The importance of the Past
Education today tends to ignore the past and focuses on the
present. G.K. Chesterton states that modern historians have not given us a
reliable version of the story of civilization. Modern historians called revisionists
change the past and reinterpret it according to their own preconceptions and
biases toward theology, religion and in particular toward the Catholic Church. I
have seen it with my own eyes as a college professor for the last ten years. Curriculums
purposefully and deliberately exclude God, religious works, or any topic or
book that reflect or present the catholic faith, the Catholic Church, catholic social
teachings or catholic prominent figures so as to only represent the agendas of
education today. What are the agendas of our day? They are, in essence to
present only a secular view of the world historically. The omission or
disinformation of history of this kind disfigures and intentionally but subtly
falsifies the rudiments of the history of civilization, specifically Western Civilization.
Why? Because the intent is to vilify all that the Catholic Church and Christianity
have positively contributed to Western Civilization because that would mean
that we acknowledge that there is only one God, Creator of Heaven and Earth and
that we are made in His image and likeness.
Revisionist historians according to G. K. Chesterton want to
only present scientific and factual aspects of history without understanding
the facts culturally or within the chronological time they represents. By
cultural facts, G. K. Chesterton means the legends and traditions that assist
in the interpretation of history especially if little evidence is available in
written form. Without the study of oral history the recounting of history is
false according to Chesterton.
I agree with G. K. Chesterton when he states that “All Roads
Lead to Rome.” I have amassed much information about Rome after a half century
of studying and teaching the Italian language, its culture and its
civilization. I agree with Chesterton that “All Roads come from Rome” or in
other words that our modern civilization comes from Roman civilization. As the
Roman Empire dissolved into chaos, its Church took its place and produced some
of its greatest leaders and its greatest contributions of all time.
Having studied the Middles Ages in Spain, France and in
Italy in particular, I can unequivocally concur with Chesterton who says that
the Catholic Church single-handedly brought the Medieval Ages out of Darkness
into the Light. Not only were the barbarians conquered but in many cases they
were converted. By the end of the 5th century, most of the non-Roman
peoples settled in the West were adopting Roman customs and Christian belief.
Intermarriage with established Roman families, the acquisition of Imperial
titles, and finally, conversion to Christianity assisted a process of
acculturation among their leaders, for instance as in the case of Clovis, the
Frank. Generally speaking, when modern historians describe the Medieval Ages as
cruel, they just want to denigrate the Catholic Church as cruel and barbaric.
They ignore the fact that it was the Catholic Church that fought off the
barbarians and in a more amazing way, converted them. They ignore the more
striking fact that they have been the cruel ones who want to destroy the
Catholic Church and disregard all that we borrowed from the Catholic Church
that is humane and good for society. It was the Church that founded hospitals,
orphanages and universities. It was the Church that fed the poor and defended the
weak. It was the Catholic Church that rejected the modern, atheistic culture in the 20th
century that tortured and killed more people than the rest of history combined. In my next blog I will write about a plethora of contributions that came from the Middle Ages and from Christianity.
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