One Nation Under Rome

Every American man, woman, and child (I hope) is familiar with the story of our country’s founding.

The American colonists–being unjustly treated by a monarch–were able to break away from the oppression and set up a system of decentralized government to prevent future situations of the nation suffering at the hands of a single ruler.

This political power, unsurprisingly, has become more centralized over time–but that’s besides the point.

When many non-Catholics observe the structure of the Church, many perceive it to be the same ordeal.

Basically, they believe that we lay Catholics must obey and agree with every single statement the Pope makes because he’s vaguely some sort of spiritual boss.

Or even better: the Catholic Church can’t be true because the Pope has said false things before and since the Pope is infallible, this presents a clear contradiction.

This is incorrect–but to save time, I’ll leave the elaborate explanation and what the term ex cathedra means for a different memo.

But when it comes to the Pope, it is one of a few reasons why Catholicism and the nation’s founding ideals don’t mix particularly well.

To understand why, we need to rewind a bit.

While the Founding Fathers respected US Catholics’ freedom of religion, most harbored resentment towards the Church and the Pope.

The first reason is that most of the Founding Fathers were typically Protestant given their English ancestry.

Nowadays Catholics and Protestants–despite the fierce and high-stakes YouTube debates–get along in modern society.

But it wasn’t always that way.

There is an extremely detailed history of disdain, prejudice, and bloodshed between between the two, especially in Europe.

Because of this, nearly all of the nation’s founders maintained their Protestant brotherhood and excluded Catholics–with one exception: Charles Carroll.

Notoriously known as only Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence, Carroll was born in Maryland to a couple of Irish descent.

Interestingly enough, although Maryland was originally founded in 1634 by Cecil Calvert as a safe haven for Catholics (hence the name), it was only a matter of time before it conformed with the other colonies and passed the typical anti-Catholic laws: being forbidden to vote, hold office, establish Catholic schools, and more.

By the time the American Revolution rolled around and the Constitution was being drafted, the tide had shifted from fierce anti-Catholicism to religious freedom–yet suspicion towards the religion remained.

Simply put, the Founders viewed the papacy as a direct obstacle to the “free” government structure being constructed.

Fast forwarding to the 1960s, a Catholic presidential candidate named John Fitzgerald Kennedy had a real shot of winning the presidency.

And boy did this scare a lot of people.

There was no precedent for a Catholic running the nation and many people genuinely thought there would be collusion between JFK and Pope Paul VI.

The question of whether a Catholic could truly be loyal to the Constitution given his spiritual allegiance to a “foreign power” was sweeping the nation.

All types of rumors were flying around:

“My sources are saying he’s going to build a Vatican embassy inside the White House!”

“Some are saying that Catholic bishops would have veto power over presidential decisions!"

“If he gets elected, the First Amendment will be completely evaporated!”

Despite the noise, JFK addressed these rumors head on and emphasized that he was a firm believer in the separation of church and state.

Fast forward to the present era and things are much different–no one was asking whether or not Joe Biden would be colluding with Pope Francis to run the nation.

Looking at the social landscape of this country, we seem to be at the frontier of a new Christian revival.

There are several reasons for this with the primary one likely being the inevitable degeneracy that proceeds from a society following secular humanist principles.

While many are converting to Catholicism–especially young males–the default seems to be the non-institutional evangelical form of Christianity that solely includes their Bibles and a few podcasts from Johnny Chang or Girls Gone Bible every week.

The reasons why this type of Christianity is insufficient are numerous, but a breakdown of these points isn’t the point of this memo.

Instead I’ll give a few reasons why it is more compatible with the ideas that this country was founded on.

Like referenced earlier, it is the DNA of America to reject the authority of any type of monarchical figure.

It is common to intertwine the workings of the spiritual and political realm and assume it should function in the exact same way.

In fact, people would likely want Catholicism to have some sort of democratic system in which the majority of people agree on whether a doctrine is correct or not because that’s the only way Americans know.

Or they’d likely request (in a more similar fashion to the American government) some sort of representative democracy where priests, bishops, and popes are elected by the people.

Given there are more Catholics who deny the physical presence of Christ than those who believe so, something tells me that wouldn’t be a good idea.

As we’ve figured out in America, truth isn’t guaranteed by the idea that more than half of the population believes something to be true, as most people are empty vessels and can be convinced of just about anything.

The real truth that people can’t contend with is that God became man, gathered twelve apostles, and then formed a monarchical and hierarchical church that delegated authority to these twelve men–whose authority lives on in priests and bishops through apostolic succession.

When it comes to hierarchies, it turns out that a lot of people aren’t very fond of them for two reasons: people at the bottom of the pyramid don’t like them, and there are always more people at the bottom than towards the top.

Conservatism, at its core, preaches the inevitability of hierarchies.

Conversely, liberalism, at its core, rejects the necessity of hierarchies and demands egalitarianism into perpetuity.

Egalitarianism, when applied to the right contexts, makes perfect sense and leads to positive outcomes.

After all, we are all equal under the eyes of God, are we not?

However, in most practical situations, it falls short as a guiding principle.

If everyone is born “equal,” then the idea that someone has any sense of authority over me without my consent (in the form of a vote) becomes absurd.

Applying this to the average nondenominational church, it falls in line with the idea that there is really no sense of hierarchy or authority.

Sure, there are pastors–but their authority is more fluid, and their leadership style is more charismatic than institutional.

This authority would never expand to the ability to act in persona Christi and forgive sins for example.

In addition to a rejection of rigid hierarchies and monarchies, America is notorious for its principle of rugged individualism, which can undeniably be fruitful when applied in the right manner.

The idea that your ability to succeed in this country doesn’t depend what larger social, ethnic, or religious group you belong to is a major reason why millions of people do everything in their power to come here every year.

But the concepts of autonomy and self-sufficiency fall flat on its face when applied in a religious context.

The DIY version of Christianity that strips away the Pope, the Magisterium, tradition, sacraments, and teachings of Church Fathers is simply set up to fail.

Frankly put, we are not as smart as we think we are.

Even if we were, we would still lack the full guidance of the Holy Spirit in the same way He guides the Church.

Lastly, there is a clear dichotomy between Americanism’s pragmatic and rationalist mindset and Catholicism’s focus on “the mystery” and sacramentalism.

Nondenominationalism is centered around a pastor’s sermon and analysis of scripture, specifically with the goal of applying Jesus’s teachings to one’s life.

Don’t get me wrong–applying Jesus’s moral teachings of spiritual poverty, chastity, forgiveness, and more to your life is crucial to being a follower of Christ.

However, there is so much more to Christianity than this–particularly its mystical nature–which is preserved in Catholicism.

In Catholicism, bread becomes God. Water regenerates. Words absolve. Hand motions (the sign of the cross) protect.

There are spiritual realities of physical objects that are essential to our faith that we only know because of our faith.

This mystical reality simply doesn’t make sense when analyzing it from the post-Englightenment fundamentals our country was built on.

And that’s a serious problem.

However, it’s a problem that is slowly being solved as more people join the Catholic faith that is one, holy, universal, and apostolic.

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Thanks for reading and until next time.

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