We are glad to publish today, on the 250th anniversary of the birth of the United States of America, a thought-provoking essay by Thomas Storck, one of the greatest living exponents of Catholic Social Teaching (you can see his books here).
A thought-provoking and, I think, a necessary piece for all to read. It articulates a great many things I’ve suspected and felt implicitly for quite some time. That being said, I don’t think the classical form of patriotism is altogether absent from the United States. I think, in fact, we’ve arrived at a cultural crossroads where it’s very much apparent to more and more people that adherence to a universalizing abstraction cannot sustain the life of a nation. The “America First” reaction has its own set of temptations, but I think it reflects a larger adjustment taking place. Our current political regime may not, in fact, be the final form of American national life, and do actually have a well of under-explored cultural resources that could go into shaping a future one. All things considered, there’s is cause for thankfulness and celebration today as well as hope for the future. May God guide this land and people toward fulfillment of their true purpose in the world, preserving the good, and purging the bad.
"Clannishness was and is the key to his temperament, and he went off to war to protect not Alabama but only those thirty or forty acres of its sandy hillsides or stiff red clay...whose sanctity to him came from the fact that in it were buried the bones of his own blood kin."
The Ordways- William Humphrey
This leapt immediately to mind reading this essay.
This is interesting and a pretty good exposition on how one ought to regard the United States of America. It's my country, and I love it, and I think I am hugely blessed to be an American. I love it and have always loved it exactly as Mr. Storck describes one should love one's country. I disagree, though, that such love is mostly absent in our country. I think it's very present, mixed up with some mistaken ideas, to be sure, in the hearts of the majority of us who live in flyover territory. It seems to be largely absent in the big cities, and that's a huge problem. Yet another consequence of having forsaken the land. I am beginning to think that the consequences of that terrible migration will never end.
This article puts into words a (at the time) vague vision I formed of America when I first visited in 1985. My then current concept of the greatness and goodness of this country was soon shattered as I witnessed the engulfing hyper-materialism, the mad pace of life, the gross social and moral degradation and the feminisation of their men and masculinisation of their women and the consequent neutering of both. On my return home to Australia, people would ask excitedly, “what was America like?” My oft-stated reply was something like, “the place is rotten to its core, like it has a huge metastasising cancer that will eventually destroy it”. A quite negative summation, I agree and I was often roundly reprimanded for such. However, the decades pass and I have witnessed the toxic Americanisation of other countries and sadly and especially, my own once Great South Land of the Holy Spirit. Since the 1950’s, the USA has successfully educated Australia, mainly through the medium of television, how to live, how and what to eat, how to dress (and undress!), and especially how to enthusiastically embrace secularism and materialism, regardless of the consequences. Forty plus years of travel, reading, reflection and observing human societies has convinced me beyond all doubt that, whether in the multi-storied cities of America or the jungles of Africa and all places in between, whether ruled by kings, presidents, prime ministers or dictators, if Jesus Christ, His Person, His Church and His Teachings is not the primary focus, guide and motivation, that society will dysfunction itself to eventual oblivion. God bless America and its many satellites.
John Rao has written and spoken for decades about the effects of the Enlightenment and Americanism. This essay is a very thoughtful addition to Rao’s work.
Wonderful essay, capturing the essence of the issues. In early parochial school in the early 1960’s, I was taught that our mission as Catholics was to make the United States a Catholic country. In the later elementary grades, that all changed due to the influence of the Council, including conciliar views promoted by secular media such as Time Magazine. The formerly unorthodox views of John Courtney Murray, SJ reigned supreme and do to this day, including among US bishops. There is no dialogue regarding Dignitatis humanae’s radical break from the traditional pastoral practices that had thorough doctrinal underpinnings.
This is certainly one of the most severe aspects of the current crisis in the Church.
A thought-provoking and, I think, a necessary piece for all to read. It articulates a great many things I’ve suspected and felt implicitly for quite some time. That being said, I don’t think the classical form of patriotism is altogether absent from the United States. I think, in fact, we’ve arrived at a cultural crossroads where it’s very much apparent to more and more people that adherence to a universalizing abstraction cannot sustain the life of a nation. The “America First” reaction has its own set of temptations, but I think it reflects a larger adjustment taking place. Our current political regime may not, in fact, be the final form of American national life, and do actually have a well of under-explored cultural resources that could go into shaping a future one. All things considered, there’s is cause for thankfulness and celebration today as well as hope for the future. May God guide this land and people toward fulfillment of their true purpose in the world, preserving the good, and purging the bad.
"Clannishness was and is the key to his temperament, and he went off to war to protect not Alabama but only those thirty or forty acres of its sandy hillsides or stiff red clay...whose sanctity to him came from the fact that in it were buried the bones of his own blood kin."
The Ordways- William Humphrey
This leapt immediately to mind reading this essay.
This is interesting and a pretty good exposition on how one ought to regard the United States of America. It's my country, and I love it, and I think I am hugely blessed to be an American. I love it and have always loved it exactly as Mr. Storck describes one should love one's country. I disagree, though, that such love is mostly absent in our country. I think it's very present, mixed up with some mistaken ideas, to be sure, in the hearts of the majority of us who live in flyover territory. It seems to be largely absent in the big cities, and that's a huge problem. Yet another consequence of having forsaken the land. I am beginning to think that the consequences of that terrible migration will never end.
I agree with this- that there are many many average Americans who are devoted to their
"patria", wherever it may be in the borders of the country. And I agree that we may not always express it in the best ways, but it is there.
This article puts into words a (at the time) vague vision I formed of America when I first visited in 1985. My then current concept of the greatness and goodness of this country was soon shattered as I witnessed the engulfing hyper-materialism, the mad pace of life, the gross social and moral degradation and the feminisation of their men and masculinisation of their women and the consequent neutering of both. On my return home to Australia, people would ask excitedly, “what was America like?” My oft-stated reply was something like, “the place is rotten to its core, like it has a huge metastasising cancer that will eventually destroy it”. A quite negative summation, I agree and I was often roundly reprimanded for such. However, the decades pass and I have witnessed the toxic Americanisation of other countries and sadly and especially, my own once Great South Land of the Holy Spirit. Since the 1950’s, the USA has successfully educated Australia, mainly through the medium of television, how to live, how and what to eat, how to dress (and undress!), and especially how to enthusiastically embrace secularism and materialism, regardless of the consequences. Forty plus years of travel, reading, reflection and observing human societies has convinced me beyond all doubt that, whether in the multi-storied cities of America or the jungles of Africa and all places in between, whether ruled by kings, presidents, prime ministers or dictators, if Jesus Christ, His Person, His Church and His Teachings is not the primary focus, guide and motivation, that society will dysfunction itself to eventual oblivion. God bless America and its many satellites.
I can't say you're wrong (though I wish I could).
John Rao has written and spoken for decades about the effects of the Enlightenment and Americanism. This essay is a very thoughtful addition to Rao’s work.
Wonderful essay, capturing the essence of the issues. In early parochial school in the early 1960’s, I was taught that our mission as Catholics was to make the United States a Catholic country. In the later elementary grades, that all changed due to the influence of the Council, including conciliar views promoted by secular media such as Time Magazine. The formerly unorthodox views of John Courtney Murray, SJ reigned supreme and do to this day, including among US bishops. There is no dialogue regarding Dignitatis humanae’s radical break from the traditional pastoral practices that had thorough doctrinal underpinnings.
This is certainly one of the most severe aspects of the current crisis in the Church.