To know who we are requires that we know our history. To know ourselves as Catholics is to know Catholic history. Although understanding and interpreting correctly Papal Encyclicals can be quite a challenge, it is well worth exploring these important teachings of the past. Let’s go back to 1832, just one year before Fr Irenaeus St Cyr began St James. Pope Gregory XVI wrote, Mirari Vos, aka: “On Liberalism”. He calls out “insolent and factious men” from both the halls of civil government and Catholic institutions. This was the time of Napolean’s attempt to take over all of Europe. Gregory XVI would have certainly felt like the early Popes under such tyrants as the Roman Emperor Diocletian since both of his immediate predecessors, Pius VI and Pius VII were kidnapped and imprisoned by the French army as they demanded a more “liberal” government and church. The very popular Catholic Abbot Félicité LaMennais who praised the modern liberal trends often attacked the Papacy. Gregory XVI quotes Luke 22:53 comparing these times to the “powers of darkness that winnow the elect like wheat.” Certainly, the errors of LaMennais would have cut to his heart so deeply because Gregory himself was the Abbott of large monastery before becoming Pope.

Many modern Catholics will dismiss Gregory’s attack against “liberalism”. They only see one side of the narrative. That side was real enough, but it must be noted that it was not the whole story. Their dismissal of Encyclicals like Mirari Vos is based on the issue of the “Papal States”. The common contemporary blacklisting of folks like Gregory XVI and praising of prelates like LeMennais is righteous, they say because it shows that the Church was wrong to fight for control over property. Their attitude is similar to any critic of Catholicsm who justifies their abandoning the practice of the faith because the Vatican has too much wealth. True enough. Saints like St Francis of Assisi, John Vianney and Mother Theresa are always needed to bring authentic renewal to the Church. But what churchmen like LaMennais fail to see is the fact that their support of the liberalization of governments from monarchies to republics failed to halt the liberalization of moral principles from the long compilation of Christian morals to what could only be called the pagan moral principles of hedonism. Pope Gregory rightly saw, that if the Church was stripped of all its authority over temporal things, then only the “hedonistic” civil authorities would rule over temporal matters. Only the ruling elite would control worldly matters. Catholic wisdom knows better. We should all see that when immoral people oversee the economy widespread poverty follows. Sad to say, too many today still don’t get it