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Editor’s note: no money from the Trump campaign has been received by OnePeterFive. No, we are still strapped for cash. Help us pay our bills here.
The following is one article in a series of three analyses which we intend to propose to our readership for the American election. The first was written by Mr. Chris Jackson, who asserts forcefully that every Catholic has a moral obligation to vote for Trump. The second is proposed by Dr. Ed Feser, in which he asserts that Catholics are obliged to stop Kamala, but also oppose Trump, and thus vote 3rd party except in swing states (see here and here). The third analysis follows.
In 537, in the imperial capital of New Rome (Constantinople), after five brutal years of exhausting and hurried labor, the slaves finally heaved the last of the stones into place. When the dome was raised, it sparkled with a beautiful mosaic of the sacred emperor Justinian with a halo and the glory of New Rome and the empire and also Christ. It was the greatest church in all Christendom for a thousand years. Justinian set up his throne in the church and proclaimed proudly his gospel: Solomon—I have surpassed thee![1]
The new Roman dynasty which gave birth to Justinian began in 519 and Justinian ascending the imperial throne in the eastern imperial capital in 527. A sympathetic reading of him sees his whole reign as an attempt at “the deliberate restoration of the ancient Roman empire” now Christianized.[2]
In other words, Justinian’s campaign was to “make the Roman Empire great again.”
And he almost did it. He reconquered the western Roman empire in Italy through two decades of brutal campaigns while fighing the Persian empire in the east. He himself was a zealous Catholic who proclaimed and lived the reality that “Jesus is Lord” (even inserting a Christological hymn into the Greek liturgy!).
And yet he was still acting as the pagan high priest, deposing and dominating the popes like the pontifex maximus of a pagan Caesar. Therefore Justinian’s kingdom was still deeply of this world, and his empire was still merely earthly, not heavenly. The old goddess of Roma – the divine personification of the earthly, Roman empire – was still worshipped, even though she paid lip service to the King of Kings. Justinian was the last Roman emperor of the east to know the Roman tongue – Latin – and the lessons of Augustine’s great text against Roma and all the other pagan idols, Civitas Dei contra paganos, were obscured in the minds of the eastern emperors.[3]
And so eventually the Roman empire of the east crumbled, for it removed the idols of Roma and the pagan practice of the pontifex maximus too late, and it fell to the enemies of Christ. Repentance was too little, too late. For “everything must crumble that is not grounded on the one corner stone which is Christ Jesus” (Divini Redemptoris, 38).[4]
Now let’s fast forward to the founding of a different earthly empire:
In “the Year of Masonry 5793,” as the newspapers put it, the procession of lodge masters finally reached the sacred site.[5] George Washington laid the silver plate with the Masonic inscriptions under the cornerstone, and the worshipful masters “consecrated” the ground with corn, wine and oil. Prayers and chants were offered and then the games began. This public Masonic cultus would later receive a triumphal arch—the bronze Senate door sculpted in bronze within a few generations by Thomas Crawford.[6]
Present was, no doubt, Catholic Daniel Carroll, for his name was listed as a “Commissioner” on the Masonic silver plate. He had signed the new Constitution of the United States of America just a few years prior. His brother was bishop John Carroll who, in the same year as this public Masonic cultus, dedicated the United States to the Immaculate Conception. It was the year of Our Lord 1793, and by that time, blood had already been spilled for a vague slogan on two continents and one Caribbean Island. This vague slogan was “Liberty” and the movement would be known as “Liberalism.” It was the idea that man had “progressed” and should now violently kill their forefathers, destroy their monarchies and set up new systems of republican government because of the progress of Libertas. It was the first movement of anti-culture.[7]
The American Empire from its founding in 1776 was indeed “great” in an earthly sense like the Roman Empire. This is the reason for all the Roman architecture in the capital – they were trying to imitate the Roman republic and assert the traditional (Catholic) English “libterties” against the King.
But it’s much more complicated than that. On the one hand, this was a movement of Liberalism, which meant “freedom from Christ as King.” But his citizens hated him: and they sent an embassage after him, saying: We will not have this man to reign over us (Lk. xix. 14).
Hence, the Declaration of Indepedence condemned the integrated Catholic culture of Quebec, which proclaimed Jesus as King of souls and societies.
At the same time, as I discuss in more detail in the above mentioned lecture, the Patriot movement of 1776 gave back power to the Faith by restoring the power of Maryland and the rights of Christ the King over society that the Puritans had fought against during the English Civil War. George Washington and the Patriots allowed thrones to Jesus as King – that is, altars – to be built freely again – something that was previously punishable by death in England.
At the same time, the US Constitution proclaimed the “freedom” from Christ as Lord by ignoring His sovereignty in favour of a vague notion of a “Creator.” It seems that most presidents over the years have refrained from invoking the Holy Name of the King of Kings over society, and thus the American States never truly had the only freedom that really matters – freedom from the devil and his fallen angels.
Without a formal allegiance to the King of Kings, the devils sought to solidify their power of these States more and more. The “Second Civil War” (for the Revolutionary War was the first) brought about a national examination of conscience, and the pious Protestants again and again repented, forming the National Reform Association to amend the US Constitution and take refuge in the King of King against the powers of evil. But they were conflicted with the idol of the American Empire.
The American Empire itself was from its founding a new Roma, an Empire, as Lincoln said (sacramentalising it with “consecrated” blood), that “shall not perish from the earth.”[9] But there is only one Empire which shall not perish: cuius regni non erit finis. Nevertheless the old Roman goddess Libertas was raised in the New York harbour, as Catholics were proclaiming that the American military Imperialism against Catholic Spain in 1898 was “merely a war of humanity” where “the home of [St.] Ignatius and of the Inquisition will be stripped of its influence and the future belongs to men like [American bishop] John Ireland.”[10] The Irish Catholics in particular had embraced the new gospel and idol of the earthly Empire of America.
But that was the time of Leo XIII’s two encyclical to the United States. Both Longinqua Oceana and Testem Benevolentiae show that the earthly greatness of America’s founding (“magnum Washingtonum”) could only be preserved and fostered if the pro-Catholic elements were preserved and grown, and the anti-Catholic idols were removed:
Precisely at the epoch when the American colonies, having, with Catholic aid, achieved liberty and independence, coalesced into a constitutional Republic the ecclesiastical hierarchy was happily established amongst you; and at the very time when the popular suffrage placed the great Washington at the helm of the Republic, the first bishop was set by apostolic authority over the American Church. The well-known friendship and familiar intercourse which subsisted between these two men seems to be an evidence that the United States ought to be conjoined in concord and amity with the Catholic Church (Longinqua, 4).
For the Church amongst you, unopposed by the Constitution and government of your nation, fettered by no hostile legislation, protected against violence by the common laws and the impartiality of the tribunals, is free to live and act without hindrance. Yet, though all this is true, it would be very erroneous to draw the conclusion that in America is to be sought the type of the most desirable status of the Church, or that it would be universally lawful or expedient for State and Church to be, as in America, dissevered and divorced (6).
All intelligent men are agreed, and We Ourselves have with pleasure intimated it above, that America seems destined for greater things. Now, it is Our wish that the Catholic Church should not only share in, but help to bring about, this prospective greatness (13).
After this, despite the idols not beging removed nor the “high places” of false worship, the Catholic Church grew and prospered and indeed built up the greatness of America, especially after the Legion of Decency brought Hollywood pornography to its knees after 1930.
This reached a climax in 1954 – 100 years after the Immaculate Conception, the Patroness of these States, was dogmatised – when in God’s Providence the Liberal authorities allowed the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception to be raised above any other inhabitable building in the American Capital, and the Knights of Columbus helped to add “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. This was the moment of Christ as King, and the American Empire had declared theological war against the Atheistic Soviet Empire.
But the idols were not removed. John F. Kennedy, to gain power, affirmed that Jesus is not the King over America:
I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute… I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish.
Unless Jesus is the King, the fallen angels will raise up their idols and they will be precursors to the Antichrist. The CIA helped to promote America-style religious liberty by means of Vatican II, and as Lefebvre said, They Have Uncrowned Him.
As a result, the American Empire lost the Cold War: the Soviets implanted their American Marxism into the United States so that John Hardon, SJ could say in 1998: “The United States of America is the most powerful Marxist country in the world.”[11] The errors of Russia had prevailed. The “greatness” of America was the evil idol of the Libertas goddess. Marxism fit into Liberalism like hand in glove.
Justinian tried to remake the greatness of the Roman Empire, but did not remove the idols of Roma. Ronald Reagan tried to do something similar, and everyone thought the Americans won the Cold War. But without Christ as King, the idols will remain. America was subordinated to the forces of Antichrist. The post-Soviet era has consisted of the American Empire proclaiming its idol of Libertas to the world: now this false goddess is worshipped in the form of child murder and sodomy, exported across the globe, with the American dollar as the primary idol governing all politics and morality.
Trump wants to “make America great again.” But what is this greatness? He can either rebuild the idol of the America Empire, and set himself up as an Antichrist Messiah, allowing the fallen angels to have their power. Or he can humble himself and proclaim that Jesus is King.
So far, he seems to be trying to do both.
But this is what Justinian attempted to do, and he failed. If Trump tries to do both, he will not remove the idols nor the high places of false worship. If Trump does both, his empire and his power will be humbled by Almighty God.
And they shall cast thee out from among men, and thy dwelling shall be with cattle and wild beasts: thou shalt eat grass like an ox, and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will (Dan. iv. 29).
I am concerned that many Catholics see Trump as a savior figure. At best, he’s another Justinian who can save us from some of the Barbarians, yes, but if he does not remove the idols, he will only become an idol himself. Unless Catholics renounce these idols, Jesus will not reign over souls and societies, and our States will be given over to the demons for their cruel tyranny.
Trump is dangerous because he is a deception. The greatest enemy of the summum bonum is not that which is obviously evil – the barbarian horde of Kamala et al. – but rather that which has a mixture of good and evil, which can deceive the masses by means of idols. I see the mass of Americans deceived by his idol of Libertas, which will only prolong the inevitable destruction of these States by means of the demons’ tyranny.
On the bases of liberalism and laicism they wished to build other social edifices which, powerful and imposing as they seemed at first, all too soon revealed the weakness of their foundations, and today are crumbling one after another before our eyes, as everything must crumble that is not grounded on the one corner stone which is Christ Jesus (Divini Redemptoris, 38).
I will vote for Trump because I am a Michigander – I will do what I can to stop the barbarian horde. And yet, I will protest Trump and his idols.
Let us see through the deception of Trump. Rather, let us renounce the Democratic party and the Republican party. They are two sides of the same idolatry. Each party platform will lead to tyranny and slavery to the devil.
Let us return, brethren, to the fundamental political program of the Church: JESUS IS KING!
T. S. Flanders
Editor
5th Day within the Octave of All Saints
All Jesuit Saints
All Relics of the Diocese
[1] T. S. Flanders, City of God vs. City of Man (Our Lady of Victory Press, 2021), 164. See the text for citations and discussion of the apocryphal nature of this legendary quotation.
[2] Andrew Louth, “Justinian and His Legacy,” The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire C.500-1492 (India: Cambridge University Press, 2019), 107.
[3] For a thorough discussion of all this, see T. S. Flanders, City of God vs. City of Man (Our Lady of Victory Press, 2021).
[4] Of course, these idols were worshipped in the west as well in a different way, and that is why the Latin brethren failed to defend New Rome against the Muhammadans. For more on this, see Flanders, op. cit.
[5] The contemporary account is given by the Columbia Mirror and Alexandria Gazette, September 25th, 1793, and is reproduced on the Capitol website to this day: <https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/buildings-grounds/capitol-building/first-cornerstone>, accessed March 8, 2021.
[6] “Senate Bronze Doors,” Architect of the Capital,<https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art/senate-bronze-doors>, Accessed March 8, 2021.
[7] Flanders, op. cit., 330.
[9] Gettysburg Address.
[10] Msgr. O’Connell to Husband of Countess Sabini di Parravicino, Letters dated April 26 and June 10, 1898, Americanism Collection Microfilm, Reel 1, University of Notre Dame archives, cited in David Wemhoff, John Courtney Murra, Time/Life, and the American Proposition: How the CIA’s Doctrinal Warfare Program Changed the Catholic Church (Fidelity Press, 2015), 109. This important text is now in its second edition.
[11] John Hardon, “The Influence of Marxism in the United States,” <https://hardonsj.org/influence-of-marxism-in-united-states-today/>, accessed March 29, 2021.
