Timothy Troutner recently published a thought-provoking essay in Church Life Journal, a publication of the the Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, in which he argues against Catholic Integralism. Our own Pater Edmund Waldstein responded in the same publication, defending integralism. Another response was posted by the integralist blog Abrenuntio. The responses take the opportunity to make some clarifications of the integralist position.
The Relations of the Spiritual and Civil Powers
Henry Edward [Manning], Archbishop of Westminster
Henry Edward Manning (1808-1892) was one of the most important figures in the formation of modern Catholic Social teaching. A convert from Anglicanism, Manning was enthroned as the second Archbishop of Westminster in 1865, fifteen years after the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy in England. In 1875 he was made a cardinal of the Holy Roman Church. Manning had a life-long interest in political economy, and his intervention in the London dock-strike of 1889 was one of his many contributions to the Catholic response to the ‘social question’ of the 19th century.
But another life-long interest of his was the relation of Church and state. He often discussed this question with the politician William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898). As young men Manning and Gladstone had been friends, and they continued corresponding for most of their lives—their correspondence fills four volumes. But in their positions the two men grew apart—Gladstone’s shift from Toryism to liberalism occurring at approximately the same time as Manning’s conversion from Anglicanism to Catholicism.
Gladstone was enraged by the First Vatican Council’s definition of Papal infallibility in 1870. In 1874 he published a polemical pamphlet entitled The Vatican Decrees in their Bearing on Civil Allegiance: A Political Expostulation, in which he argued that the Council had laid down ‘principles adverse to the purity and integrity of civil allegiance’. Manning responded with a pamphlet of his own entitled The Vatican Decrees in their Bearing on Civil Allegiance, in which he refutes Gladstone by showing that in part Gladstone misunderstands the Roman position, and in part is simply wrong about the nature of the Church.
In the second chapter of his pamphlet Manning lays out the Catholic position on the relation of the spiritual and temporal powers. While there are a few disputable points—Manning accepts the positions of Bellarmine and Suarez on the origin of civil society and the indirect nature of the pope’s temporal authority (both possible but disputable positions)—the chapter is on the whole a good summary of ‘integralism’. The whole of the chapter is reproduced below.
The relations of the Catholic Church to the Civil Powers have been fixed immutably from the beginning, because they arise out of the Divine constitution of the Church and of the Civil Society of the natural order.
Continue reading “The Relations of the Spiritual and Civil Powers”Despairing of Integralism
by Jonathan Culbreath
One hears a good dose of defeatism recently expressed by Catholics who, though serious about their faith, are pessimistic about the practicability or desirability of seeking the integralist ideal in the current political climate.[1] The confessional State is deemed too lofty a goal to be worth seeking in the present circumstances. Accordingly, such Catholics (or non-Catholics, as the case may be) may read a simple statement about the relationship of temporal and spiritual power, and their reaction will be very similar to the reaction of two well-known commentators on twitter: “The prospects for integralism politically are almost too fantastical to make contemplating them a good use of time.” and “Can Catholic integralists come up with a successful modern example of their theories at work?” But such a defeatism involves a dual error originating in liberalism: it effectively banishes both grace and nature from the public sphere.
Vatican II and Crisis in the Theology of Baptism: Part II
by Thomas Pink
This is the second part of a three-part series. Part one is available here, and part three here.
3. Vatican II and revolution in the official theology of baptism
Vatican II may not have introduced any new teaching about baptism in its formal magisterium. But even so, the Council event is deeply associated with a revolution in baptism’s official theology.
Aspects of this revolution were already occurring before the Council, in some cases with roots going back to the nineteenth century. The Council event still deepened or confirmed these theological changes. Other aspects of the revolution involved official liturgical changes brought about thanks to the Council. These liturgical changes were not in general directly called for by any document of the Council. But they were introduced by Paul VI in the name of applying the Council, and opposition to them is characteristically treated in official circles as opposition to the Council. Continue reading “Vatican II and Crisis in the Theology of Baptism: Part II”
O integralismo em três frases.
O integralismo católico é uma tradição de pensamento que insiste que o poder político deve guiar o homem ao seu último fim, rejeitando a separação liberal entre a política e os fins da vida humana. Porém, porque o homem tem um fim eterno e um fim temporal, o integralismo afirma que existem dois poderes que o governam: poder eterno e poder temporal. Por causa da subordinação do fim temporal do homem ao seu fim eterno, o poder temporal é obrigado a ser subordinado ao poder espiritual.
Le Tre Frasi
L’integralismo cattolico è una tradizione di pensiero che rifiuta la separazione liberale della politica dalla preoccupazione per la fine della vita umana, ritenendo invece che il dominio politico deve ordinare l’uomo al suo proprio fine. Poichè, tuttavia, l’uomo ha due fini, la fine temporale e la fine eterna, l’integralismo ritiene che ci siano due poteri che lo governano: uno temporale, e uno spirituale. Inoltre, proprio perche la sua fine temporale è subordinato alla sua fine eterna, il potere temporale dev’essere subordinato al potere spirituale.
De integrismo tres orationes
Integrismus catholicus est traditio cogitationis, quae, respuens seiunctionem civilitatis ab cura finis vitae humanae per liberalismum factam, existimat potius imperii civilis esse hominem ad finem ultimum disponere. Cum autem hominis duplex finis sit, scilicet temporalis atque aeternus, integrismus duas potestates hominem regentes ponit, praecipue temporalem ac spiritualem. Fine temporali hominis ad spiritualem ordinato, oportet potestatem temporalem ad spiritualem ordinatam esse.
인테그랄리즘을 설명하는 세 문장
카톨릭 인테그랄리즘은 인간의 삶의 목적과 정치를 분리해서 생각하는 리버럴적 정교분리를 거부하며, 정치적 통치는 인간의 궁극적 의미를 결정한다고 믿는 사상이다. 인간은 현세적이며 동시에 영속한 목적을 가졌기에, 인테그랄리즘은 인간을 다스리는 힘이 현세 권력, 그리고 영적 권력 두가지라 규정한다. 그리고 인간의 현세적 목표는 영원한 목표에 종속되기 때문에, 영적 권력은 현세, 세속적 권력에 우위를 점한다.
Trys sakiniai apie integralizmą
Katalikiškas integralizmas yra minties tradicija, kuri atmeta liberalizmo perskyrą tarp politikos ir rūpesčio žmogaus gyvenimo tikslu, bei teigia, kad politinė valdžia turi vadovauti žmogui, atsižvelgdama į jo galutinį tikslą. Kadangi žmogus turi ir žemiškąjį, ir amžinąjį tikslą, integralizmas teigia, kad jį valdo dvi galios — žemiškoji ir dvasinė. Žmogaus žemiškasis tikslas yra pavaldus jo dvasiniam tikslui, tad žemiškoji galia privalo būti pavaldi dvasinei galiai.
Integralizam u tri rečenice
Katolički integralizam je tradicija misli koja odbacuje liberalno odvajanje politike od brige o svrsi ljudskoga života, držeći kako politička vlast treba usmjeriti čovjeka prema njegovoj konačnoj svrsi. Budući da, međutim, čovjek ima i vremenitu i vječnu svrhu, prema integralizmu postoje dvije moći koje njime vladaju: vremenita moć i duhovna moć. I budući da je čovjekova vremenita svrha podređena njegovoj vječnoj svrsi, vremenita moć treba biti podređena duhovnoj moći.