MAN MINUS MEANING
Restoring the basis of reality with Catholic Social Teaching
In this series I will publish brief posts on the encyclicals of Catholic Social Teaching. This post treats the first one, which is concerned with the foundation of our knowledge of the world and its correspondence with the natural order.
Modern man is remembering he has a soul. The modern world has supplied the hunger which reveals it in starvation. Surely there must be more to life than addiction economy, its lies and a life of liberation into the void?
Well, there is. What is more, there is a body of work which shows us how to restore our secular institutions and orient their function to harmonise with the natural order created by God.
The modern Church no longer teaches this tradition. Catechisation today is non existent, and so most Catholics don’t even know Social Teaching exists. Why?
The modern Church teaches women’s liberation, gay liberation, liberation from nations and earth worship. Social liberation frees us all from meaning. The system we inhabit is dishonest, because all the liberationist movements combine in the annihilation of the value of life and the natural order.
That the modern Church chooses this over its own treasure house of wisdom is a tragedy which explains the comedy of errors we call our culture today.
The restoration of reality, sanity and human dignity to our lives begins with the foundation of knowledge, which is the use of the intellect to discern what is true.
This is the reason the Catholic Social Teaching begins with an explanation of the basis of reality. Their principles are derived from St Thomas and St Augustine1. If you are pro-reality, pro-sanity, pro-human life and against the death machine of the enemy, this is the philosophy for you.
This week the Vatican is set to publish the “final phase” of “Synodality”.
Synodality is still undefined. It is clearly a work in progress. What is its destination?
There is to be a New Church. Leaving aside why the Catholic Church requires regime change, you can’t compare and contrast the teachings of this new religion to those of the old if you don’t know what you stand to lose.
Catholic Social Teaching begins with the mind and proceeds to what is the matter with our world. It is a total discipline of how to approach and order our affairs in reality.
This is the reason it begins with the question of how we know what is true.
Encyclical One - On Christian Philosophy Aeterni Patris
This first encyclical of the Social Teachings of Leo XIII makes the case for reality-based ideas.
As is usual, the encyclical is named after its first two words.
In this case they are Aeterni Patris2. You can read it here in full.
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