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Tuesday, July 9, 2024

Let Catholic History Be Your Teacher. Develop a Catholic Memory!

One of my blog readers sent me this quote from Fulton Sheen about history: 
The English never seem to remember history; the Irish never forget it; the Russians never admit it; the Japanese never make it; and the Americans never learn it.

The importance of knowing history is lost on many people. But is there any greater teacher? Think of the Old Testament filled with the history of the Israelites. Think of God telling them to celebrate the Passover every year. In other words, never forget what the Lord did bringing them out of the slavery of Egypt. And today, thousands of years after that event, Passover is still a major feast for the Jews.

Do we have a sense of our own history as Catholics? Do we have a Catholic memory? 

There's a saying that history is written by the winners and that is certainly the case in our own national history. Who gets credit for establishing the earliest colonies in America? The English who established Jamestown and the pilgrims who set foot on Plymouth Rock a century after the earlier Catholic explorers who established missions in many places. Do even Catholics know the rich history of the Spanish and French efforts to establish the reign of Christ the King in the New World? Few I suspect. It is all lost in the overwhelming distortion of omission. Don't teach it and it didn't happen!

If you were doing a man-in-the-street interview and asked 50 people what the first permanent European colony was in the United States, what do you think they would answer? What would you answer? If you were on Jeopardy, would you hit the jackpot with the right "question" to this answer: The first permanent colony in the United States established in 1565 and the oldest city in the country.

And the answer is: St. Augustine, FL

But there are many other places Catholics were settling before the estaablishment of Jamestown in 1607 and the famous landing at Plymouth Rock in 1620. In fact, the only reason the pilgrims survived in what is now Massachusetts was the help they received from the Indians, particularly Squanto, a Catholic! 

Study Catholic history. As George Santayan famously wrote: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." But another quote of his is a good reminder as well: "A country without a memory is a country of madmen." The same could be said of the Church. We need to know and study our roots and reclaim the Faith of our Fathers where it's been lost or distorted. We need a Catholic memory!

O Jesus, Lord of History, have mercy on us.


3 comments:

  1. Imagine a world in which America was founded by explorers unified within one Church body, one Faith, rather than by mortal competitors in religion, politics, war. The possibilities stagger the imagination … but will have to wait until the Eschaton. Pending that glorious day, the never-ending competition between the City of God, City of Man (St Augustine).

    Satan lives in disharmony, disunity, discord.

    God prevails in harmony, unity, Charity.

    Between these, conflict until the end of time.

    Catholics must choose whom they will serve.

    Our nation’s motto, E Pluribus Unum, is possible only within the proper hierarchy under Christ the King. Absent that, as we can see in our fracturing modern day, we are left with Satan’s counterfeit - E Unum Pluribus.

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  2. The book "Triumph" (Regnery) is a marvelous, SHORT (400++pages) history of the Church in the West. Gives one great perspective on today's...........mess.

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  3. Charles Coulomb's Catholic History books are great:

    https://www.tumblarhouse.com/collections/catholic-history-books

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