Historian and theologian Alan Fimister joins the editors to discuss whether Pope Leo XIII was right to ask French Catholics to recognize the Third Republic. And more generally: does political engagement in modern parliamentary politics engender liberalism in Catholics? What form of government is best anyway? Alan defends the Lancastrian theory of the English Constitution as a mixed-form republic as the best.

Bibliography

Alan Fimister, Robert Schuman: Neo-Scholastic Humanism and the Reunification of Europe (Brussels: Peter Lang, 2008).
Alan Fimister, Interview: Catholic Origins of the European Union Zenit (2008).
Petrus Hispanus, The Primary Political Question: A Response to Milco on Liberalism, The Josias (2016).
Pope Leo XIII, Au milieu des sollicitudes (1892).
Roberto de Mattei, The Ralliement of Leo XIII: A Pastoral Experience That Moved Away from Doctrine, Rorate Cæli (2015).
Pius VI, Quare lacrymae (1793).
Adrian Vermeule, Ralliement: Two Distinctions, The Josias (2018).
Felix de St. Vincent, Four Catholic Political Postures: Lessons from Leo XIII and Ralliement, The Josias (2017).
Edmund Waldstein, Ralliement! Ralliement! Ralliement!, Sancrucensis (2017)
Edmund Waldstein, Catholic Action and Ralliement, The Josias (2016).
Edmund Waldstein, The Politics of Nostalgia, Sancrucensis (2014).

If you have questions or comments, please send them to editors@thejosias.com. We’d love the feedback.

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16: Mr. Wonderful: He Said, She Said