Orestes Brownson

"The thesis we propose to maintain is, therefore, that without the Roman Catholic religion it is impossible to preserve a democratic government, and secure its free, orderly, and wholesome action." (p. 585)

This is a remarkable statement, but a well-settled one in the work of Orestes Brownson, a great Catholic writer on the interface of public policy and Catholic theology. The book of essays from which this quote came is online, and the essay concerning it, Catholicity Necessary to Sustain Popular Liberty, begins on page 584.

My introduction to his work came in this recent review from Inside Catholic (a hat tip). An excerpt.

“Catholics would do well to remember Brownson (1803-1876), as he is at once one of the nation's most interesting political thinkers and a writer who addressed the complicated question of being both Catholic and American. He is also an American original: Born of Vermont Protestant stock, a friend to Emerson and a member of the Transcendentalist inner circle, Brownson became a Catholic in 1844, as did his good friend Isaac Hecker, founder of the Paulist order; both had spent time at the Transcendentalist camp at Brook Farm. Before his conversion, however, Brownson had been through almost every variant of religious experience the country had to offer, from Methodism to Unitarianism, from Transcendentalist to "philosophical" Christian, before finally being received into the Church.”

Reading other major Catholic works encounters the same essential concept, that the 2,000 year old institutional Church and its sound body of theology and the ethics and social justice concepts built upon that body, have served humanity well, usually in a leading role, and for that we should remain humbly proud and grateful for our wisdom, luck, or whatever happenstance has brought us to Rome.