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Author Topic: A Catholic model of social order  (Read 11534 times)

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A Catholic model of social order
« on: October 18, 2025, 11:00:39 AM »
Hi all,

I am sharing this as simply a concept.  The purpose isn't to attempt organizing any such model.  Looking at the disorder of our society today I felt it might be helpful to visualize what a proper organic social order would look like.  That way maybe we can move in that direction.  Any such idea can only really work if it grew organically and over numerous generations.  I just present this as a discussion piece. 

https://trustthevillage.org/

I have attached the pdf.



Re: A Catholic model of social order
« Reply #1 on: October 18, 2025, 11:34:10 AM »
I'm very interested in (what are now being called) intentional communities. I'm somewhat involved in one myself. I think they are one of the surest ways to provide the proper social (and hopefully economic and political) environment in which our children can not just survive but flourish. 

But practical problems abound. 

Who purchases all the land necessary for the village? Where is it? Presumably one would need to purchase agriculturally zoned land, but agriculturally zoned land has significant restrictions for population density, which will make it very difficult to build a village-- neighbors are going to have to be a 10-15 minute drive from each other; the chapel too, etc.

I'm sure there are probably some places where such restrictions don't exist. Zoning laws are local after all. Just pointing out that this is a problem which poses restrictions on where you do this. 

Not to mention the problem of financing it. If it's all granted or purchased by one person (more likely than it being purchased by a group of people), that person needs to be exceptionally moral to prevent him from becoming a tyrant or cult leader. 

There is also the question of culture and economics. Everyone talks a big game until it's time to actually pack up, move to the middle of nowhere, give up the amenities of the big cities, and eek out an existence in subsidiarity. Family men need job security. If they don't have homesteading skills, what assurances are there that their neighbors will be both proficient and charitable enough to instruct and carry them? If it's a remote location what assurances are there that if it fails the man can work a living doing something else? Most people know they do not have the skill set--nevermind the courage -- to get in on the ground floor of a project like this. 

Your best bet is to build such a community with choleric, industrious young men who've not yet set down roots, who've learned some trades already, and maybe even have some capitol to risk. 

But where do the women come from? Will women be persuaded to pair up with these young men, who (from a typical female perspective) have built something anti-social and insular?

Haven't even started in with the problems of forming an independent chapel. 

I think a more practical way to get started with projects like this is to seize existing, decaying civic infrastructure. Move to an already existent small town in a rural area where property is relatively cheap and the population is aging. Learn or be ready to learn construction skills so you can take advantage of abandoned properties for cheap. Make strategic connections to acquire political and economic power in these places, which can then be passed on through custom and inheritance. Be within an hour or a metropolitan area so people have a way to work if they can't make their own labor work for them. 

The barriers to entry are much lower and less expensive. There are more fail-safes for those who are motivated but who prudently need to keep their options open. 


Offline Yeti

  • Supporter
Re: A Catholic model of social order
« Reply #2 on: October 18, 2025, 12:56:42 PM »
Traditional Catholics are much too small a percentage of the population for this to be practical.

A much better plan to do something kind of similar is to try to build up your local chapel. Help out with training altar boys, volunteer in the choir, try to organize clubs and devotions and home school co-ops. Work with the priest on these things.Try to get others involved.

That is going to provide the same sort of social support as the society you are envisioning, and it is easier because everyone is already there at the chapel and already believes in the same things as you, and already has a job so you don't need to worry about what people will do for a living once they get to your ideal village. It has most of the benefits and hardly any of the downsides of your plan. And if you can't get people at your chapel to join a sodality or serve Mass or get together for a reading club, then how on earth do you think you are going to convince them to move to the middle of nowhere and join your village?

Offline Ladislaus

  • Supporter
Re: A Catholic model of social order
« Reply #3 on: October 18, 2025, 01:05:22 PM »
I like the concept, as I've proposed this before, where there's so much waste in the typical suburban model.  Everybody on my street has a lawn mower that sits in the garage for all but 1-2 hours per week on average ... why can't you have a central barn/storage area where people could borrow it from and take it back (signing up on a schedule)?

I just think that the picture of a cathedral in the middle of 5 houses simply does not scale.  You simply can't support the cost, both building cost and maintenance cost of such a thing without much more population around it.

Perhaps if you put a bunch of those plots in a flower-petal design around the central church, then you might be talking.

Re: A Catholic model of social order
« Reply #4 on: October 18, 2025, 01:16:39 PM »
All legitimate points.  Again, it is meant as a model to explore the social order.  There is nothing in the model that can not be adapted to a specific situation such as zoning laws.  I live in a county that has no zoning restrictions so that wouldn't be a problem here.  It can absolutely be adapted to an old town situation.  

An independent Chapel isn't the ideal.  This model is just assuming the perfect situation where the Church and civic authorities cooperate and encourage it.  It simply functions as a inspiration of what could be.  

It's good to compare it to our current social order to see just how far we are from the Catholic social order. It not about a utopia, its about examining the fundamental structure of the society we live in.  That structure effects us on the natural plane.  Supernatural builds on nature.  Our Freemasonic social order was designed to disrupt our social relationships from the cradle.  This model gives us a glimpse at how children would grow up surrounded by a strong Catholic social order like we once had.  

You are right though.  Most Catholics today would not have the formation, resources, virtues, or fortitude to implement this model in any meaningful way.  It simply stands as a reminder of what a healthier society looks like.