Free Essay on Whether Catholicism Is Incompatible with Republicanism

Politics and political thoughts have extensively manipulated the ways in which Christians perceive the temperament and makeup of their Christian societies. This was, in fact, the case in the US in the antebellum era. The majority of the Christian denominations sought to integrate into their clerical politics the components of republicanism and held out that their denominations were comparable and identifiable with the American Republicanism’s principles. While there was no accord on the denomination, which most clearly resembled the ideas of the American Republic, the American Protestants agreed that Catholicism and Republicanism were theoretically, historically and practically incompatible.

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Among the rationales for this belief was the belief that Catholic leaders, favoring non-republican authorities had indoctrinated their supporters with the fondness, that ‘the aboriginal and invariable propensities of Romanism are Monarchical’. According to Otis H, Tiffany, the counterpart of His Pennsylvania, the consistent support of monarchy and authoritarianism of the Catholic Church attested that its practices and doctrines are in direct antagonism with the American Republicanism.

Moreover, the Know Nothing from the Northern also perceives Catholicism to be incompatible with Republicanism. They explicated that the absolutism exercised by the Catholic Church in sacred concerns alongside the autocratic governments, which the Catholic émigrés resides under in Europe made them inappropriate citizens for a republic authority or government. Whitney argued that it does not take a moment for citizens to become good. It took more than a century for the early US republicans to practically train in the self-government theory before they undertook the intrepid experiment. Likewise, a Pennsylvania journey cautioned that pliancy and the absolute submission of the persons to the superiors (Catholic Monarchism) are utterly incoherent with the indispensable canon of a free nation (Republicanism).

Republicanism supports such elements as democracy and equality. Catholicism, on the other hand, is grounded on factors like monarchism and tyranny. As such, as in the above examples, these two sides failed to concur even in the present, and so are said to be incompatible.