Swedish Jesuit And Others On The Various Forms Of Secularism

Secularism and other Enlightenment ideals. The ideal of secularism can be briefly summarised as holding that the best course of action in politics and other civic fields is that which flows from disparate groups’ and religions’ common understanding of the “good”. By implication, Church and State should be separated, and the laws of the state should generally only cover the “common ground” of beliefs between the various religious groups that might be present — for example the prohibition of murder, etc.

From the secularists’ point of view, it was possible to distinguish between political ideas and structures that were religious and those that were not. Catholic theologians in the mainstream argued that such a distinction was not possible, that all aspects of society had to be organized with the final goal of heaven in mind.

This was a direct counter to the thread of Humanism that had been in the forefront of intellectual thought since the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution. The roots of secularism they traced to those English philosophers who attempted to create a “universal religion” based on the “common denominator” of all other religions; it was largely spread through the secret societies of the Enlightenment, including the Freemasons, the Illuminati, and the Carbonari, and its greatest threat, in the writings of this school, was the spectre of Democracy.
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An interesting book excerpt on the subject from Malachi Martin's,
The Jesuits (here)

In a Very Secular France, Nicolas Sarkozy Is Breaking a Taboo

By Sandro Magister
.
An excerpt.

In Sweden, Germany, and France – the most secularized areas of Europe – there would seem to be signs of “a reversal of this tendency, with growing interest in religious matters.”

These words were written in regard to Sweden by Jesuit Fr. Ulf Jonsson, professor of philosophy at the University of Uppsala, in an article published in the May 6, 2006 edition of “La Civiltà Cattolica,” the authoritative Jesuit magazine printed with the prior scrutiny of the Vatican authorities.

In the article, entitled “Nuove prospettive per la religione in Svezia? [New prospects for religion in Sweden?],” Jonsson documents that “in spite of the fact that the number of participants at religious ceremonies is still very low, there is renewed attention to religion, and to Christianity in particular, in the media and public opinion: this was unthinkable in the past, when religion was relegated to the private sphere.”

Link (here)

The next time you hear that Religion caused “X” amount of violence, remind them the 20th century was the age of secularism, and the bloodiest age of human history. It was not a coincidence

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A Jesuit victim of extremist Secularism was Blessed Miguel Pro, S.J.



Secularists for love of religion

By Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

An excerpt.

American society was built in great part by groups that had fled from the system of state Churches in place in Europe, and had found their own religious accommodation in free communities of faith outside of the state Church.

The foundation of American society is therefore constituted by the free Churches, for which – because of their religious approach – it is essential that they not be state Churches, but founded on a free union of individuals.

In this sense, one can say that at the basis of American society there is a separation between state and Church that is determined, even demanded by religion; a separation, therefore, that is motivated and structured quite differently in comparison with the one imposed, under the banner of conflict, by the French Revolution and by the systems that followed it.

The state in America is nothing other than the free space for different religious communities; it is in its nature to recognize these communities in their particularity and in their non-statal identity, and to let them live.

It is a separation that intends to let religion be itself, that respects and protects its vital space distinguished from the state and from its ordinances, it is a separation conceived of positively.

Link (here)