The Catholic dream of monarchy
Firstly, I am not anti-monarchy or constitutional monarchy, I support the constitutional monarchy in my country, and I would like to see wherever possible the restoration of other Catholic monarchies. However, I do find the new trend of Traditionalists being so strongly pro-monarchy a bit disturbing. Do not get me wrong I am not talking about real royalists like in the UK or other places in the world even ones which are no longer in power, for the most part they are more grounded. I do think that monarchies can work well.
It is more the new trend of saying God wants monarchies and that it would also be the best form of government end of. Firstly, God has no preferred style of government. Yes, some Catholic thinkers and Saints, Popes prefer monarchy and what they have to say does need to be considered seriously. Yes, the old Law does prefer them, and Heaven is one. The New Testament does talk about Christ as King and about order and hierarchy as good. All that is true however God does not say that worldly monarchy are the only or even the preferred form of government for man in the secular state or in general.
Most of history would say that monarchy was neither bad or a good system of government, the evidence is that monarchy is far from being a great system, however, some issues were more technology based and realities of the age rather than the style of government. Yes, they were good Kings, and the alternatives are mostly bad as well, it is true, Socialism and all its horrific spawns like communism, Marxism, identity politics, national socialism, and so on have been and will continue to be awful and uncatholic.
Democracies have made a huge improvement especially combined with monarchies. But they too have been and, in the future, will go wrong. Sadly, no form of government can be perfect as that is impossible on this planet and only in Heaven is this perfection found.
But can we get close?
No, we cannot, only fools, dreamers, the blind and the desperate think so. A Catholic monarchy would not end Sin or even stomp most of it out just because it is a Catholic monarchy. We have the present to live for and work with and the future to deal with. A Catholic monarchy could fair better maybe for a while in some cases, but it would still most likely turn tyrannical. A Catholic monarchy would not just solve all of lives issues.
Again, I think there is nothing wrong with constitutional monarchy, even one with royal power.
But why now, in the last couple of years has this became a more popular idea, most people are just being parrots of course. But it smells like it could be a disinformation campaign. It does seem to have many of the tell-tale signs of a Marxism plot.
Do I have concrete proof, with files, pictures, film, and confessions, no I do not. Many disinformation campaigns do not. But it could be one it does feel and look like one, let me explain why.
First off, it has a bearing of truth to it, it has support from within, from unsuspecting and unknowing allies. It also seems to answer all of our problems and delivers all of our dreams to us. Without us having to do nearly anything in return. To hand all or most power to the state and have them take care of our problems. It makes us soft and less enthusiastic about real solutions in the present. It also makes us very similar to Russia and China’s style of government in reality. Making us more sympathetic to them maybe. It makes us less willing and less likely to participate in the present political world, where we could do some good, however small, or hard it maybe to do. It is a pie in the sky idea that in most countries will never happen. Many who like it, see themselves as advisors, lords, and part of the establishment of this fantasy monarchy. Why, pride, vanity, greed, or simple hope that they can make a difference in the world.
Sound familiar to you, it should its Marxist ideas poisoning people, ideas, and possible the laity again, this time from another angle. Marxism spreads wherever it can, in the light or in the darkness.
Mostly online, it is an academic discussion, however, it is all in theory and never even particularly mapped out, to the general traditionalist this allows their own imagination to design a perfect world, in their own minds to form what this fantasy monarchy would be, and this creates dangers just like it does with Marxist ideas and plots.
Or maybe this is just a trip into our safe spaces and people just need to hide in fantasies instead of confronting the harsh reality. People do need to have an open mind, heart, and soul to a possibility of a future Catholic monarch. Many have foretold of such a thing happening, but we need to deal with what we have now and what the future currently presents us.
We as Catholics must act more in the public space, yes wear a Rosary, pray before meals in public and so on. But also act in the political square, for some this may be a step to far, to be fair this will mean you and your family will pay a price for being a Catholic, For some especially for the people who are well off and very comfortable this won’t be acceptable, with lines like ‘the church has always be in crisis’ which in a sort of way it is true, in these modern days it really has reach an all-time crisis though. As Tradition, Scripture and Magisterium are under attack. I do not mind this style of talk if you really believe it and are quiet in your belief and life, however if you also say things like democracy should be abolished and no concessions politically should be considered, even if it does not move the line further away from our beliefs and faith. Where you shoot down talk about action and attempts to move the Catholic cause forward with unrealistic purity tests. These attitudes in the traditional movement leads us to split into tiny ineffective groups as well demoralises us and makes action less likely.
It seems to me people feel frustrated and powerless and so now they are turning on democracy, unhappy that they are not getting the result they wanted. Even though in most cases they did little to fight for their ideals. If we had a Catholic British royal family, it would make near to no difference in this world or the UK. If Prince Charles had married Camilla first and they had both became Catholic and raised their children Catholic, do you really think that would be of help, would it have changed that much, still it would have been better. What would help is making more Catholics in general, traditionalist or not, there are limits of course on how lukewarm they could be. More traditional Catholics going to other Masses to spread ideas would be very helpful. A larger presents of Catholic ideas in the public square and attempts to created Catholic thinktanks etc and entertainments tailored to Catholics would actually help.
If the majority of a country’s population were traditional Catholics and voting this way would you still call for a monarchy. Properly not and so the problem is not democracy, but the lack of Catholic beliefs accepted in the public space.
To sum up I do not mind theories and far flung ideas from being discussed I do mind when they start to weaken the community. By causing less action to be taken and taking attention away from real and present ideas, plans and actions.