually a cynically chosen pen name for Michael Derrick Hudson, a white male poet from Indiana.

After his acceptance, Hudson confessed his white male identity to anthology editor Sherman Alexie, who decided to include the poem anyway.

Poetry is a subjective business. But Hudson’s revelation that “The Bees….” was rejected 40 times under his real name is revealing: “If this indeed is one of the best American poems of 2015, it took quite a bit of effort to get it into print, but I’m nothing if not persistent….”

Kidist Paulos Asrat found the same phenomenon at work a few months ago when she tried to organize a program on Western Civilization at the public library in multicultural Mississauga, Ontario.

TIBERGE at Galliawatch reports that at least some French students are now being taught to refrain from referring to Germanic invaders during the Middle Ages as “barbarians.” They were “migrants.”

See other posts from Tiberge on the latest news in France.