![]() However, given some of the horrible advanced by Muñoz and Dreher, it is clear even public figures are invested in liberalism’s white legends. And there is a temptation to decline to do other people’s homework. On the other hand, the recent agony on Twitter about whether integralism is “Catholic fascism” or totalitarianism or any of a whole parade of horribles shows that, from a forensic standpoint, the white legends of liberalism are hard to avoid. And given the careful arguments advanced by Joy and Pink, it is unclear that liberal urgency about tyranny or statism is much of an answer to the definitive status of integralism as Church teaching. In other words, from a doctrinal standpoint, the onus probandi is clearly on the liberals. Finally, Thomas Pink has shown at great length, whether you find it altogether convincing or not, that Dignitatis humanae does not contradict the Pio-Leonine magisterium. Wernz held that Leo XIII’s encyclicals have an intimate relationship with the infallible declarations of Quanta cura and Syllabus. Moreover, as we have noted (following Pappin’s lead), the canonical authority F.X. John Joy has convincingly argued that Quanta cura and Syllabus are infallible and irreformable. In a certain sense, none of this matters in the broader debate about integralism. Instead, liberalism misrepresents itself as the sole defense against the implicit wickedness of illiberal doctrines. Liberalism does not, as a rule, directly misrepresent illiberal doctrines or omit key facts about them. That is, they are the inverse of the misrepresentations and omissions of the Black Legend. However, liberalism’s legends may properly be called White Legends. Such legends, it seems to us, exist about liberalism. The Black Legend relies on exaggerations and misrepresentations of existing facts about Spanish rule, along with a certain economy with the truth about events and persons who might contradict the overarching narrative of bigoted, vicious Spaniards subduing and tormenting across several continents. In this, we are reminded of the Black Legend-the set of stories told about the Spanish Empire, usually by English, intended to present Spanish rule as incomparably cruel. However, upon closer inspection, some of these legends bear little resemblance to the facts as they are. ![]() In the coverage of the final panel discussion, it occurred to us that much of the resistance to liberalism is premised upon some legends about liberalism. Rod Dreher basically liveblogged the proceedings and offered a characteristically behemoth post summarizing his thoughts. It closed with a panel discussion between Harvard Law’s Adrian Vermeule, Gladden Pappin of the University of Dallas, Patrick Deneen, and V. This year, the conference explored the relationship between Church and state. The Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture had its fall conference not too long ago.
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