Removing the Blindfold: 19th Century Catholics and the Myth of Modern Freedom

Among American Catholics, there is a certain unwillingness to see anything amiss with modern civilization as embodied in the American dream of €œlife, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.€ Often, this is because the only alternatives to democracy we know are the much more frightening specters of socialism and communism. To many, it seems the only way to have an effective voice in the American political arena is to align ourselves with the so-called conservative €œRight.€ Yet if we follow the logic of the €œRight€ today, we may wonder why people who support individual rights and freedom of conscience in the economic and political realm are so vehemently opposed to the supremacy of individual rights and freedom of conscience in the moral realm. Many Catholics give up following the logic at this point and cast their vote in favor of freedom of conscience as the most important principle€"because it is the most advantageous to them at this moment.

The Catholic Church, however, has never been concerned primarily with what is the most advantageous political system at a given point in history, but rather with the truth.

In Removing the Blindfold, Dr. John Rao explains the conundrum that modern Catholics face in dealing with the current socio-political climate and traces the roots of this problem back to the French Revolution and the principles it espoused. He shows how most modern Catholics have embraced some form of revolutionary thought without even being aware of it, and reveals how revolutionary ideals are incompatible with Church teaching, and always have been.

John Rao, Ph.D., is a professor of history at St. John€s University in New York, New York. He is the author of Black Legends and the Light of the World, in addition to articles written for The Angelus, The Remnant, and other periodicals.