www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Blessed Karl of Austria

Bless Father Archimandrite!

PLEASE let us know when those icon cards of Blessed Charles will be ready for purchase!

You promise?!

Kissing your right hand, I again implore your blessing,

(And thank you for the information on the Cause of the Holy Empress Zita!!)

Alex

Dear Esteemed Father Deacon!

Here is our website:

www.monarchist.ca [monarchist.ca]

Bowing low to you,

Alex

Dear AMM,

Well, it should return in a constitutional monarchical framework and we Royalists pray that it will!!

And we monarchists believe that you republicans can sometimes be rather idealistic about your own system of government which can be dictatorial in a more subtle manner . . .

Having come from a left-wing sociological tradition, I am all for . . . CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY!!

Have a great day, sir!

Alex

Dear AMM,

And the last time I checked the Divine Liturgy (including the RDL ), it read "Blessed is the KINGDOM . . . "

No reference to republics at all!

Alex

Bravo, Father Archimandrite, Bravo!!

(It's a good thing the Administrator moved this thread here - monarchists can be such boisterous people!)

God save all the Kings and Queens!

Alex

What is the best biography of the blessed Karl?

Nick

All systems are prone to excess, abuse and misuse. That's just a fact of life. I'm hopeful at some point we wake up and realize that our own empire building needs to end. Maybe we should just all be like the Swiss (since I'm 1/4 Swiss myself). Of course they gave us chocolate and clocks and not Haydn and Mozart...

Whether one is a monarchist or a republican however pales in comparison to the all important topic of whether one is Yankees or a Red Sox fan.

Biography: I've not yet had the opportunity to read it, but I'm told that Bogle's A Heart for Europe is a good English-language biography of the Righteous Emperor Charles.

Fr. Serge

Dear AMM,

Excellent points!

Personally, I believe constitutional monarchies provide a more adequate framework for that kind of reflection . . .

Alex

NO system is perfect. Perfection will only be found in heaven.


Umm... correction. A majority of the people in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (and again I mean after the Ausgleich) were quite happy under the monarchy (with some notable exceptions). The Ruthenians and Poles were happy to be under Austrian rule, lest the Russians come and dominate them; many of the Hungarians were happy to be under the Habsburgs as this provided some stability and an 'impartial' ruler to keep the bickering nobles in check; the Muslim Bosnians were happy to have the Serbs off of their back; and the Jews who were allowed more freedom than any other place in Central or Eastern Europe save Germany. The groups who were dissatisfied were as follows: the Czechs, who wanted independence; the Romanians in Transylvania (though they made up only half of the population at the time, the rest being Saxon, Hungarian, and Romany i.e. Gypsy); the Croats, who felt humiliated by the Hungarians and would rather have been in the Austrian half of the Empire; and the Serbs of Bosnia who had been annexed.

It is very telling that most (but not all) of these ethnic groups did not seek independence until it was absolutely clear that the Habsburg monarchy would be no more.

Dear Byzantophile,

Well stated!

AMM is an extremely erudite and intelligent person.

But we do feel that monarchy is western civilization's, well, "crowning achievement . . ."

A good weekend to you!

Alex

I guess the risk is for every Karl I, you may get a Joseph II.

Haha! Good point, but I suppose that's all how one looks at Joseph II. The most 'Enlightened' Habsuburg on one hand; or a whimsical, Masonic-influenced emperor who was no friend to the Church on the other. I've always seen him as the latter.

Republican governments have a way of degenerating into the organized impudence of the bureaucrats. A constitutional monarchy represents at least an effort to avoid Scylla and Charybdis, so to speak.

Will the Hapburgs be restored? Heavens, I don't know. But as the Archduke Otto often remarks, history knows of many instances of republics being succeeded by monarchies and vice versa, so I wouldn't exclude the possibility. As the Soviet Empire was self-destructing, the last Communist regime in Hungary offered to restore Otto to the Hungarian throne. His Imperial and Royal Highness had the good sense to refuse, saying that he could not owe the throne to any one political party and he would only accept a restoration on the basis of a well-monitored referendum with a good two-thirds vote in favor.

Archduke Otto, incidentally, has a sign displayed on his office door. It reads: "If you have nothing to do, please don't do it here"!

Fr. Serge