The Popes and Democracy

Well, we've finished Bld Titus Brandsma's book on Carmelite mysticism. Beginning tomorrow at 14.00, I'll be sharing The Popes and Democracy, by Yves Dupont. Mr Dupont was a Traditional Catholic and a prolific author, writing several books on private revelations regarding the Last Days and the Great Monarch.

Here is some introductory material on the book we'll be sharing:

[The original pamphlet containing this work has pictures of several Popes on its cover. The following text is also included in the pamphlet, giving a brief history of each featured Pope. - Editor.]

ABOUT THE POPES ON THE FRONT COVER

PIUS VI (1775-1799)
He reaped the bitter fruits of the policy of appeasement of his predecessor, Clement XIV. He was forcibly removed from his Palace by the French troops which had invaded the Vatican; his pontifical ring was stripped from his finger and, at the age of 82, he was dragged to France where he died a prisoner in humiliating circumstances.

PIUS VII (1800-1823)
General Bonaparte had, by then, become Napoleon I. Pius VII fared hardly better than his predecessor. Faced with extravagant demands, he courageously replied that "No Emperor had any rights on Rome". Napoleon attacked the pontifical States. French troops were advancing when he excommunicated the Emperor. He was made a prisoner, spent 3 years of his captivity in Italy, and the last 2 in France. But he returned to Rome after the fall of Napoleon, and died 8 years later, in 1823, at the age of 81.

GREGORY XVI (1831-1846)
Revolution broke out as he took his throne; but Gregory was no dilly-dallier; aware that the Italian revolutionaries enjoyed the backing of their French colleagues, he accepted the help of Austrian troops. The Holy See was safe. He was a foe of Liberalism and Democracy, a firm believer in the alliance of the throne and altar. He fought Liberalism all his life with the utmost vigor, and opposed all innovations.

PIUS IX (1846-1878)
Hailed as a Liberal Pope by revolutionaries of all shades, Pius IX lived through the Revolution of 1849, but suddenly and completely, he renounced his former policies of appeasement. His famous "Syllabus of Errors" condemned the very errors he had once encouraged. Further, he defined the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and Papal Infallibility to the rage of Free-Thinkers and Liberal Catholics alike.

LEO XIII (1878-1903)
He upheld the teachings of his predecessors in no uncertain terms; was the author of momentous Encyclicals on political government, social questions, and he condemned the nascent "Christian Democracy" as utterly opposed to Catholic Truth.

ST. PIUS X (1903-1914)
Under his pontificate Masonic and Liberal ideas had already seriously penetrated Catholic thinking: he condemned the errors of the Modernists and Sillonists, clashed with the Masonic French Government on a number of vital issues, and upheld the Monarchical-Hierarchical concept of Government.

PIUS XI (1922-1939)
His reign was comparatively calm on the morrow of the First World War, but he fought the rising influence of Socialism and Communism and re-asserted the basic principles of political government taught by the Church.

PIUS XII (1939-1958)
He, also, fought Communism with the utmost vigor and condemned Totalitarianism in all its forms. At the close of World War II, his Allocution on Democracy was an indirect warning against Western Errors. On the philosophical and doctrinal fronts, he condemned the errors of Teilhardism and Progressivism which were to overcome the Church shortly after his death.

"The absolute ruler may be a Nero, but he is sometimes a Titus, or a Marcus Aurelius; the people is often Nero, and never Marcus Aurelius." (Rivarol)

"Monarchy is by its nature dissociated from party rule; Democracy is by nature party rule... "Even a monarch of mediocre talents and natural gifts has the advantage of having received an education for his profession; a democratic leader, in most cases, is nothing but a dilettante... "As long as monarchy was a living force, wars were of a relative and restricted nature. No monarch was thoroughly dispossessed and the price to be paid for military defeat was merely a city, a county, a province. There was no such thing as 'unconditional surrender'. Conscription was an invention of the French Revolution and so were wars on a nation-wide basis... "A monarch and, even more so, a dynasty, can plan policies on a grand scale - for the remote as well as for the immediate future. There can be relatively more mutual confidence in a monarchical world, because the changes in political direction are fewer. Today all of Europe nervously watches every American national election... Burckhardt wrote: 'Since politics has been based on people's inner fermentations, all certainty is at an end...'" (Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Liberty or Equality)