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Entry: The Neocons and Charles Maurras Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/leo_strauss_the_neocons_and_charles_maurras#6643 Post contents: About the positions of different popes such as Pius X, XI, and XII, I would like to remind some of the correspondents that a pope is infallible only ex cathedra and in matters of doctrine, and when it comes to the affairs of the world, they can be as fallible as anyone else. For example, Popes fought to conserve their temporal holdings in Italy, thinking it a blow to their authority to be deprived of them. Yet time would show that the prestige of the Church could only go up when it was no longer seen quarreling over territory like the temporal states. John Lukacs makes the point that the justified danger of bolchevism led Pius XII to overlook the more pervasive danger of nationalism. That would be one instnace in which a Pope was wrong in a situation in which he claimed on infallibility. As for the Action Francaise, the placing in the Index was extreme, but there was a danger for Catholics in binding themselves too closely to a group that looked upon catholic doctrine as a useful tool to achieve their own ends, and not as an end in itself. Perhaps if French Catholics had learned to keep some emotional distance from a pagan-infused philosophy, there would have no need for a shock treatment to bring them to their senes. Sent at: 2008 05 16