Tea at Trianon: The Death of Western Catholicism

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, May 11, 2014

The Death of Western Catholicism

I do not agree that the demise of Christendom is a reason to celebrate because *now* people will be able to enjoy a "pure Catholicism." Like imperfect contrition in the confessional, people living in a Catholic culture could enjoy the benefits of that civilization even when they were not living a devout life. For instance, there were orders of nuns to look after fallen women and their children. Now the children are aborted. And people being chaste from worldly motives is still a better lifestyle than sleeping around. But according to Aleteia:

In these pre-modern and not-fully-modern societies you had, then, many motives for being Catholic, utilitarian, worldly motives. You had strong motives for Catholicism even if you totally lacked "pure" Catholic motives. But in the fully modernized countries of today’s world, you and your children and grandchildren won't be able to hold on to your Catholicism if your motives are merely utilitarian, merely worldly. For we live in a world of economic prosperity, modern medicine, democratic sanctions for political authority, non-religious bases for social consensus, and a scientific view of the world that tends to undermine all superstitions. Catholicism is no longer needed for these things.

But this frees people up to be Catholic for purely Catholic reasons. Take chastity, for example. It is a great Catholic virtue. In the old days premarital chastity - or in any case, premarital abstention from sex - was embraced by young women (and some young men) for a largely utilitarian motive: it was a way of avoiding pregnancy. Nowadays you don't need to be chaste (or sexually abstemious) to avoid pregnancy; instead you simply use contraception. If a fully modern Catholic living in a fully modern society opts for chastity, this choice can now be from purely Catholic motives. That is, the person will choose chastity, not for any utilitarian reason, but because he or she recognizes it, and embraces it, as a great Catholic virtue, quite apart from any worldly consequences. (Read more.)