A Catholic-Populist Alliance overwhelmed the USSR
As the Left engulfed Europe after the French Revolution and the Napoleonic conquest in a grip which it has retained in various stages of Leftist metamorphosis (Nazism and Communism being the most advanced stages of Leftist “progress”), the United States developed a radically different vision of modernity. The Catholic Church — operating with a Euro-centric vision — failed to immediately recognize Populism as both an authentic vision for modernity and deeply compatible with the Catholic faith. Ongoing condemnation of Modernism (a term for the Left) dominated the Church until Vatican II.
The first Populist Catholic was Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence — the eternal Creed of Populism. Lincoln referred to Populism as the “Civic Religion” of the US. The Declaration of Independence claimed that the charter of the State lay in the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God. However, it argued that the state should concern itself with securing Natural Rights rather than enforcing Natural Law. It implicitly left the pursuit of holiness under the Natural Law to the Church.
It is important to recognize that the Declaration of Independence expressed a series of principles that none of the states lived up to. Every state in America had legal slavery. Charles Carroll was a Maryland slave owner who famously asked: “Why keep alive the question of slavery? It is admitted by all to be a great evil.” Immediately after the Revolution, abolition movements began in all the states. Charles Carroll fought for the Maryland legislature to pass a gradual emancipation bill but it was defeated.
Although Catholicism was represented only by one man at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the great waves of immigration were predominantly Catholic. The first wave included many Catholics from southern Germany persecuted by the Prussians. The second wave included many Irish Catholics persecuted by the British. The third wave included many Italian Catholics fleeing Fascist Socialism. The current wave is Latino Catholics, many of whom are fleeing from Leftist governments in South America.
The Parochial Era was an era of systematic persecution for Catholics not seen since the Roman Empire so it is not surprising that many Catholics have fled to the United States.
However, the United States has historically struggled with four great violations of the principles of the Declaration of Independence — Slavery, Segregation, Abortion, and Nativism. Nativism ignores the fact that the United States was built on an idea and that therefore anyone who accepted our “Civic Religion” — as Abraham called it — becomes truly American. Nativism operates under the assumption that the US is founded exclusively on self-interest and ethnic nationalism. It has tended to resent immigrants and attempted to protect WASP culture for its own sake. The fact that the immigrants were Catholic — with an allegiance to a Papacy repeatedly condemning “Modernism” and “Americanism” made it even worse. A misunderstanding arose that the Church was condemning Populism rather than the Left. However, Catholics thrived in the United States. Legendary political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville even predicted in 1831 that the US would end up with a Catholic populace and a secularist elite.
In 1843, educator Horace Mann visited Prussia and witnessed the public school — the vessel Prussia was using to wage its Kulturkampf against the Catholic Church. Appealing to Nativist tendencies in the American populace, Mann started a movement that created non-denominational Protestant public schools across America managed by local communities. These schools were mandatory to attend — spewing anti-Catholicism and proselytizing small Catholic children. In 1852, at the First Plenary Council of Baltimore, the US Bishops mandated the creation of the Catholic Parochial school system as a defense mechanism against the public schools. They were staffed by religious and managed by priests. The Church created introspective communities vested with the siege mentality so necessary in Europe (but less necessary in the United States). The Bishops commissioned Hospitals, charities, and even newspapers for these self-contained communities. The Parish Priests effectively managed these sealed communities.
Vatican II ended this siege mentality. Gaudium et Spes — the Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World — crafted an alliance with Populism and its vision of modernity. It shifted the emphasis from the Parish Priest to the laity. Now, the fiercest defenders of the faith are typically countless lay-led ministries such as EWTN, FOCUS, Catholics Come Home, One More Soul, Catholic Answers, CCL, and so many more.
In 1989, a Washington DC-Vatican Alliance unthinkable before 1965 shattered the Soviet Empire — the mightiest form of the Left ever witnessed in human history.
Since that time, Catholics have led the charge to defend Populism. The National Right to Life Committee (which derives its name from the Declaration of Independence) was founded by Catholics when they were the only faith group willing to defend Populism. The US has pursued policies that protect the religious liberty of Catholics around the world.
Catholicism and Populism need each other.
The Left is no longer confined to the Evil Empire. It has put down its root in the United States. And it will take both ideologies — Catholicism and Populism — to weed it out.