Integralism

However, they have simultaneously declared "that the human person has a right to religious freedom," a move that some traditionalist Catholics such as Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the founder of the Society of St. Pius X, have argued is at odds with previous doctrinal pronouncements.

[4][5] The term is sometimes used more loosely and in non-Catholic contexts to refer to a set of theoretical concepts and practical policies that advocate a fully integrated social and political order based on a comprehensive doctrine of human nature.

The term was used as an epithet to describe those who opposed the modernists, who had sought to create a synthesis between Christian theology and the liberal philosophy of secular modernity.

In 1950, Pius XII identified the Dominican friar and prophet Savonarola as an early pioneer of integralism in the face of the "neo-pagan" influences of the Renaissance: "Savonarola shows us the strong conscience of the ascetic and an apostle who has a lively sense of things divine and eternal, who takes a stand against rampant paganism, who remains faithful to the evangelical and Pauline ideal of integral Christianity, put into action in public life as well and animating all institutions.

It was a movement that sought to assert a Catholic underpinning to all social and political action and to minimize or eliminate any competing ideological actors, such as secular humanism and liberalism.

[2] The 19th-century papacy challenged the growth of liberalism (with its doctrine of popular sovereignty) as well as new scientific and historical methods and theories (which were thought to threaten the special status of the Christian revelation).

In his decree Postquam Sanctissimus of 1914, the pope published a list of 24 philosophical theses to summarise 'the principles and more important thoughts' of St Thomas.

[18] Integralism could be said to merely be the modern continuation of the traditional Catholic conception of Church–State relations elucidated by Pope Gelasius I and expounded upon throughout the centuries up to the Syllabus of Errors, which condemned the idea that the separation of Church and State is a moral good.

[19] For example, some Catholics have praised the actions of Pius IX in the 1858 Mortara case, in which he ordered the abduction of a six-year-old Jewish boy who had been baptized without his parents' consent.

Tradistae and Tradinista, both groups acknowledge what they see as the duty of the state towards the Catholic Church as well as supporting Liberation Theology and rejecting capitalism.

[25][26][27][28] Integralism has been identified as a basis for modern legal conceptions that emphasize natural law, including common good constitutionalism.

Proposed and popularized by Adrian Vermeule, common good constitutionalism was developed like integralism to "combat the legitimate societal threat of modern liberal individualism".

[31] Jacques Maritain claimed that his own position of Integral humanism, which he adopted after rejecting Action Française, was the authentically integralist stance,[32] although it is generally viewed as its antithesis.

The Southern Poverty Law Center uses the term "integrism" to refer to "radical traditional Catholics" who reject the Second Vatican Council.