http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/persecution/pch0037.html

“How can any father look his four-year-old son in the eye and tell him that he cannot be both a practicing vegetarian and a hot dog lover? Why should a working mom, who is deeply committed to the principles of vegetarianism, feel guilty simply for snacking on an occasional beef jerky?”

I don’t know if such a site falls under the wrath here unfolded of the Pseudo-Dionysius, but I must confess that I have long had in my RSS reader “the far sight 2.0: catholic eye-candy and history” as well as that site’s previous iteration.

The Flag of the Social Kingship of Christ is not intended to be a confusing mixture of sacred and secular but instead to rightly subject the secular to the sacred.

Afoot is an initiative to establish an orthodox/traditional echt-Catholic international charity (Militia Caritatis Dei), truly NON-governmental (i.e., accepting out of prudence and principle no government funding) which would focus on supporting real-Catholic schools and other educational programs. Your interest and support is herewith solicited. You can contact me by email and I’ll be glad to send you a sample list of current endorsers and a summary proposal. The email is: jgmerrill@comcast.net
Thanks in advance, Jon Merrill

REALLY?

Wow. How sad.

Therefore, a Sacred Heart emblem on the flag is illegal.

The flag used at our recent Pilgrimage for Christian Culture roughly corresponds with Doctor Asinorum’s suggestion, supra. By adding the Sacred Hear of the Vendée to the American Flag, it is our intent to supplement the national symbol and create what we call an American Flag of Social Kingship of Christ.

A representative picture may be seen here

Does this banner sufficiently avoid the faults which caused you complained as to the Chartres flag?

~Paul

I was going to write and ask if the article was meant to be a satire – until I read the followup comments.

Good grief, are we in a pitiable state in America.

TITLE 4 > CHAPTER 1 > § 8
(g) The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.

Let me address your concerns.

First, I apologize for using the word “defile.” This was scandalous. A sacred image cannot defile a secular one.

However, I still maintain that the addition of the Sacred Heart where it was added on that pilgrimage flag does indeed *ruin* the symbolism of the flag. I reiterate: the *entire point* of the blue field is to display *50* stars for the *50* states. It doesn’t matter what you add to that field of stars, if you cover up any one of the stars, you ruin the entire symbolic message of it. Period. Don’t dispute this; you cannot.

Secondly, one might well superimpose a sacred image over the stripes, as the rattlesnake once was so imposed.

But I ask: why? Not every national image or symbol contains a sacred image. The American Flag is already established. If you want to come up with some other, specifically religious image for America, knock yourself out. But it’s not like the coats-of-arms of every major European ruling house during the era of “Christendom” contained a cross or Sacred Heart. So this impulse to add a Sacred Heart to the flag for the sake of adding a Sacred Heart doesn’t rest on any necessity. In fact, the Flag of the Papal States was just red and yellow, no Christian imagery at all: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_the_Papal_States_(pre_1808).svg If Blessed Pope Pius IX saw nothing wrong with that flag, don’t mess with the American Flag, which is already “complete,” in that each element has a significance that should not be obscured by the addition of some other element.

“Catholics care little about national flags. Nationalism is abhorrent to everybody who by religion should think and feel in a thoroughly supra-national way.”

I know where you’re coming from. And you’re still very, very wrong. You make a mistake so typical among traditional Catholics. From the fact that nationality (forget national*ism*) and national emblems are not everything, you infer that they are nothing. Or at least that’s how you talk. Catholics care little about national flags? Gee, that’s awfully enlightening. Do you have a papal decree on that? Or maybe you’re making a broader cultural observation. Okay, then which Catholic country lacks a national flag? If national flags matter so little, then why did Our Lord ask for a Sacred Heart to be placed on the French Flag (not, I note, American one)? Or why did the Catholic claimant to the Throne of France in the late 1800s refuse to restore the Monarchy because the condition for doing so was to accept the Tricolour in place of the French Royal Banner? Catholics in the Middle Ages knocked themselves out over coats-of-arms, which are related to flags in their symbolism. If Catholics then were loyal to dynastic and municipal symbols, why not national ones. Why don’t you go back in time and tell the Catholics fighting for Ireland or Spain or Poland that they should thinking a “thoroughly supranational way.” Nationalism presents problems and has often morphed into a false ideology, but a devotion to one’s patria and natio neither requires one to abandon supra-national affinities (in their proper place) nor does it require fanaticism. Catholics do in fact love their countries and their countries’ national symbols, including flags.

And if what you say is true, why are the flag-changers so bent on making sure their flag has a religious symbol on it? If flags are a matter of indifference to Catholics (defined by you), 1.) why are the flags brought on the pilgrimage? 2.) why do the pilgrims think that the national flag should be rectified to match religious belief?

Now, I personally am ambivalent about the presence of the American Flag within churches, jus as I am ambivalent about the display of the Flag of Vatican City, which is in fact the flag of a foreign state, not of the Pope qua religious leader.

“Leave nationalism to the Protestants.”

And leave poor reasoning, non sequiturs, and false dichotomies to them as well.