Limites às mundividências

Naturally the true and beautiful (they are not necessarily identical) can appear in different "outward" forms. The cathedral of Trondhjem in Norway and the Cathedral of Mexico City are very different in form and expression. They were built in different ages. They have to be loved and respected across national boundaries. There are, on the other hand, limits to our worldwide acceptance of other values. A highly conservative Portuguese administrator in central Angola might advocate the building of a courthouse in an African style but he will not "respect" the age-old tradition of sacrificing small children. 

Erik Leddihn, Leftism: from De Sade and Marx to Hitler and Marcuse

Viva La Revolución on a Butcher's Hook

There was not too much unity among the Nationalists, except that they were determined to have Spain's fate settled by Spaniards and that Spanish traditions and a Spanish way of life should be maintained. Unlike the Republicans, they not only wanted bullfights to continue, but they insisted that a man should be able to go to church without being clubbed to death or a woman join a religious order without being undressed publicly, raped, slaughtered, and exhibited on a butcher's hook. 

Erik Leddihn, Leftism: from De Sade and Marx to Hitler and Marcuse

O Temperamento Político das Nações Católicas

aviadores portugueses na Guerra Civil de Espanha

In the case of war, the soldiers of Catholic nations must be thoroughly convinced of the sensibleness of the cause. If these convictions are lacking among Catholic soldiers—who often do not feel bound by the Protestant concept of "duty" (Pflicht), mutinies or mass desertions may easily result. Hence the greater reliability of Protestant groups and organizations bound by oaths, promises, etc. These will act efficiently and according to plan even if their belief and conviction in the cause has vanished a long time ago. "Mechanical action" is fairly alien to the Catholic, who is primarily motivated by his (frequently very subjective) conscience. It seems that only a filial affection can supplant conscience and conviction— a mere appeal to "duty" (or "law") will not do the trick. All of which reminds us of Paul Valéry's outcry about the Germans: "Savoir et devoir, vous êtes suspects". On the other hand, the Portuguese in the Spanish Foreign Legion (the Tercio) were among the best soldiers; during the recent civil war they had accepted the explanation that this struggle was a crusade. But in 1918 they simply had run away before the Germans, since they had not the slightest desire to make Sleswig-Holstein or the Carpatho-Ukraine safe for democracy. The Italian soldier has almost the selfsame reactions. It was said that South Italian soldiers during World War I often applauded with shouts of Bravo, capitano! their officers who, trying to lead them into action, went "over the top". These sons of workers and peasants had not the slightest interest in dying for the cause of a North Italian irredenta, a cause dear to the hearts of their officers with a very different political outlook. Yet to generalize about Italian "cowardice" is nonsense and merely betrays a lack of imagination. The Spanish pride, on the other hand, produces quite different effects. Compare the Spanish proverb: "To the king must be sacrificed one's estate and one's life, but honour is the patrimony of the soul—and the soul belongs to God only."

Erik von Kuenheldt-Leddihn, Liberty or Equality

O Shire

O conceito de sociedade como um todo orgânico, sem lutas de classes, com uma estrutura comunitária, tem caracterizado o pensamento social católico desde o Império Romano. Em muitos sentidos, o Shire exprime perfeitamente os ideiais económicos e políticos da Igreja, conforme expressos por Leão XIII em Rerum novarum e por Pio IX em Quadragesimo anno. A autoridade tradicional (o Thain) limitada excepto em tempo de crise; a representação popular (o Presidente de Michel Delving), igualmente limitada, a subordinação e, acima de tudo, a mínima organização e conflito. É o tipo de sociedade visionada pelos Distributistas Belloc e Chesterton na Grã-Bretanha, por Salazar em Portugal, pelos autores da Constituição Irlandesa, por Dolfuss na Áustria e por Smetona na Lituânia. Por muito ou por muito pouco que estes habitantes do mundo real se tenham aproximado do seu objectivo, a verdade é que o que pretendiam era algo muito semelhante ao Shire.

Charles A. Coulombe, The Lord of The Rings: A Catholic View

A Amizade entre os Homens

The poses, facial expressions, and body language of the men below will strike the modern viewer as very gay indeed. But it is crucial to understand that you cannot view these photographs through the prism of our modern culture and current conception of homosexuality. The term “homosexuality” was in fact not coined until 1869, and before that time, the strict dichotomy between “gay” and “straight” did not yet exist. Attraction to, and sexual activity with other men was thought of as something you did, not something you were. It was a behavior — accepted by some cultures and considered sinful by others.

(...)
Whether the men below were gay in the way our current culture understands that idea, or in the way that they themselves understood it, is unknowable. What we do know is that the men would not have thought their poses and body language had anything at all to do with that question. What you see in the photographs was common, not rare; the photos are not about sexuality, but intimacy.

Os Nossos Antepassados Intelectuais

J. G. Herder