It's Catholicism from a different world. Sometimes the more I focus on the Mass and the local parish, the more Catholic I feel. The more I draw back and look at the greater Church, the more it looks like my old agnostic views of the day, and the various secular professors and thinkers who informed those views.
Maybe it's just me, but when you think of the fight to defend Europe from Islamic aggression then, and the speed with which most Catholics will gladly hand Europe and anything else over to Islam (or anyone or anything else) today, it makes you wonder. Do they even believe any of this anymore? Are they like Mainline Protestants, who merely see the whole Jesus thing as a thin veneer to stretch over the latest revelations of our ever developing moral and social doctrines? Because of this, are they just scared? They don't see anything worth fighting for, so they cover it all in 'but peace and love baby' theology?
I don't know. I'm not saying the past was completely beautiful and all. I'm fine with no wars of religion or burning heretics at the stake. For that matter, I'm fine with no wars. But in our zeal to eliminate all the wars and death penalties and any killing that doesn't directly help in satisfying our libidos, I think we may have lost a few things: honor, duty, sacrifice, love of neighbor (that's different than exploiting my neighbor for political expediency).
When we see things like today's Feast - don't expect a single news outlet to mention it - and compare it to our world today, you can't help but reflect more and more on what we may have lost rather than that inevitable progress we always used to emphasize. That's what came to my mind at least.
The Battle of Lepanto is usually taken out of Context. It was a Christian victory, but the 4th Ottoman-Venintain war as a whole was actually a net loss for the Christians, as the Ottomans took Cyprus, which was their main goal all along. Lepanto was just a morale victory to ease the sting of defeat. With regard to stopping Ottoman expansion into Europe, the various battles in the Balkans and the Siege of Vienna which took place a century after Leonato, were a much bigger deal. It's also worth noting how many Christian nations were unble or unwilling to send help to Lepanto. One example being France, who was actually quite friendly with the Ottomans at the time, or Poland, which was to busy fighting the Orthodox Russians to bother fighting the Ottomans. Also, the Ottomans were in the process of invading fellow muslim nations, like the Mamluks of Egypt, and their main justification for invading Cyprus (the invasion which lead to Lepanto in the first place) was that Cyprus was allegedly harboring Muslim pirates from North Africa.
ReplyDeleteThe Battle of Lepanto is usually taken out of Context. It was a Christian victory, but the 4th Ottoman-Venintain war as a whole was actually a net loss for the Christians, as the Ottomans took Cyprus, which was their main goal all along. Lepanto was just a morale victory to ease the sting of defeat. With regard to stopping Ottoman expansion into Europe, the various battles in the Balkans and the Siege of Vienna which took place a century after Leonato, were a much bigger deal. It's also worth noting how many Christian nations were unble or unwilling to send help to Lepanto. One example being France, who was actually quite friendly with the Ottomans at the time, or Poland, which was to busy fighting the Orthodox Russians to bother fighting the Ottomans. Also, the Ottomans were in the process of invading fellow muslim nations, like the Mamluks of Egypt, and their main justification for invading Cyprus (the invasion which lead to Lepanto in the first place) was that Cyprus was allegedly harboring Muslim pirates from North Africa.
ReplyDeleteYep. It's always more complex than a commemoration suggests. I think you're spot on with all of this. But the overall symbolic impact, especially in light of the last few decades of development, can't be overstated. You had much going on in Europe (not a homogenous land), just as you did in the Ottoman world. My experience talking with Orthodox believers from the Middle East is that they often see Ottoman aggression and imperialism as a much greater mischief maker than anything Europe did during its colonial escapades.
DeleteBut Lepanto's symbolic value, again, can't be overstated. It's a reminder that until the last few centuries, Europe often stood with its back against the wall as one outside force after another tried its hands to at least stake a claim on European soil. It demonstrated - along with the other campaigns you mentioned - a desire Europe had to actually survive. And, of course, it speaks to a point where Europe was still mighty devoted to its religious moorings, and as those moorings have been removed, Europe seems fine to let whatever happen in the end, safe that there will be no long term consequences they have to pay for their choices.