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Entry: A Meditation for Guy Fawkes Day Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/a_meditation_for_guy_fawkes_day#8414 Post contents: Adriana, 1. The Spanish Empire resisted the Turks at Lepanto because it was in the interest of the Spanish Empire to do so, just like it was in the interest of Communist Russia to resist Hitler. Both of those interventions by enemies of England were good for England (and good for Europe, and for Christendom), but that does not mean that they were proof of the doctrine of Papal Infallibility or of Communism. Churchill said of the Russians, "they're fighting to save their own skins", and the same can be said of the Spanish Empire at Lepanto. 2. And you wrote, "As for the Anglican Church, wanting a divorce to marry your mistress hardly classifies as a valid reason to break with Rome." ...I agree, but that does not mean that there was no good reason for the Church of England to break with Rome. Bloody Mary and the attempted Spanish invasion of 1588 were the main reasons (among myriad reasons) for the majority of English people to say, "to Hell with Papists!" And those continuing "gifts" from the IRA, all the bomb scares in London (through which I have muddled with a stiff upper lip), and the Irish-American Catholics who send money - under the guise of "Catholic" charities, mind you - like NORAID - all those atrocities, too, are reasons why the British (and I) remain a WEE bit reluctant to profess unreserved loyalty to the Bishop of Rome and/or to the Church he leads, all too many of whose congregations are temporal, political enemies of Britain and of the peoples and descendant nations of Britain and their domestic tranquility. (cf, inter alia among myriad examples, bloody Joe Kennedy, who actually TOASTED Germany's pending (or so he wished) conquest of England in 1940. (Too bad, Joe Kennedy - your wish didn't come true and never will, you bog-dwelling Fenian criminal whoremongering swine. Although, to be fair, I think Joe Kennedy had more class than his execrable son, JFK. At least Joe Kennedy probably would not have gotten America into the tribal-feudal-swamp-war of VietNam, as his "America Firster" son JFK did.) Hey, you wanna call the Pope your spiritual leader? Fine. The last two Popes, John Paul and Benedict, have been/are great men. (And although I'm not a good Catholic - actually I should not call myself a "Roman" Catholic - I hope Pope John Paul the Great will be canonised soon.) If it suits you to call the Bishop of Rome your spiritual AND temporal final authority, then fine. But in the end, I will continue to pledge my temporal loyalty to my English Protestant (AND "catholic", small "c") heritage, of acknowledging the authority of the Apostles and their successors in all things EXCEPT in temporal matters of internal politics of any sovereign state. THAT is my heritage and patrimony from English Protestantism, and it is inseparable from the heritage and patrimony of the US Constitution, not to mention the Constitution of my adopted country, Australia. You wanna subordinate your personal conscience to the Pope? Fine. But keep it out of the internal affairs of the sovereign state - because the Pope, after all, is just the Bishop of Rome, one temporal sovereign among many. And neither I, nor John Zmirak, nor Taki, would be free to write and publish openly about such matters, if England had not dug in its heels against the depredations of the Papacy in the 1500s-1600s. All that said, I want to say: "Saint John Paul the Great (Pope John Paul II), pray for us!" :-) Sent at: 2008 07 04