May 28, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — One of the many benefits of studying Church history is that, in times of lackluster leadership or mounting persecution, it can provide us with inspiring models and reasons for hope. Prior to Leo XIII (Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci, 1810–1903; reigned 1878–1903), the Catholic Church in the nineteenth century was under siege and on the defensive. In many ways, she was marginalized and held in contempt; the “enlightened” liberals who ran the show in Europe (as they do today) belittled her “medieval” words and ways and predicted her disappearance as a matter of course. Her […]
The common good was not attained more consistently in the Middle Ages merely because life was 'simpler back then.' It was attained because Europe was traditionally Catholic in theory and in practice.