With due respect to the devout Catholic posters here, who are criticizing Islamic theocracies, etc, they must be able to imagine that , were It given the opportunity once again , the Vatican would gladly meld Its power with the State in not only Italy but all of Europe (and if it had its way I’m sure all of the Western world ) and rule in a religiously fascist iron-fisted theocratic manner. Not, all things considered, *that * much different from the Islamic theocracies. How many people did the Inquisition kill, for just one historic example of the Church of Rome at the heights of its fearsome power ? How well could Jesus (pbuh) felt about that?? Sure that was an ancient “error”, but nonetheless it is a dark spot on the “soul of the Church”, surely, no ?? How long did people quake in fear at the thought of being “excommunicated” by the Pope, and thus rendered “outside salvation” , or by some local Bishop or whomever had the power to put the “word” in to Rome for this to happen? Just one other example. There are many more one could come up with. And so much of the time ( note: I don’t say ALL of the time) the Church of Rome itself, and its hierarchy in the other countries of Europe, was so notoriously dissolute and corrupted itself. This is, after all, what spawned the backlash against it that led to the Protestant Reformation. This is also why so many of the early Americans, most of them being predominantly “White Anglo Saxon Protestants” ( whose Anglo ancestors divorced themselves from the formerly all-powerful Church of Rome ) did not exactly want to welcome into their new secular republic , with open arms, floods of immigrants (be they peasants or priests) from strictly Catholic countries, be they Latin countries like Italy, Spain, France, Eastern European countries like Poland or Hungary, or even northern European like Ireland ~ because the Irish were viewed as being in thrall to “Roman Popery”. “Papists”, “sellouts to Rome”, etc. America’s founding fathers certainly were Protestants, correct? (Although I’ve read many times that at least a few of them leaned more towards “Deism”, than strictly dogmatic Protestantism of whatever stripe).
I’ve also heard it said (usually within Protestant circles) that “the Catholics” are all in favor of “left wing” or “liberal” trends in the world (up to a point, this doesn’t include things like sexuality or abortion of course ; more like workers’ rights, etc etc) and they like to play themselves off as being in favor of the people but, if they ever were able to take power and meld Church with State the way it used to be in Europe, we would see an Orwellian “Animal Farm” type of situation occur. Just like when the Communists finally got their power in Russia, or the Nazis in Germany. All for “the people” and the rights of the people, etc etc, until they themselves have the power, and “the people” start to say or write or do things they don’t approve of. When the people won’t tow the “party line” ( or Church line in this case).
Who knows what we would see ( were it even remotely possible) if the Church were to meld its power with States and create truly Catholic theocratic societies once again? Maybe they’d put “heretics” to torture and or death once again? Or, if not torture or death, then at least time in jail perhaps, and certainly censorship, like I truly believe they would do (if they could) to people such as Dan Brown, Michael Baigent, etc. It was argued by earlier generations of Americans ( even up until maybe the 1940’s, or 50’s ; in some places it still is argued ) that something about Catholicism itself is inherently anti-democratic and therefore Catholics, while they can be good people individually, cannot necessarily be “good Americans” . This is the same thing most of the same types of people would offer as argument against Muslim Americans today. So devout Catholics might be well advised to tread carefully when railing against “Islamofascists”, religious totalitarianism, or theocratic states in general.
