Would this world be better with Catholic leaders?

[puzzleannie]

Ryniev:

. Think of some of the Catholic countries out there, Mexico? Colombia? Argentina? all very corrupt. The European Catholic countries are now so secular that Italy and Spain have the lowest birthrates in the world and most of Europe will potentially be majority Muslim in another 50 years.

I am neutral on the original question, but I do have to take issue with the assumptions in these statements. The governments you cite are not Catholic, anything but. Mexico suppressed the Catholic Church during the revolution and only within the last generation have clerics been allowed to even where clerical dress in public. The culture of the people has remained strongly Catholic in the face of persecution, although actual practice has fallen off due the the perennial lack of priests. Modern European goverments such as in Italy and France have been aggressively anti-Catholic and anti-clerical. So do not use the failings of these governments to argue the thesis that Catholics in government is a bad thing.

 

[steveandersen]

In general it is probably best for a leader to share the beliefs of his people. While having a leader set an example might in theory be a good thing; if the goal of the OP is conversion of the general population that might be done better on an individual level. I wouldn’t want people converting for political purposes like pleasing their leader. History is full of religious tests for offices and we’re best done with them

There were republics and democracies in pagan times as well as absolute monarchies in Christian times. So religion per se may be only one factor in the social set up of a country.
Now, I’ve heard the myth that Protestant countries are inherently more democratic because of the tradition of dissent, but frankly the history is mixed. While England may be home to the Mother of all Parliaments, the Church of England is not very Protestant at all (I’ve heard its adherents describe it as both Catholic and Protestant) also, Catholic France likes republics so much they’ve had 5 of them.

Sure there are places with a history of bad governments that happen to have a large Catholic population…but there are enough other factors involved not to make that a deciding one IMHO.

and while it could be argued that 20th century Statist ideas are a corruption of 19th century Papal social theories, remember that Germany was where both Protestantism and Nazism started.

I’m not sayin’ the two are connected…I’m just sayin’

 

[rwoehmke]

“while democracy had lost its political meaning and actually signified nothing else than” popular question" or merely “popularity”; so much so that a king who loves his people and is loved by them is called a “democratic” king. In the end the word democracy won; and Leo XIII in the Encyclical “Graves de communi” (18 January, 1901) declared as acceptable and accepted the expression “Christian democracy” as meaning neither more not less than popular Catholic action and as having for its aim to comfort and uplift the lower classes (studium solandœ erigendœque plebis), excluding expressly every appearance and implication of political meaning."

The quote above is from the article in the Catholic Encyclopedia cited above. Sounds like Leo XIII was not talking political system but Christian concern for all. I seem to recall that up until Vatican II the prefered form of government by the Church was " a Catholic Monarch in a Catholic Country," Catholicity being the state religion. Some of our U.S bishops of the 19th century, like John Ireland, were uncomfortable with the Vatican’s opinion of political democracy as practiced in the US. As a result both the Americans and the Vatican did not push the matter and “let sleeping dogs lie.” The Vatican stance was quite understandable as most new political democracies(France and Italy, were very anti-Catholic. .

 

[rwoehmke]

Neithan:

Huh Are you kidding? Democracy has been perfected over the ages as a direct result of the Church’s influence on western society, especially from her constant insistence on the equal dignity of all persons.

Catholic Encyclopedia article.

Another good article.

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote in the 13th century:

This is generally the form of government which is now prevalent in the west. There is the President or King/Queen who rules over all, the Parliament/Congress and Senate who administrate under him (Aristocracy), and the electoral vote by all citizens under the law (Democracy).

Neithan, thanks much for the excellent citations. Most informative.Dick