Americans are bad at history. As the late Christopher Lasch and many other scholars have noted, we’re ambivalent about the past. We claim to be a “new order of the ages,” words stamped in Latin on our nation’s Great Seal. The past comes with obligations that constrain the future and interfere with reinventing ourselves at will. Yet at the same we can’t escape the past as a stockpile of lessons and the foundation of our current circumstances.
Thus, one of the more telling trends in our culture as we approach America’s “Quarter Millennial” is an enhanced interest—especially among men, but including many women as well—in Roman history. A quick search with Anthropic’s AI tool “Claude” explains the phenomenon this way:
The Founding Fathers deliberately modeled aspects of American government on Roman precedents — the Senate, the concept of a republic, a political process of checks and balances. The architecture of Washington, D.C. itself evokes Roman classical style. This creates a sense of lineage and connection. And Rome’s trajectory from republic to empire to decline offers a compelling story that resonates with anxieties about American power and longevity. People often draw parallels (whether apt or not) between the two civilizations.
One of those “apt parallels” between Rome and ourselves becomes obvious in what follows.
The most sacred symbol of the ancient Roman state was an altar to the goddess Victory. It stood in the Roman Senate for nearly 400 years. In A.D. 382, a Christian emperor removed the altar as idolatrous. Two years later, after his death, the pagan prefect of Rome—Quintus Aurelius Symmachus—wrote one of the most interesting letters of Late Antiquity.
Addressing the new Christian emperor, Symmachus asked that the Altar of Victory be restored. In effect, in arguing for the altar, he argued the case for an entire way of life. He described the altar’s removal as unwise and unjust. He praised past emperors for their tolerance in maintaining the old religion and funding pagan ceremonies. He claimed that Rome’s pagan worship had protected the city and subdued the world, and therefore deserved to be treated with the reverence owed to posterity.
He stressed that the altar ensured a sacred guarantee for Rome’s civil authority. And in a strikingly modern passage, he said:
We ask then for peace for the gods of our fathers and of our country. It is just that all worship should be considered as one. We look on the same stars; the sky is common; the same world surrounds us. What difference does it make by what pains each seeks the truth? We cannot attain so great a secret by one road . . . [so therefore] we offer now prayers, not conflict.
It’s impossible to read Symmachus today without feeling a kind of compassion for his cause. But his words did no good. Christians already outnumbered pagans in Rome itself. St. Ambrose of Milan, one of the great Latin Fathers of the Church, wrote a crushing response to Symmachus that ended the discussion. The Altar of Victory never returned to the Senate. Paganism slowly died away.
Symmachus argued well. But he argued from weakness—the weakness of nostalgia for old ways that were already dying; the weakness of religious rites that no longer had any power; the weakness of pleading to be heard rather than demanding and winning a place in the human heart through the zeal of religious action and the force of religious witness.
Nobody listened to Symmachus because nobody cares about dying embers. But everyone pays attention to a fire—especially when it burns in the hearts of other men and women. And that brings us to the heart of these brief thoughts.
Jesus said, “I came to cast fire upon the earth, and would that it were already kindled!” (Lk 12:49). For much of our nation’s history, those words were known to most Americans and actually meant something in the way people organized their lives. The United States was never a formally “Christian” nation. But it didn’t need to be. Its public life and civic institutions were deeply informed by biblical thought, language and morality. More importantly, most Americans were Christians, and many tried to live their faith to a degree that astonished Alexis de Tocqueville in his account of their Sunday worship.
But that was then. This–250 years later—is now. And it leads us to the lesson in the story of Symmachus: Christians once rightly felt at home in America, a land first settled by Christians and predominantly built by them over the course of three centuries. But in recent years, God, like Rome’s Altar of Victory, has been less and less welcome at the center of our common life. As a result, unless things change—and unless we ourselves change them—Christians will find themselves in the same place Symmachus once did: arguing from the margins.
There’s good news: By European standards, American religious practice remains high. The very public Christian faith of men like Marco Rubio, J.D. Vance, and Charlie Kirk may exasperate our mainstream media and draw the scorn of our secularized elites. But it hints at a potent biblical leaven that survives in both political parties. Nonetheless, our nation’s religious terrain is steadily shifting. The America emerging today is already much less friendly to the Christian faith than anything in our country’s past. It doesn’t need to be this way. And that poses a challenge for all of us as Catholics.
Here’s my point: We make the future; nothing in this world is inevitable. During my years as a bishop, I’ve met thousands—and I mean tens of thousands—of young adults on fire for Jesus Christ and deeply committed to their Catholic faith. And I’ve seen them come together in vigorous new movements and projects that give their hunger for God real force: things like Christ in the City, FOCUS, the Leonine Forum, the Augustine Institute, and many others.
These Catholic young people aren’t alone. We can find them by the hundreds in every corner of the country. But they need the kind of public witness from their leaders—both clergy and lay—that radiates confidence in the Word of God, fidelity to the Catholic faith, and a missionary zeal to make all things new in Jesus Christ, including the public square.
In that light, as we approach the 250th birthday of our country, we’d do well to turn our hearts toward a very different figure of Roman history: St. Augustine of Hippo. He lived in a time and a world not unlike our own. Augustine embodies the Catholic ideal of personal holiness lived in a community of virtue, and the integration of faith and reason at the very highest level. He reveres the past as a tool for teaching and the traditions on which we depend. But he combines this with an awareness of the passing nature of this world and the culmination of the human story outside of time. Augustine is a man between two worlds, which is exactly the condition we Christians all share.
Augustine reminds us that the City of Man and the City of God intermingle. We have obligations to each of them. But our final home and our real citizenship are not in this world. Politics is important, but it’s a byproduct shaped by, and downstream from, our faith. If we do not know and love Jesus Christ, and commit our lives to him, and act on what we claim to believe, everything else is empty. But if we do, so much else is possible—including the conversion of the world and the structures of power around us.
The only question that finally matters for any of us is the one Jesus posed to his apostles: “Who do you say I am? Symmachus argued the case for a pagan faith that was already dead. We have no such excuse for failure: We receive the Son of the living and true God at every Mass. The core issue facing each of us is faith—always and everywhere, whether we’re scholars or nurses or priests or lawyers or mechanics. Do we believe in Jesus Christ, or don’t we? And if we do, then what are we going to do about it?
The vocation of a Christian disciple is to feed the soul of the world as well as its mind; to offer a vision of men and women made whole by the love of God, the beauty of creation, and the reality of things unseen; to see the world in the light of eternity; to recapture the nobility of the human story and the dignity and destiny of the human person.
This is the work that sets fire to the human heart. It starts the only kind of revolution that really changes anything: a revolution of love. Jesus said, I came to cast fire upon the earth, and would that it were already kindled.
If we call ourselves disciples, our task is to start that blaze and then help it grow.
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Cartainly an archbishop worthy of the name. Humility and dedication to the mission of Christ’s Church are his trademarks.
Archbishop Chaput, OFM Cap -a FRANCISCAN
It’s like having a gnat buzzing around your head.
A wonderful piece of relevant history from the learned capuchin Archbishop emeritus.
This writer can add his own insight on a reinstallation of the God of Victory by our current president. An analogy that has ramifications in reality, a reinvention of imperialism bringing to life the Roman model of republic by our founding fathers, but in the form they refused with war against British imperialism.
Difference as well as similarity exists in Saint Ambrose’s opposition to our return to paganism and Saint Augustine’s war of the heart, that is, the fervent love of God in opposition to grandiosity.
Remarked recently on the now cataclysmic issue of the ‘Minneapolis killing’, whether there was justification. Perhaps. Although my argument has been the all important distinction between legal justification and moral justification. I submit my view is an opinion unless proved otherwise. Although what I perceive is a loss of heart within nation and world.
Chaput, great religious leader that he was, unappreciated by Pope Francis was consigned to the dustbin of history. Although the truth of his words last. Mankind has lost its heart. We’ve become cold and calculating. To restore our humanness by and within, our entering into the fiery love of the sacred heart of Jesus.
“Remarked recently on the now cataclysmic issue of the ‘Minneapolis killing’, whether there was justification. Perhaps.”
More silliness from Fr. Morello. The events in Minneapolis were not “cataclysmic,” and it is dishonest and manipulative to frame the issue in that way. And there was most certainly justification fir what happened, if one grounds their conclusions in facts and the preponderance of evidence, something you seem consistently unwilling to do regarding this issue.
To clarify I referred to the catastrophic aftermath, which is the growing insurrection the result of the shooting.
Insofar as the interpretation of the shooting that is widely debatable.
“Chaput, great religious leader that he was, unappreciated by Pope Francis was consigned to the dustbin of history. Although the truth of his words last. Mankind has lost its heart. We’ve become cold and calculating. To restore our humanness by and within, our entering into the fiery love of the sacred heart of Jesus.”
In this instance, I would have to disagree, Father, for every Faithful Catholic knows through both Faith and reason, that when “rendering onto Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God, what belongs to God”, it is God, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, In The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, Who Is The Author Of Love, Of Life, And Of Marriage, and thus The Author Of Our Unalienable Right To Life, To Liberty, And To The Pursuit Of Happiness, The Purpose Of Which Can Only Be What God Intends. In fact, I am quite certain Biahop Chaput, as
a Faithful Catholic, will continue to Bless us with his words of Wisdom. Keep The Faith, Father, we need your words of Wisdom!
With Thanks And Gratitude to you, Bishop Chaput, all who Serve Our Lord🙏✝️💕🙏
Fortunately, the FBI’s law enforcement involved shooting investigation team is much more knowledgeable than Father Morello, in determining whether a law enforcement officer was justified in using deadly force. Too many people with absolutely no knowledge of how and when a law enforcement officer can protect his life from ending make uninformed opinions. Case law is very clear according to the courts that law enforcement officers have the right to use deadly force to stay alive. Many who think otherwise only believe the officer should take a bullet or let a driver kill them with their vehicle.
I pray that God grants many more years to Archbishop Chaput, so that his wisdom will continue to encourage all of us to live our Catholic faith in the way that reveals God’s love for all and brings everyone to Him in this life and the next. Thank you, Archbishop Chaput, for showing us the way!
Thank you, Archbishop Chaput. I can only hope and pray that your words change our fearful hearts and cowardly minds. Yes, it does take courage to speak out with a heart and mind filled with truth. So. Where and how do we start? I am sincerely looking and hoping for good ideas. I know that we DO have faithful, brave men and women in this country and I know that some/many of them read this wonderful column. Can you please show us the way? Will you provide us with examples of small and large ideas in living out the truth of our Faith? And then, will we pray to Almighty God that He will send us His Holy Spirit to BE and DO these things that will light the spark in our families, our neighbors, our coworkers, our countrymen? He will, if only we ask, seek, knock. Please God, we will.
“Can you please show us the way? Will you provide us with examples of small and large ideas in living out the truth of our Faith? And then, will we pray to Almighty God that He will send us His Holy Spirit to BE and DO these things that will light the spark in our families, our neighbors, our coworkers, our countrymen? He will, if only we ask, seek, knock. Please God, we will.”
Here is my suggestion:
Catholic Education in Solidarity with the Poor.
“A preferential option for the poor” should be maintained in our Catholic Schools. If we find that we cannot afford to keep our schools open to the poor, the Church should be ready to use its resources for something else which can be kept open to the poor. We cannot allow our Church to become a church primarily for the upper classes while leaving the poor in the public schools. The priority should be given to the poor even if we have to let the upper classes fend for themselves.
Practically speaking, the Catholic Schools must give up general education in those countries where the State is providing it. The resources of the Church could then be focused on “Confraternity of Christian Doctrine” and other programs which can be kept open to the poor. These resources could then be used to help society become more human in solidarity with the poor. Remember, the Church managed without Catholic Schools for centuries. It can get along without them today. The essential factor is to cultivate enough Faith to act in the Gospel Tradition, namely, THE POOR GET PRIORITY. The rich and middle-class are welcome too. But the poor must be included.
There are a couple issues; 1) the Church is likely not as wealthy as everyone thinks it is, (are there large debts?) and 2)if the public schools are failing, which they are then what is the Church’s responsibility to the next generation? The Church flourished with mostly local/regional management, at least in the past.
The fact that a reasonable and thoughful man such as Abp Chaput was never made a Cardinal is a scandal. He was the first Archbishop of Philadelphia in 100 years who was not named a cardinal.
But I guess reasonable men weren’t on Francis’ short list. Cupich, Gregory, McElroy, all “Princes of the Church”.
The old saw “personnel is policy” was never more evident that in the dirty dozen years of 2013-2025, where ideological nepotism was the order of the day.
Maybe the inscription said to be above the historical Smithsonian Museum should be changed from Shakespeare’s “the Past is Prologue” to a less deterministic “Hope to be a Happy Nation” voiced by the “Father [a father!] of our Country”—George Washington.
In his public Prayer for the United States of America, Washington said:
“Almighty God; we make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy holy protection; that Thou wilt incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government. . . . And finally that Thou wilt most graciously be pleased to dispose to all to do justice, to love mercy and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without a humble imitation of whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation. Grant our supplication, we beseech Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” (Marjorie Barrows, One Thousand Beautiful Things [Chicago: Peoples Book Club, Inc., 1947], 425).
One big problem with our current situation is that those in power are trying to obtain seemingly good ends by employing questionable means. The arguments by those in power seem to be that we are in an extraordinary situation that justifies abuse of tradition and use of assumed authority and power. It is unlikely that our government will ever be able to return to its foundations if we continue on the present trajectory. We have different gross moral ideas on both sides of the aisle, and any reconciliation seems unlikely at best, and most likely impossible.
I think that Archbishop Chaput rightly points out the only plausible reaction: conversion of heart, one at a time- lightning a blaze that will expose and dispel the darkness. We need true conversions of both liberals and conservatives; the wealthy the poor; those in government and those opposed to the government; the white, red, brown snd black; the wealthy, the homeless, straight, homosexual, bisexual, asexual , transsexual; Anglo, Spanish, Arab, you name it, etc. etc. etc. -no exceptions, none. We must live and preach the Good News. We must not let our talking the talk not outpace our walking the walk. We must refrain from judging for we are in sales, not management.
“The America emerging today is already much less friendly to the Christian faith than anything in our country’s past. It doesn’t need to be this way.”
It may not need to be this way-but all signs are that it will-and it will be worse and in part because of Archbishop Chaput’s “brother Bishops”. And it’s not just America, but everywhere.
In Microcosm: From First Liberty:
Collier Township, Pennsylvania is taking actions to prevent the Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church from conducting religious services.
Ukrainian Catholic refugees fled from communism in the 20th century, seeking to worship in peace according to their own customs and traditions. They found respite in Collier Township and eventually acquired a 41-acre parcel of land.
Upon settling in the Township, these refugees formed their church, the Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church.
And now that they are ready to build a chapel on their land, Collier Township is refusing to grant the church the needed permits to begin construction.
In addition, the Township has placed unlawful restrictions on the church such as limiting how long and when church bells could ring, for whom memorial services could be held, and the size and height of buildings.
First Liberty is a secular organization that is taking up this cause. Where are the religious organizations? Why does this community not have Bishops, regardless of their Rite, ready to defend them with legal counsel or “amicus” briefs?
Instead, they are obsessed with eradicating our sovereignty-making things even more hostile to Christians. In September at a Dearborn City Council Mayor Abdullah H. Hammoud told local resident Edward “Ted” Barham, a Christian, that he was “not welcome” in the city after Barham raised concerns about new street signs honoring Arab American News publisher Osama Siblani.
Can you imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth if a Christian mayor made that statement to a non-Christian? The former Chaldean Bishop of Mosul, Amel Nona warned us years ago about how Islam doesn’t play nice with others-but nobody paid any heed. Certainly not Francis, who insubordinately chastised Benedict from Buenos Aries for his 2006 Regensberg address.
Have you heard from your Bishop about the “need” to welcome any and all foreigners or militating against the enforcement of immigration law with linguistic engineering such as replacing “illegal” with undocumented? I have.
Have your heard about this municipal abuse from your Bishop? What about PA Governor Josh Shapiro’s persecution of the Little Sisters of the Poor?
If you have heard of either of these things from your Bishop, give the man credit here for being on the watch. More likely you have heard about legalizing invasion, George Floyd and LGTBQ acceptance and expanding the great engine of moral debilitation, the welfare state.
How much of this is dictated by that they were receiving in excess of $125M annually in federal money for “resettlement”. I can’t opine on financial statements if I have a single obsolete penny’s interest in the enterprise, so pardon me if I don’t trust the objectivity of a group that was getting a decent sized lottery award annually to not respond to the modern equivalent of 30 pieces of silver, just as Judas did.
A friend recently observed that best barometer of the de-Christianization of America was that during the Bicentennial, if you saw a woman in public wearing a veil, she was almost certainly a Catholic (nun). Saturday when I go to Costco, there will be plenty of women in veils, and almost certainly all non-Catholic and many shopping with EBT cards funded by cuckholds to the welfare state such as me.
Pitchfork Rebel: Thanks for the clear review of what actually happened. Best wishes that you actively work with people who are keeping their fingers in the holes in the dike. For the sake of the tears of Jesus’ mother as she watched Him be crucified, may our Lord send us more bishops like Charles Chaput, and have mercy on those who have betrayed or abandoned us. In other words, through the prayers of the Mother of God may our Savior save us!
The Archbishop points his finger to the heart of the matter, as always. It is fundamentally a matter of Faith in the Person of Jesus Christ. If we believe, then everything changes. His presence in each day becomes more important than every other consideration, for everything else is passing away, but His real and immediate presence is what is lasting and fills us with hope and a longing for the joy that only eternal life with Him will provide. If we live there, then we will find peace and change the world around us!