monarchy

Monarchy: Why Christians Should Support it, and why Modern Church Crisis Involves the Failure to "Fear God and the King"

King David: the best but One

      Catholics who oppose birth control are fond of pointing out that a few decades ago every Christian denomination opposed the practise, but, alas, only the Church of Rome has persisted in it today. However, what Catholics should remember is that, for centuries in the past, every Christian also considered it an essential part of their faith to be a monarchist. How many persist in this belief today? I have to be hard on Roman Catholics in particular for allowing monarchism to fall away since they have a monarchist culture that many other Christians do not have. The Catholic world view has a multitude of royal causes to champion. These include the Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne and Charles V, the battles of St Joan of Arc to restore Charles VII, the support of Louis XVI and his successors against the French Revolutionaries, the Carlists of Spain and the Jacobites of Britain and Ireland.
       Republicans have tried to distort Scripture to their purpose, endlessly pointing out Samuel's warning against Israel having a king or of warnings to "put no faith in princes". However, from the begining of time itself God's system has been monarchist. God is a monarch, the relationship between His Son and the relationship between Jesus the King and Mary the Queen Mother is all tied together and was also used by the Kingdom of Israel. The Patriarchs were monarchist, passing down absolute power (through the command for filial piety) from father to son, and in Exodus, Numbers and other books before the formation of the kingdom we read that Israel was ruled by Princes. There are numerous passages in which God commands us to honor our king, not to rebel against them, not to even think evil thoughts of them, although He always maintains His own supremacy over them, "Fear God, honor the Emperor".
       Catholics once prided themselves on their fidelity and devotion to monarchy, both temporal in their country, and spiritual through God and the Papacy. The Church crowned kings and emperors in sacred ceremonies just as King Saul, King David, King Solomon and their descendants were anointed by holy men to finalize their role as God's lieutenant in care of a nation. God called King David a man after His own heart and said that King Solomon would be called His son and that He would be called His father.

The problem today is that democracy has become God to many people around the world. When Catholics began abandoning monarchy for the seeming success of the democratic republic they knowingly or ignorantly embraced the ideology of the Puritans of Oliver Cromwell: that the voice of the people is the voice of God. Clearly this is not so! God warned us that the majority will follow the easy path to destruction and only a few will take the narrow path of goodness. Ultimately, things got so bad that even the Church stopped crowning new Popes begining with John Paul I. Liberal ideas the Church would have once shunned are now being embraced, and Rome is going to have to pay the price.
People now believe in their own "Divine Right" rather than the one of kings God granted to David and his descendants for all time (regardless of their character mind you). The pedophile crisis has brought matters to a head as lay people begin to ask why they are not "boss" of the Church and why they must submit to the judgement of a man in Rome who they did not elect. Since Vatican II it has become increasingly hard for the Church to respond with a simple, "because I said so". People have seen many Catholics attack monarchy and defend republicanism in secular matters and have reasoned, "What's good for the goose is good for the gander" and demanded their Church to become more democratic as well.

The coronation of Charles V as Holy Roman Emperor

David sets a good example for us in this case with his troubles with King Saul. Saul was trying to kill David, an entirely innocent man. Yet, when David had the chance to kill Saul, though he had every justification to destroy the man who was trying to destroy him, and though his friends begged him to do so, David did not. He bowed down before Saul and pledged himself to be his loyal servant. Why? Because Saul was his King, he was anointed by God and only God had authority to punish him. How many of us could have done the same? David was not concerned with Saul's actions, that was for God to decide, and by so doing he demonstrated his own holiness and superior virtue which even Saul had to recognize. This is similar to what King Charles I of Britain said about a subject and a sovereign being clean, seperate things, and that government had nothing to do with the people, but was a matter between the monarch on earth and the monarch in Heaven.
For hundreds of years the issue was not so complicated. The Holy Roman Empire was the temporal manifestation of Christian authority on earth. When it was destroyed at the hands of France's revolutionary, self-crowned "emperor" things got worse. However, there was still the Papal States, and a clear understanding that the Pope, and Christ who he served as vicar, had both spiritual and temporal authority as monarch. This ended with the unification of Italy. Still, the Church held firm though. When Pope Pius XI instituted the Feast of Christ the King it was a clear call to return to the temporal and spiritual monarchy of Christendom, which recognized Christ as King over all Creation. However, the republicanism continues to creep in, and since it has managed to get a foothold in the Church, our task has become that much more difficult.

Music playing is "For Christ the King"