Tradition, Catholicism and the World

The three must be understood together. Each comprehends, in its way, the whole of the setting in which we live. Catholicism is the explanation of all things from the standpoint of the most basic realities. “The West”—the political world that surrounds us—is the remains of Catholic Christendom, now in disorder because it has lost touch with those central realities. And the life, order and continuity of Christendom depends on sacred, social and local tradition.