The Top 4 Catholic States In The Modern Era
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Catholic States In The Modern Era
In this article I want to present 4 Catholic states from the Modern era to show that we can create Catholic states in our time.
Many people tell me all the time that they don’t believe that creating a Catholic state is even possible in the modern era.
So I am responding to this pessimism by showing that a few great men did create Catholic states in the modern era.
My goal here is to make you believe that we can have Catholic states in this post-revolutionary world.
Also, I am just giving mere introductions here, so I implore you to research these great Catholic states more thoroughly.
I am not a historian, so you would do well to look up Catholic historians who write about the following Catholic states.
I will now present these Catholic States in no particular order.
1. The Catholic State Of Ecuador In The Modern Era
The first Catholic State in the modern era that I want to present is Ecuador under Gabriel Garcia Moreno.
Before Garcia Moreno was born, Ecuador and other South American countries started separating from Spain through revolutionary war.
In 1830, Ecuador became an independent state with a republican government.
García Moreno was the president of Ecuador from 1861-1865 and 1869-1875.
Garcia Moreno was a pious man, who received minor orders and a tonsure, attended daily Mass, and frequented the Sacraments.
When he became president, he worked closely with the Catholic hierarchy to create a Social Kingship of Christ.
Garcia Moreno cut corruption, abolished useless positions, and took measures that made the economy better.
One measure he promoted was the implementation of a national highway system.
Moreover, he pushed for universal education and literacy, putting Catholic clergy as head of public schools.
He also pushed for secret societies, like the Freemasons, to become illegal.
In 1869, his constitution officially made Catholicism the religion of Ecuador and required all candidates and voters to be Catholic.
Garcia Moreno also allowed the Jesuits to return to Ecuador.
Garcia Moreno signed a Concordat with the Vatican in 1863 and also had Ecuador consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1873.
Pope Leo XIII called Ecuador under Moreno “the model of a Christian state.”
However, all of his policies angered the Freemasons and other revolutionaries.
So in 1875 the Freemasons martyred him, killing him with machetes and revolvers on the steps of the National Palace.
Ecuador remained Catholic for 20 years, but then the Liberal Revolution of 1895 overturned Garcia Moreno’s Catholic policies, and created a secular state.
2. The Catholic State Of Spain In The Modern Era
The second Catholic State in the modern era that I want to present is Spain under Francisco Franco.
The Republic takeover of Spain in 1931 deposed Spanish King Alfonso XIII.
Republicans harshly persecuted Catholics, which lead to tensions and instability.
Thus, Spain went through a civil war from 1936 through 1939 as a result of a failed military coup.
Franco was one of the anti-Republican Nationalist generals in the Spanish Civil War.
The Nationalists were an umbrella alliance of traditionalist Catholics, monarchists and fascists.
Franco came out as the preeminent leader of the Nationalists during the war.
So when the Nationalists defeated the Republicans, Franco was undoubtedly the new leader of Spain.
Francoist Spain was anti-Jewish, anti-masonic, anti-communist, anti-liberal, and pro-Catholic.
Franco implemented National Catholicism, and declared Catholicism the state religion.
Franco passed laws to conform society to Catholic social teaching.
Divorce, abortion, and contraception were all outlawed.
Franco also implemented corporatist principles, as a Catholic alternative to communism and capitalism. (Although Franco did eventually allow some economic liberalization to occur as part of his Stabilization Plan of 1959, which did lead to an economic boom called the “Spanish Miracle“. But Catholic teaching still guided this).
Franco was a monarchist and chose Juan Carlos I to be his successor. Unfortunately, this was a mistake.
After Franco died in 1975, King Juan Carlos I initiated a constitutional monarchy, and by 1978, Spain was a liberal democracy again.
(Strictly speaking, Catholicism isn’t pro-autocracy and anti-democracy, but the anti-Catholic revolutionaries always overturn monarchs and replace them them with liberal secular democracies).
And when Spain transitioned to a secular liberal democracy in 1978, Catholicism was no longer the state religion.
In decades since, democracy has overturned Catholic social teaching.
3. The Catholic State Of Portugal In The Modern Era
The third Catholic State in the modern era that I want to present is Portugal under António de Oliveira Salazar.
After the assassination of the King in 1908 and the following 1910 Revolution, Portugal became an unstable secular republic.
It was in a near constant state of revolution, and engaged in constant persecution of Catholics.
This instability ended in 1926, when the Portuguese military took over in a coup.
The National Dictatorship was lead by President Óscar Carmona, who appointed Salazar as Minister of Finance.
Salazar turned the economy around almost instantly.
Like Garcia Moreno, Salazar was a devout Catholic who attended seminary, but left as he believed his calling was in politics.
Salazar and his National Catholics grew more powerful than the military leaders, and in 1933, Salazar was made Prime Minister.
He then became the de facto head of state in Portugal until 1968.
When he took power, Salazar created a corporatist state that he called the “new state”.
This “new state” made Catholicism the official religion of Portugal, and was intolerant of non-Catholic “religions.”
Furthermore, it was anti-communist, anti-socialist, and anti-liberal.
Salazar implemented the Catholic social teachings of Pope Leo XIII.
Like Franco, he ended up creating a booming economy through corporatism mixed with some economic liberalism (still within Church social teaching) after World War II.
He also raised mandatory education standards and virtually eliminated illiteracy.
Pope Pius XII said of Salazar: “I bless him with all my heart, and I cherish the most ardent desire that he be able to complete successfully his work of national restoration, both spiritual and material.”
Unfortunately, this Catholic State came to an end by a liberal military coup, almost 4 years after Salazar died.
4. The Catholic State Of Austria In The Modern Era
The fourth Catholic State in the modern era that I want to present is Austria under Engelbert Dollfuss.
From a young age, Dollfuss got into Catholic movements, economics (particularly corporatism), and politics.
He joined the Christian Social Party and in 1932, became Chancellor of Germany at age 39.
The Christian Social Party was a Austrian nationalist and Catholic movement.
Their platform was to keep Austria Catholic and to prevent Protestant Germany from absorbing Austria.
A year after he took office, Dollfuss merged the Christian Social Party and other conservative parties into the Fatherland Front.
He then banned the opposition communist, socialist and national socialist parties, and formed a one party dictatorship.
Dollfuss modeled the Fatherland Front, or Austrofascism, after Italian fascism, except that Austrofascism was fully in line with the Catholic Church.
Catholicism became the state religion of Austria.
Dollfuss banned Marxism, national socialism, capitalism, liberalism, and democracy.
He also implemented Catholic social teachings from Popes Leo XIII and Pius XI.
Like Franco and Salazar, Dollfuss implemented Catholic corporatism as the economics policy.
Unfortunately, Dollfuss’s reign didn’t last long. In 1934, Austrian Nazis assassinated Dollfuss.
Dollfuss died asking for Viaticum, but the assassins denied him this last Sacrament.
Kurt Schuschnigg took over as Chancellor until Nazi Germany took over Austria in 1938.
And since 1945, Austria exists as yet another secular liberal democratic republic.
Other Catholic States That Didn’t Make The Cut
There were definitely much more than 4 Catholic states in the modern era.
However, most didn’t make the cut because either they started in the Middle Ages, were declining empires, or engaged in compromise.
I will write future articles on Catholic states in the Middle Ages and Catholic Empires, so stay tuned!
Vichy France under Marshal Philippe Pétain and the Independent State of Croatia under Ante Pavelić and his Ustasha movement are both good examples of Catholic States that could have been great.
They did do some great things, like making Catholicism the state religion and condemning modernist ideologies.
But they weren’t as great as they could have been because they compromised with evil.
Both Vichy France and Ustasha Croatia were collaborationists with the Nazis, and ended up betraying Catholic principles in order to maintain their power during World War 2.
The Church may not have formally condemned Vichy France and Ustasha Croatia for betraying Catholic principles, like it did Fascist Italy for putting the state before the Church, but these Catholic states still subverted their own Catholic principles through compromise.
On the other hand, the 4 examples I gave were of Catholic states with leaders who wouldn’t compromise on Catholic principles.
Garcia Moreno, Franco, Salazar, and Dollfuss all put Catholicism first.
And for that, the Church blessed them.
Yes, the revolution still ended up destroying these 4 Catholic states after their leaders died.
But the revolution has overextended itself, and it’s falling apart.
So let’s feel inspired to imitate Garcia Moreno, Franco, Salazar, and Dollfuss, and create a new Catholic state!