The West and ISIS

Much has been said about the terrorist attacks on Paris last week.  The pundits on the left and right continue to analyze the causes and offer opinions on what the West should do in response.  Here's my observations in a nutshell:  What the hell did European governments think would happen when they welcomed with open arms hundreds of thousands of Muslim immigrants into Europe?  What the hell did they think would happen when decades ago they started granting asylum to Muslims with no expectations that they convert to Christianity or assimilate to European culture?

Europeans will continue to slowly kill their own cultures by allowing more and more Muslims across their borders.  The Muslim horde will not be defeated with understanding or tolerance, nor the sword of republican and democratic governments.  They will only be defeated by the sword of the Faith.  Just as the Muslims were defeated at the battle of Lepanto with the help of Our Lady, so too can they be defeated today.  This is a war of religions, and can only be defeated with religion.

Pope Francis and Captain Kirk

Readers of my blog over the past two plus years know that I am not a fan of our Holy Father Pope Francis.  I submit to him as a loyal son of Rome, but it is my opinion that he has done a great deal of harm to the Church during his pontificate.  I will, however, give credit where credit is due.

This morning I pulled into my employer's parking lot and did a quick check of the blogs I frequent daily.  The first post I saw on Rorate Caeli was thrilling:  Pope Francis has granted all SSPX priests the faculty to validly and licitly absolve sins during the year of mercy.  While the SSPX has long argued that they have faculty to absolve sins, I do not think their arguments hold water, but regardless this gesture of kindness and mercy from the Holy Father towards the SSPX is unprecedented.  Fr. Z often has said that just as only Nixon could go to China, perhaps only Francis could reconcile with the SSPX and bring them into full union with Rome. 

There is a great line in the movie Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.  Spock is trying to convince Kirk to accept an assignment to meet with the Klingons in the first gesture of peace between the Klingon Empire and the United Federation of Planets.  Kirk had a long history of animosity and hatred towards the Klingons (a Klingon killed his son).  Spock tells Kirk:  "Only Nixon could go to China."  Just as only Captain Kirk could reach a peace between the Federation and the Klingons, perhaps only Pope Francis can achieve SSPX reconciliation.

The Future of Monarchy

I've been thinking a lot lately about the future of monarchy.  The reigning monarchies of Europe are in a stable state (to one degree or another), but the abolished monarchies seem to have a rather dismal prognosis.  Other than talk about a Romanian referendum on the restoration of their monarchy, what other abolished monarchy has a chance?  I've said it before and I'll say it again:  if the heads of abolished monarchies won't start to campaign for restorations, nothing will happen.  Perhaps it's time for a charismatic person or two to found new monarchies?  Perhaps monarchists should gather together in defensible areas of republics (for example republics with no or extremely distant histories of having belonged to a monarchy) and found their own kingdoms, keeping to themselves and hoping the world won't bother them too much.  It's just an idea, but if Europe continues to kill itself culturally we just might find ourselves in a world much like the post Roman Empire, a world ripe for new monarchies to be formed.

Europe Rouses From Its Slumber

Since World War II, and even more since the fall of Communism in Europe, European nations have increasingly given more power to a central government (the European Union).  This drive towards more Europe and less Germany, less Britain, less France, etc. has eroded national cultural distinctions, not to mention national sovereignty.  But some in Europe are starting to wake up to this threat.  There is the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party in Germany and the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) in Great Britain, both of which propose to one degree or another a scaling back of the national powers given up to the EU, if not the outright departure from the EU.  And then there's the Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes (Pegida) movement (Patriotic Europeans against the Izlamization of the West). 

If one were to believe the main stream media or political leaders like Angela Merkel, Pegida is made up of a bunch of racist neo-Nazis.  Concerns about one's culture being eroded and swallowed up by immigrants who refuse to integrate into the national culture, immigrants who share no common bond (either historically or regiously) to the dominant culture does not make one racist.  What it does mean is that certain Europeans are starting to grow some balls and stand up to their own "democratic" totalitarian governments.  Let the proverbial balls continue to grow, and may they be steel balls.