As a rule, blurbs for books leave much to be desired. The one for this book, however, is not bad:
In 1789, the French Revolution launched a host of religious, political and social errors which the Popes, for over 160 years, wrote and legislated against.
Yet most of these errors have today filtered down to the common man, and most people now take for granted many fundamental assumptions that are false.
The Popes Against Modern Errors includes sixteen Papal documents condemning many of today’s most serious errors.
What can I say? What follows is not really a review (although placed in our reviews section) but really just a little notice of my appreciation …
Because, once upon a time, the Catholic Church was truly counter-cultural.
And once upon a time, I was a New Ager who considered myself counter-cultural, as well.
How little idea I had then, just how few of my New Age assumptions were truly counter-cultural and how all-too-compatible they frequently were with the plutocratic, nationalistic, materialistic, consumerist, psychologist and reductionist aims and trends of the modern world!
And it was only after I converted to Catholicism that I realised that it was the Church, which had the GUTS to be truly counter-cultural. At least, the Church used to have the guts prior to the Vatican Council in the 1960s.
Although it must be said that our Holy Father Benedict XVI, as I write these words, is certainly a man possessed with tremendous courage …
Still, without passing further comment about the state of the Church today, it seems to me very, very important to understand how radically counter-cultural the Catholic Church once was.
And this valuable volume from TAN books can do very much to help us with that important task. For here we have the words of the Popes who challenged the modern world. Here then is the 1864 Syllabus of Errors of Bl. Pius IX. And here from 1891 is Rerum Novarum – the beginning of the Church’s challenge to Plutocratic Capitalism (and a major inspiration for Hilaire Belloc, who we esteem at this website).
And here is Quas Primas – Pope Pius XI’s profound meditation on the Kingship of Our Lord, Jesus Christ as he inaugurated the Feast of Christ the King. And here too is Leo XIII’s outspoken condemnation of Freemasonry and the secret societies corrupting the modern world …
And there are twelve more as well, ranging from 1832 (Mirari Vos) to 1950 (Humani Generis).
All of these are online in various places, including the Vatican website, I believe. However, I am grateful indeed to TAN books for providing them all under the cover of a single volume and recommend this to anyone concerned with the main themes of this website.
Foreword for Monarchy by Roger Buck
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