From Plutocratic Pedos To A Christian King

An excerpt from, “Catholic Kingship and Monarchy: The Ideal Form of Government” by Matthew Plese, Fatima.org, October 27, 2025:

The Fathers of the Church recognized monarchy as the natural and most stable form of governance. St. Gregory of Nazianzus wrote: “Monarchy is the most ancient and most fitting image of the divine government” (Orationes, 3). Note his use of the term “image.” Men are made in the image of God. Thus, the order of our earthly government is best when it images the order of heavenly rule. Heaven is most definitely a monarchy. Our time on earth is meant to be a “practicing” for Heaven and thus our finite political forms of government ought to prepare us to better participate in the eternal order of Heaven.

Likewise, St. Augustine, though acknowledging the abuses of corrupt rulers, affirmed that righteous kingship is a great good when subordinated to God: “Justice being taken away, then, what are kingdoms but great robberies?” (City of God, IV, 4)

The Scholastic theologians, especially St. Thomas Aquinas, gave the most systematic defense of monarchy. In De Regno, Aquinas argued that monarchy best secures the unity and common good of a people, just as the universe is governed by the one God: “It is manifest that it is better for a multitude to be governed by one man, than by many: for there is nothing worse than for the multitude to be without unity” (De Regno, I, 2).

Thus, monarchy reflects both the unity of divine governance and the order of nature itself.

. . .The Protestant Revolt, the Enlightenment, and the French Revolution dealt devastating blows to Catholic kingship. The dethronement and even execution of kings in Europe reflected not merely political upheaval but the rebellion of man against the Kingship of Christ. The rise of liberal democracies, founded on religious indifferentism and the separation of Church and State, was condemned repeatedly by the Popes of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

. . .It is important for Catholics today to recall that an “absolute monarchy” is not the only form of monarchy. European history saw the rise of totalitarian (or absolute) monarchies in the late 17th Century, notable examples include Louis XIV (†1715), the Sun King in France; Frederick the Great (†1786) in Prussia; Joseph II (†1790) in Austria; and Peter the Great in Russia (†1725). All too often people living today associate ‘monarchy’ with the abusive rule of these kings. Their sinful rule actually paved the path for their demise by opening the path for revolutionary ideas to take root in the zeitgeist of their age.

Earlier forms of Christian monarchy had a built-in system of checks and balances. The monarch depended on the support of his high-ranking vassals, and this ensured he acted with greater justice. The Church also exerted a great deal of influence upon the ruling class and frequently pressured them into acting in favor of their people’s common good.

An absolute monarch on this earth, without any checks and balances, will almost always fall into corruption. (There is a reason why we have the saying ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely.’) However, a virtuous Christian monarch with proper limits, checks and balances is clearly the best form of government here on earth.

We all know that, given the reality of original sin, every human government is liable to succumb to corruption. In a democratic form of government, with rule by the many, it is nearly impossible to enact real and lasting reform. Likewise, it is very difficult to reform an oligarchy because the majority of the ruling class would all need to convert. A communist or socialist form of government is even further beyond repair because the very materialistic principles of the system reject God and His grace. However, a monarchy, ruled by a single family, is the structure which can most easily undergo conversion and reform. Moreover, virtuous royal parents can have a profound impact on raising saintly children and forming them from infancy in the art of governing according to the common good and Christian principles.

Proof of this is easily found in how many monarchs have been canonized by Holy Mother Church. The list includes many of the good kings listed above, as well as St. Hermenegild (Visigoths), St. Magnus (Orkney), St. Ferdinand III (Castille), St. Stephen (Hungary), St. Canute (Denmark), St. Olaf (Norway), St. Wenceslaus (Bohemia), St. Clotilde (Franks), St. Elizabeth (Hungary), St. Adelaide (Holy Roman Empire), St. Hedwig (Bavaria), St. Jadwiga (Poland), St. Isabel (Portugal), and many others. Contrast this with the complete absence of canonized rulers in democratic systems of government.

. . .In a world of chaos, Catholic monarchy stands as a forgotten but enduring witness to the truth that only Christ reigns, and only under His reign can men and nations find peace.