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Entry: Ron Paul and Pius IX Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/ron_paul_and_pius_ix#16231 Post contents: John, I don't think you are a twit. You have tackled a problem that has been perplexing me very much of late: How does a doctrinaire Catholic who loves Christendom and its values (e.g. the social reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ) reconcile himself to (or, at least, deal with) some of the principles of his anti-statist, pro-natural law allies whose political background is immersed in what I think you call "classical liberalism" -- which would include much of what we call "conservatism" in this country? I move in circles very unlike yours, but we wrestle with many of the same questions. You speak of reconciling Pio Nono with Ron Paul. We could make it Dom Gueranger with George Washington, or Edouard Cardinal Pie with Robert E. Lee. It seems that you are opting for a pragmatic solution which faces the fact that Leviathan (the modern state) is so out of control. It resists baptism, so it must be limited. This is sensible and logical, as far as it goes. As our mutual friend, Mr. Gary Potter, has told me, modern statecraft is so obscenely out of order, so invasive into the lives of the citizenry and private institutions, that in our concrete setting, confessional states are not desirable. Attempting it now would perforce invite the kind of Cesaro-Papism that turned the Byzantine Church into a plaything of the Emperor for much of its history. In other words, should we attempt to baptize Leviatian, the font will produce a Philip the Fair, not his grandpa, St. Louis IX. As a religious duty, it is incumbent upon Catholics to try to make America a place where a future Christendom can be built, but the actual building of it requires much that is beyond our control. This is not overly pragmatic. It's realistic. Even Englebert Dolfuss, who worked closely with Pope Pius XI (the pope of Quas Primas!), wisely did not attempt to make his Austrian Republic a Catholic confessional state. What we American Catholics have to remember, though, is what Leo XIII told us in Testem Benevolentiae: this situation ("classical liberalism") is NOT an ideal. Sent at: 2008 09 07