The Spanish Bridge: Restoration and the Sacred Order

"The Social Royalty of Christ has always been at the origin of Carlist doctrine," as it should be for any Catholic political movement. ¡Viva Cristo Rey!

From One Peter Five

By Luis Medina, MDiv

Part I — The Logos and the Restoration of a Catholic Reality: A Conversation with Javier Garisoain Otero

The children of the Light that shines in Rome wish to see His intelligible Cross, we long to see His crown triumphant.
— Sonnet to Christ the King

As we watch the structures of our society erode under the weight of self-pursuing ideals and atomization, it is vital for us as Catholics—the people of hope—not to fall into despair. While the challenges are immense, the opportunities for a true restoration are even more abundant.

Recently, my friend and partner, Eric Aaron Castro, who is researching the remaining reserves of Catholic Political Thoughts across the world, traveled to Spain to document a tradition that is not merely alive, but thriving: Viva Cristo Rey. In the heart of the Spanish tradition, he was hosted and welcomed by the Carlists. Eric captured the example of subsidiarity in this movement, but what he found was something much deeper than a political platform. He found a “Tertulia“—a gathering of friends seeking wisdom through deep conversation—from “old soldiers” of the pre-political sphere that has not yet been heard in America at its fullest.

I owe a personal debt to Spain, and so does the United States. As we face a transition in America that eerily mirrors the turbulent transitions I witnessed in Mexico during the 1990s—where the “love of money” and the “idolatry of avarice” began to tear the social fabric—Spain may once again hold the wisdom we need to move forward. As P. José Ignacio Orbe so clearly stated:

The Social Royalty of Christ has always been at the origin of Carlist doctrine, together with the monarchy.

Carlist Conceptions: Spiritual Hierarchy, the Body-Politic, and Subsidiarity

In our modern world, we are taught to fear hierarchy and worship a “monotone equality.” But as I have learned through a life of both loss and labor, true unity is not found in being “the same,” but in being interconnected as a body. As the Apostle says:

And such as we think to be the less honourable members of the body, about these we put more abundant honour… that there might be no schism in the body; but the members might be mutually careful one for another.
— 1 Cor. xii. 23-25 (Douay-Rheims)

When I spoke with Javier Garisoain Otero, President of the Comunión Tradicionalista Carlista (CTC), he illuminated how this biblical reality applies to our political mess. It is important to clarify that the CTC is not merely a political party in the modern sense; it is a scholarly and traditionalist movement capable of mobilizing crowds across Spain in support of the Church’s mission. Carlists advocate that behind the mind of any leader in the temporal world needs to be the mind of Christ, who reigns as King of Kings.

While Americans are currently obsessed with resisting “Big Government,” Javier explained that our “States’ Rights” are often just a reactive, negative stance. Carlism offers something positive: the fueros.

“The concept carlista of fueros,” Javier noted, “is not limited to regions or states; it is something that inspires the whole social ensemble, from families and natural social bodies from the bottom up.”

This is the “Sacred Order” that can unite all Catholics. It moves us away from the “rugged individualism” that fractures our communities and toward an “ordered scale of loves” that begins at the family hearth and ends at the feet of the King of Kings.

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The Interview: Javier Garisoain Otero

Luis Medina: Many in the English-speaking world see Carlism as a 19th-century historical movement or a mere dynastic dispute. If we remove the specific names and dates of the past, what is the permanent and central principle of Carlism that makes it a living force for the year 2026?

Javier Garisoain: The most valuable thing is the continuity of the movement, which enables us to go to the root of the problems. We are the survival of a struggle against the implantation of the systems of liberalism and modernity in Spain. Recurrently, people appear who also realize the problems caused by ideologies, but often their way of opposing them is with other ideologies such as conservatism or fascism. Or in the best of cases, what they intend is to start from scratch, as if Christendom and Hispanidad had not existed.

Luis: The American “right” is currently obsessed with resistance to “Big Government” and federal overreach. How does the Carlist concept of the fueros offer a more solid protection for families and municipalities than the modern American concept of “States’ Rights”?

Javier: Resistance to centralist excess is important, but it is still something negative and reactive. Foralism does not deny the need for a central authority, embodied in the King and his government. On the contrary, it proposes it as something positive to achieve a balance between subsidiarity and solidarity. Moreover, the Carlist concept of fueros is not limited to regions or states; it is something that inspires the entire social ensemble, from families and natural social bodies from the bottom up.

Luis: Americans are raised in “rugged individualism”; however, we see our society fracturing in loneliness and atomization. How does the Carlist motto “God, Fatherland, Fueros, King” provide a better “social glue”?

Javier: Individualism is one of the worst heritages of Protestantism and liberalism, and it is so integrated into American identity and culture that it makes any attempt to build a traditional society extremely difficult. Individualism is actually, although it is an artificial and forced creation, a mechanism moved by fear of a hostile world. It is very attractive to young people who live surrounded by the mythology of superheroes and whose life project has the millionaire as a model. But a young Catholic and anti-liberal could overcome that framework and understand what it is to belong to a broad, structured political community configured in a scale of ordered loves that go from one’s own family to the great Fatherland.

Luis: For the American father or Catholic leader who is tired of “politics as usual”: What is the first step of piety or fidelity he can take today to start building a “Sacred Order” within his own home?

Javier: The answer is in the Gospel. Jesus himself said very clearly what the foundation of political action is:

“You know that the princes of the Gentiles lord it over them; and they that are the greater, exercise power upon them. It shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be the greater among you, let him be your minister: And he that will be first among you, shall be your servant. Even as the Son of man is not come to be ministered unto, but to minister.” — Matthew xx. 25-28 (Douay-Rheims)

The political task is a form of charity, a way of expressing piety. And there is no greater fidelity than following the evangelical counsels. That “politics as usual” is the politics of the struggle for power and the oppression of the weak. I cannot think of a better way to break radically with that “politics as usual” than to listen to the Lord.

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Closing the Bridge

Javier’s insights remind us that the successor to the failed liberal order is not a new “ism,” but a return to the Logos. If we are to avoid the fate of the transitions I saw in my youth, we must finance ideas, not violence. We must move toward a society where fathers are present, and where the “air” we breathe is no longer filled with the spirit of unbelief, but with the harmony of the Body of Christ.

In our next installment, we will cross the “Social Bridge” with Silvia García Baglietto, where we will discuss how these high principles of Hispanidad apply to the very ground we walk on: housing, wages, and the protection of the family as our “First Fatherland.”

To learn more about Javier Garisoain Otero and the work of the Carlists in Spain, visit their website at carlistas.es.