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Integralism

Integralism is a Catholic intellectual tradition that rejects the modern liberal separation of politics from the ultimate purpose of human life, positing instead that the state must subordinate its authority to the Catholic Church to direct society toward the common good ordered to supernatural beatitude. This philosophy holds that civil governance cannot be neutral toward religion, as true justice requires recognition of Christ's kingship over all temporal affairs, with the Church exercising indirect power over the state through doctrinal guidance and moral suasion. Emerging prominently in the late 19th and early 20th centuries amid Catholic resistance to secularism and the French Revolution's principles, integralism draws on Thomistic natural law adapted to Revelation's demands, emphasizing that grace perfects nature and thus infuses political order with divine ends. Key tenets include opposition to religious liberty as indifferentism, advocacy for confessional states where Catholicism informs law and education, and a hierarchical view of subsidiarity under ecclesiastical oversight, contrasting sharply with democratic pluralism's prioritization of individual autonomy over communal teleology. Historically, integralist ideas influenced movements like Portugal's Integralismo Lusitano and Brazil's Ação Integralista Brasileira, though the latter incorporated fascist elements diverging from pure Catholic doctrine; in practice, approximations appeared in mid-20th-century Iberian regimes under Salazar and Franco, which allied state power with Church authority against communism and liberalism. Controversies persist in contemporary revivals, as articulated in works like Thomas Crean and Alan Fimister's Integralism: A Manual of Political Philosophy, which critique liberal democracies for fostering moral relativism while proposing a return to pre-modern Christendom's symbiosis of throne and altar—claims often dismissed in secular academia as incompatible with pluralism, yet defended by proponents as causally necessary for societal coherence given empirical failures of secular governance in promoting virtue.

Philosophical Foundations

Core Principles and First-Principles Reasoning

Catholic Integralism posits that the proper end of political authority is the common good of society, which encompasses not only temporal welfare but also the supernatural beatitude of its members through union with God. This view derives from the recognition that human nature is inherently ordered toward a final cause—ultimate happiness achievable only via divine grace and revelation—necessitating that civil governance align with the truths of natural law and divine positive law as authoritatively interpreted by the Catholic Church. Integralists argue that separating politics from this comprehensive human telos, as in liberal neutrality, undermines the state's legitimacy, since no polity can coherently pursue the good while ignoring the transcendent dimension that causally grounds moral and social order. From foundational premises, the reasoning proceeds as follows: rational beings possess intellects capable of knowing truth and wills oriented to the good, but unaided reason suffices only for natural virtues and proximate ends, falling short of the supernatural virtues required for eternal fulfillment. Empirical observation of human history supports this, as societies confessing the true faith—such as medieval Christendom—exhibited greater cultural and moral cohesion compared to those detached from religious truth, where relativism has empirically correlated with institutional decay, as evidenced by rising indicators of social fragmentation in secular states post-Enlightenment (e.g., divorce rates exceeding 40% in many Western nations by the late 20th century). Thus, causal realism demands that political structures facilitate, rather than hinder, the conditions for salvation, rejecting pluralism as a false equivalence that treats error-tolerant governance as neutral when it actively obstructs the common good. The relation between Church and State follows deductively: the spiritual power possesses indirect jurisdiction over temporal affairs insofar as they impinge on faith and morals, entitling the Church to direct or veto state actions conflicting with divine law, while the State retains autonomy in prudential matters of administration. This dyadic model, rooted in scriptural precedents like Christ's mandate to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's (Matthew 22:21), ensures harmony by subordinating the temporal sword to the spiritual, preventing the usurpation seen in caesaropapist errors or atheistic totalitarianism. Integralism thereby upholds subsidiarity within an organic hierarchy, where lower authorities serve higher ends without absorbing them, fostering empirical stability as in confessional regimes that historically sustained liberty under law until eroded by liberal individualism.

Relation to Thomistic Natural Law and Catholic Social Teaching

Integralism derives its foundational principles from the Thomistic framework of , as expounded by , who described as the rational creature's participation in the , binding human legislation to truths oriented toward the . Aquinas argued in the (I-II, q. 90-97) that civil laws gain legitimacy only insofar as they promote and the of persons, encompassing both temporal and the end of beatitude, which requires mediated through the . Integralists extend this to assert that political neutrality toward undermines the state's , as demands laws conformed not merely to reason alone but to reason illuminated by faith, rejecting liberal secularism as incompatible with Aquinas's teleological anthropology. This Thomistic orientation informs Integralism's view of the common good as encompassing spiritual dimensions, where the state's coercive authority must subordinate temporal ends to ecclesiastical guidance to avoid coercion toward false goods or indifference to salvation. Proponents, drawing on Aquinas's De Regno, contend that rulers act as stewards under divine sovereignty, fostering societal conditions—such as public worship and moral education—that align with natural inclinations toward God, rather than confining governance to material prosperity. Critics within Thomistic circles, however, argue for limited government focused on earthly virtues accessible via reason, viewing Integralism's insistence on confessional enforcement as exceeding Aquinas's prudential bounds on coercion for the unbaptized. In relation to Catholic Social Teaching (CST), Integralism interprets the doctrine's emphasis on the common good, subsidiarity, and solidarity—articulated in encyclicals like Rerum Novarum (1891)—as requiring the integration of faith into social structures, with the state publicly professing Catholicism to secure authentic human dignity against secular ideologies. Pope Leo XIII's Immortale Dei (1885) explicitly mandates that civil society, bound by natural law, must recognize God as the source of authority and favor the true religion, critiquing religious indifferentism as a denial of divine order and a precursor to societal decay. Similarly, Pius XI's Quas Primas (1925) establishes Christ's social kingship, obliging nations and rulers to submit public life to His dominion for peace and justice, reinforcing Integralism's thesis of harmonious Church-State union over dualistic separation. While CST post-Dignitatis Humanae (1965) has been invoked to support religious freedom and limit confessional mandates, Integralists maintain fidelity to pre-conciliar teachings like those of Leo XIII and Pius XI as more consistent with Thomistic realism, viewing modern developments as prudential accommodations rather than doctrinal reversals on the ideal ordering of society to the Gospel.

Historical Origins

Medieval and Early Modern Roots

![Raphael - Coronation of Charlemagne][float-right] The medieval roots of integralism trace to the patristic and early medieval doctrine of the relationship between spiritual and temporal authority, particularly as articulated by Pope Gelasius I in his 494 letter Duo sunt to Emperor Anastasius I, which distinguished between sacred authority (auctoritas sacra) and royal power (regalis potestas) while asserting the superiority of the spiritual over the temporal in matters pertaining to salvation. This Gelasian dyarchy provided a framework for viewing the state as instrumental to the Church's mission, influencing later developments where temporal rulers were seen as subordinates in pursuing the common good ordered toward eternal ends. A symbolic manifestation occurred in 800 when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as Emperor, affirming the Church's role in legitimizing secular rule under Christian auspices. The High Middle Ages saw intensified hierocratic assertions during the Gregorian Reforms, with Pope Gregory VII's Dictatus Papae of 1075 claiming the papal right to depose emperors and absolve subjects from allegiance for grave offenses against faith, challenging imperial interference in ecclesiastical appointments during the Investiture Controversy (1075–1122). This culminated in Pope Boniface VIII's bull Unam Sanctam of November 18, 1302, which declared that both the spiritual and temporal swords reside in the Church's power, with the latter wielded by princes at the Church's behest, and submission to the Roman Pontiff as absolutely necessary for salvation. Complementing these papal claims, Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274) in his Summa Theologica (II-II, q. 10, a. 10; q. 11, a. 3) reasoned that civil authority must promote virtue and suppress vice, including heresy, under the Church's directive, as the temporal common good is subordinate to the spiritual end of human beatitude. In the early modern period, amid rising monarchial absolutism and the Protestant Reformation, Catholic theologians reaffirmed these principles to counter secular encroachments. Jesuit Robert Bellarmine (1542–1621) defended the pope's potestas indirecta in temporal affairs, allowing deposition of rulers who gravely harmed the Church or faith, as in his De Summo Pontifice (1610). Similarly, Francisco Suárez (1548–1617) in Defensio Fidei Catholicae (1613) argued for the Church's indirect jurisdiction over princes in spiritual matters, rejecting divine right absolutism divorced from ecclesiastical oversight. These positions, rooted in medieval precedents, underscored the integral subordination of state to Church, forming the doctrinal foundation later systematized as integralism against liberal secularism.

19th-Century Formulations Amid Secularism

The 19th century witnessed the intensification of secularism across Europe, driven by the legacies of the Enlightenment, the French Revolution of 1789, and subsequent liberal revolutions that promoted state neutrality toward religion, rationalist philosophies, and the separation of church and state. In France, the Third Republic's anticlerical policies culminated in laws restricting religious orders and education; in Italy, the Risorgimento's unification in 1870 deprived the Papacy of its temporal territories, confining Pius IX to Vatican City; and in Germany, Otto von Bismarck's Kulturkampf from 1871 to 1878 targeted Catholic institutions through civil marriage mandates and school secularization. These developments challenged the Catholic Church's traditional role in society, prompting formulations that insisted on the integral unity of spiritual and temporal authority to counter what was seen as the erosion of divine order by human ideologies. Pope Pius IX's encyclical Quanta Cura (December 8, 1864) and its appended Syllabus of Errors provided a pivotal doctrinal foundation, condemning 80 propositions associated with modern errors including pantheism, naturalism, socialism, and civil liberties detached from religious truth. Notably, the Syllabus rejected the notion that "the Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church" (proposition 55) and that Catholic doctrine should adapt to civil progress (proposition 80), asserting instead that political authority must align with eternal moral law under ecclesiastical guidance. This document, drawing from prior papal allocutions, rejected religious indifferentism and the idea of absolute state sovereignty, framing secular liberalism as inherently subversive to the common good oriented toward salvation. Issued amid the Church's defensive posture after the 1848 revolutions and Italian independence movements, it galvanized Catholics to resist accommodations with secular governance. Ultramontanism, emphasizing papal supremacy over national hierarchies, emerged as a related intellectual current, peaking at the First Vatican Council (1869–1870), which defined papal infallibility in matters of faith and morals. French journalist Louis Veuillot (1813–1883), through his editorship of L'Univers from 1848, championed "intransigent" Catholicism, denouncing liberal Catholics who sought compromise with republicanism and advocating the restoration of throne-and-altar alliances as essential to social order. Veuillot's polemics, such as those against the Second French Empire's concessions to secularism, portrayed integral Catholic influence in politics as a bulwark against revolutionary chaos, influencing generations to prioritize doctrinal purity over pragmatic alliances. In Spain, Félix Sardá y Salvany's El liberalismo es pecado (Liberalism is a Sin, 1886) articulated an uncompromising critique, classifying liberalism's toleration of error as mortally sinful and incompatible with Catholic fidelity, thereby laying early groundwork for viewing state neutrality as a form of apostasy. This work, initially controversial but later approved by the Church, aligned with the emerging Integrist movement led by Ramón Nocedal (1842–1907), who in 1888 split from the Carlist traditionalists to form a distinctly Catholic party opposing parliamentary liberalism and advocating governance rooted solely in Catholic principles. Nocedal's El Siglo Futuro newspaper propagated these ideas, framing Integrism as a rejection of any "accidentalist" adaptations to modern constitutionalism in favor of organic, faith-integrated authority. These late-19th-century efforts, amid Spain's unstable Restoration regime post-1874, underscored a shift from mere restorationism to proactive demands for Catholic dominance in law and culture.

Catholic Integralism

Key Doctrinal Teachings

Catholic Integralism posits that Christ's kingship, as articulated in Pope Pius XI's encyclical Quas Primas (1925), extends to civil societies and nations, obligating rulers to publicly recognize and obey His authority as essential for preserving legitimate governance and societal prosperity. The encyclical declares that "rulers of nations" bear a "public duty of reverence and obedience to the rule of Christ," with annual feasts serving to remind "not only private individuals but also rulers and princes" of their obligation to render public honor to Him. This dominion encompasses all mankind, transcending individual salvation to demand the subordination of temporal structures to divine law, rejecting any compartmentalization of faith from public life. The doctrine further maintains the harmonious yet distinct relation between spiritual and temporal powers, as outlined in Pope Leo XIII's Immortale Dei (1885), where civil authority, derived from God, must align with ecclesiastical judgment on sacred matters to achieve the common good. Temporal rulers are bound to profess the true religion—Catholicism—publicly, favoring and protecting it as the foundation for just laws, while "whatever in things human is of a sacred character" falls under the Church's power and judgment. Separation of Church and State is deemed untenable, as it fosters irreligion and undermines the divine origin of authority, with historical Christian states flourishing under princely patronage of the faith. Integralist teachings emphasize the state's in ordering toward humanity's end, integrating Thomistic with revealed truth to mandate repression of public errors injurious to souls and the . This precludes liberal religious neutrality, viewing equal toleration of faiths as a "public crime" that erodes , with civil laws required to reflect Christian principles in , , and . The thus encompasses both and eternal welfare, subordinating positive law to eternal law mediated through the Church's magisterium.

Political Authority and the Common Good

In Catholic integralism, political authority derives from divine ordinance rather than popular consent or social contract, as the governance of human society reflects the natural law implanted by God to direct communities toward their ultimate end. This view posits two divinely instituted powers: the spiritual authority of the Catholic Church, tasked with eternal salvation, and the temporal authority of the state, responsible for earthly order, with the latter subordinated to the former to ensure harmony in pursuing the integral good of persons. Integralists maintain that separating these spheres, as in liberal regimes, undermines the state's legitimacy, since true authority must align with God's law rather than human autonomy. The common good, central to this framework, extends beyond material prosperity or individual rights to encompass the supernatural perfection of souls through virtue and grace, rendering the promotion of Catholicism obligatory for the state. Drawing from Thomistic principles, integralists argue that political rule exists to foster conditions for contemplative union with God, the highest human good, thereby obliging rulers to repress public errors in religion that scandalize the faithful or impede societal virtue. Papal teachings reinforce this by affirming that authority serves the universal common good, which includes moral order and public recognition of divine kingship, as articulated in Quas Primas (1925), where Pius XI declared Christ's dominion over states demands legal confession of His sovereignty. Thus, integralist governance prioritizes confessional policies, such as state support for Catholic education and liturgy, to integrate temporal welfare with spiritual ends. Critics within broader Catholic thought contend this subordinates prudential judgment to ecclesiastical dictates, potentially conflating the Church's infallibility in faith and morals with variable political applications, yet integralists counter that historical Christendom's achievements—such as medieval Europe's relative peace and cultural flourishing—evidenced the efficacy of such integration. Empirical data from confessional states, like 19th-century Spain under Ferdinand VII, showed correlations between Catholic policies and social stability metrics, including lower rates of revolutionary unrest compared to secularizing peers, though causation remains debated due to confounding factors like economic pressures. In essence, integralism views political authority not as neutral arbitration but as a sacred trust for the holistic common good, where failure to enforce Catholic truth equates to dereliction of duty.

Historical Implementations and Outcomes

In interwar , policies resonant with integralist ideals by establishing the in , a corporatist Ständestaat that prioritized Catholic over parliamentarism and suppressed both socialist and Nazi parties to defend the as defined by papal teachings such as (). Dollfuss's Fatherland Front consolidated through authoritarian measures, including the of the and the of vocational guilds (Stände) as mediators between and , aiming to integrate religious into without totalitarian centralization. The regime's brief tenure ended with Dollfuss's by Austrian Nazis in , followed by Schuschnigg's until the German Anschluss in March 1938, which annexed and dismantled the experiment; outcomes included temporary resistance to ideological extremism but also political violence and failure to achieve lasting independence or economic reform amid the Great Depression. Portugal's Estado Novo under Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar from 1933 to 1968 exemplified integralist influence through a confessional corporatist framework, enshrined in the 1933 constitution that declared Catholicism the state's moral foundation while subordinating political liberty to the pursuit of social harmony and anti-communist stability. Policies included the 1940 Concordat with the Holy See, granting the Church control over education and marriage laws, alongside suppression of Freemasonry, socialism, and liberal opposition via the PIDE secret police, which detained over 40,000 individuals by the 1960s. Salazar's regime fostered economic prudence, achieving balanced budgets and infrastructure growth, such as the completion of major dams and highways, but relied on colonial exploitation in Africa, fueling wars from 1961 that drained resources and contributed to the 1974 Carnation Revolution, which overthrew the dictatorship after 48 years, leading to decolonization and democratic transition amid social upheaval. In Spain, Francisco Franco's regime from 1939 to 1975 incorporated integralist elements under the banner of National Catholicism, forging a symbiotic church-state alliance that positioned the Catholic faith as the ideological core of governance following the victory in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), where over 500,000 combatants died. The 1953 Concordat ceded extensive privileges to the Church, including monopoly on public education and tax exemptions, while integralist-inspired laws enforced moral order, banning divorce and promoting large families through subsidies; this framework rejected secular liberalism in favor of subsidiarity and vocational representation via the Falange and Sindicato Vertical. Early autarkic policies post-war yielded stagnation and famine, with rationing until 1952, but the 1959 Stabilization Plan spurred the "Spanish Miracle," averaging 6.6% annual GDP growth from 1960 to 1973 through liberalization and foreign investment, elevating living standards; however, repression via executions (estimated 50,000–200,000 political prisoners processed) and censorship sustained authoritarianism until Franco's death in 1975, paving the way for King Juan Carlos's democratic reforms despite internal Carlist and Opus Dei tensions.

National and Variant Forms

French Integralism

French integralism, known as intégralisme or intégrisme catholique, arose in the late 19th and early 20th centuries amid the Third Republic's aggressive secularization policies, culminating in the 1905 law separating church and state, which expropriated church property and banned religious symbols in public institutions. This movement advocated for the full integration of Catholic doctrine into French governance, rejecting laïcité as incompatible with the nation's historic Catholic identity and insisting on the subordination of civil authority to ecclesiastical guidance for the common good. Drawing from counter-revolutionary traditions, integralists emphasized the confessional state's role in fostering virtue and suppressing error, viewing liberalism's neutral public square as a causal enabler of moral decay evidenced by rising divorce rates (from 1.3 per 1,000 in 1900 to higher post-1905 figures) and declining church attendance. The primary vehicle for French integralism was the Action Française, established on January 21, 1899, by Charles Maurras, an agnostic positivist who instrumentalized Catholicism for national cohesion under a restored monarchy. Maurras' doctrine of nationalisme intégral fused anti-parliamentarism, anti-Semitism, and a tactical embrace of Catholicism—famously deeming it "what is most useful for France"—attracting clerical support despite his personal unbelief, with membership peaking at around 60,000 by 1925. Catholic integralists within and allied to the group, such as those influenced by the Sodalitium Pianum's anti-modernist vigilantism, pushed for doctrinal primacy, but Maurras' prioritization of politics over faith led to tensions, exemplified by his rejection of papal infallibility in temporal matters. The movement's influence extended to intellectual circles, inspiring figures like Jacques Maritain initially before his shift toward Christian democracy. In 1926, Pope Pius XI issued the encyclical Quas Primas and subsequent condemnations against Action Française, citing its naturalistic error of elevating the state above the Church and fostering nationalism that subordinated religion to politics, thereby disqualifying it from true integralism which demands the reverse hierarchy. This decree, enforced via excommunications and bans on sacramental participation for adherents, halved Action Française's circulation from 75,000 to 35,000 copies within months, though underground support persisted among traditionalists. The ban was lifted in 1939 by Pius XII amid rising threats from Nazism and communism, allowing tactical alliances, but French integralism remained marginal post-World War II, eclipsed by gaullism and Vatican II's emphasis on religious liberty in Dignitatis Humanae (1965), which integralists critiqued as conceding to liberal error without empirical vindication, given persistent secularization trends like France's 2021 statistic of only 5-10% regular Mass attendance. Modern echoes appear in traditionalist groups opposing same-sex marriage legalization in 2013, yet lack the institutional power of earlier variants.

Portuguese Integralismo Lusitano

Integralismo Lusitano emerged in Portugal as a counter-revolutionary intellectual movement in response to the establishment of the First Portuguese Republic following the 5 October 1910 revolution that overthrew the constitutional monarchy. Founded in Coimbra, it coalesced around a group of traditionalist thinkers who sought to restore monarchical authority and organic social structures amid the perceived chaos of republican liberalism, economic instability, and secularism. The movement's inception is tied to the launch of the journal Nação Portuguesa on 8 April 1914, which served as its primary doctrinal organ for propagating anti-republican and nationalist ideas until 1916, with intermittent continuation thereafter. Central to Integralismo Lusitano was António Sardinha (–), its leading theorist, a poet, , and whose writings critiqued by idealizing medieval as a model of harmonious, faith-integrated . Sardinha, influenced by nationalists like and but grounded in Catholic , advocated for an rejecting , parliamentary , and in favor of corporatist structures, renewal, and a federative Ibero-American vision emphasizing Hispanic cultural ties. Other key figures included Alberto de Monsaraz and João Ameal, who contributed to the movement's emphasis on historical continuity, anti-Jacobinism, and the subordination of the state to transcendent order derived from Thomistic principles. The doctrines prioritized the common good over personal freedoms, viewing the monarchy as the embodiment of unity and Catholicism as integral to social cohesion, while decrying the Republic's promotion of division and foreign-inspired ideologies. Though primarily metapolitical rather than a mass party, Integralismo Lusitano influenced early 20th-century Portuguese conservatism by providing ideological ammunition against republican excesses, with some adherents participating in the 28 May 1926 military coup that ended the First Republic. Its corporatist and anti-liberal elements resonated in António de Oliveira Salazar's Estado Novo regime (1933–1974), yet the movement faced marginalization as Salazar prioritized pragmatic authoritarianism over explicit monarchism or radical nationalism, dissolving competing groups like the National Syndicalists in 1934 after their attempted coups. By the 1930s, internal dissensions and the absorption of milder integralist ideas into the New State's framework led to its decline, though Nação Portuguesa persisted until 1938 under dissident control, and later periodicals like Estudos Portugueses (1932–1933) echoed its themes. The movement's legacy lies in articulating a distinctly Lusitanian variant of integralism, blending European counter-revolutionary thought with local imperial traditions, without achieving direct political power.

Brazilian Integralism

Brazilian Integralism emerged as the Ação Integralista Brasileira (AIB), founded on October 7, 1932, by Plínio Salgado, a journalist and author, through the issuance of the Manifesto of October, which outlined a nationalist program emphasizing national unity, corporatism, and opposition to liberalism and communism. The AIB positioned itself as a mass movement for Brazil's spiritual and political regeneration, adopting the slogan "God, Fatherland, Family" to invoke Catholic social teachings alongside authoritarian structures. Ideologically, the AIB drew from European models, including Italian Fascism's corporatist organization and the anti-secular integralism of Charles Maurras' Action Française, while Salgado adapted these to a Brazilian context by incorporating Catholic elements, such as the primacy of natural law and subsidiarity, to counter perceived moral decay from modernization and foreign ideologies. Proponents argued for a totalitarian state directed toward the common good, rejecting parliamentary democracy as divisive, but critics, including historians analyzing its hierarchical paramilitarism and leader cult around Salgado, classify it as a fascist variant rather than orthodox Catholic integralism, given its emulation of Mussolini's regime in ritual and mobilization tactics. The movement's doctrine, as articulated in Salgado's writings, sought to "Brazilianize" fascism by rooting it in Iberian Catholic traditions, though empirical alignment with fascist aggression was evident in its anti-Semitic rhetoric from figures like Gustavo Barroso. The AIB organized as a uniformed paramilitary with green-shirted militants, using the sigma (∑) symbol to represent societal totality and the "Anauê" greeting akin to fascist salutes. It rapidly expanded, claiming up to one million members by 1936—though independent estimates suggest 200,000 to 400,000 active participants, concentrated among urban middle classes, intellectuals, and military sympathizers amid economic turmoil following the 1929 crash. Activities included mass rallies, youth indoctrination, and propaganda via newspapers like A Offensiva, fostering the first nationwide political network in Brazil's history, with cells in every state. Initially supportive of Getúlio Vargas' provisional government after the 1930 Revolution, the AIB soured relations by 1937, leading to its proscription under the Estado Novo dictatorship on November 10, 1937, which centralized power and banned political parties. On May 11, 1938, Integralists launched an abortive coup, the Levante Integralista, assaulting the Guanabara Palace in Rio de Janeiro and attempting to seize key sites, but it collapsed within hours due to poor coordination and loyalist forces, resulting in hundreds of arrests, including Salgado's exile until 1945. The episode, involving around 600 plotters, underscored the movement's militaristic impulses but highlighted its organizational weaknesses against state repression. Post-suppression, Integralism fragmented, with Salgado reentering as a congressman from to and to , advocating conservative until his in ; residual groups persisted marginally, influencing mid-century authoritarian sentiments but lacking until niche 21st-century iterations amid Bolsonaro-era . provided ambivalent —some endorsed its , but the , wary of fascism's , distanced itself post-1938, viewing it as incompatible with despite shared conservative goals. Empirical outcomes reveal Integralism's causal in mobilizing anti-left but ultimate due to Vargas' co-optation of nationalist fervor and Brazil's traditions resisting centralized .

Spanish Integrism and Related Movements

Spanish Integrism, or integrismo, emerged in the late 19th century as a rigorously anti-liberal Catholic movement in Spain, insisting on the full application of Church doctrine to political, social, and cultural life without compromise with secular ideologies. It rejected any separation of Church and state, viewing liberalism as a grave doctrinal error that undermined divine authority and the social kingship of Christ. The term "integrist" was initially a pejorative label applied by opponents but was reclaimed by adherents to denote unwavering fidelity to the "integral" Catholic faith, as opposed to diluted or accommodationist forms of Catholicism. A foundational text was Félix Sardá y Salvany's 1886 pamphlet El liberalismo es pecado (Liberalism Is a Sin), which systematically condemned liberalism's principles—such as religious indifferentism, freedom of conscience, and separation of powers—as intrinsically sinful and incompatible with Catholic teaching. Sardá, a Catalan priest (1841–1916), argued that true Catholics must oppose liberal regimes not merely politically but as a matter of conscience, influencing a network of conservative clergy and laity who saw the Restoration monarchy under Alfonso XII as insufficiently Catholic. The work faced initial scrutiny from Roman authorities but gained approval from the local bishop and later tacit endorsement, solidifying integrism's doctrinal stance amid Spain's post-1868 revolutionary upheavals. Politically, integrism manifested in the Partido Integrista Español, founded in 1881 by journalist Ramón Nocedal (1842–1907) after his expulsion from the Conservative Party for criticizing its pragmatic alliances with liberals. The party advocated Catholic unity (unidad católica), censorship of immoral publications, and state enforcement of moral laws, achieving modest electoral success, such as several parliamentary seats in the 1890s, though it remained a minority force amid broader conservative fragmentation. Nocedal's faction emphasized ecclesiastical independence from state control, contrasting with more accommodationist Catholic groups, but the party declined after his death, with integrist energies increasingly absorbed into broader traditionalist currents. Closely related was Spanish Traditionalism (tradicionalismo), particularly Carlism, a dynastic and ideological movement originating in the 1830s that fused integrist Catholicism with defense of regional fueros (customary laws), apostolic monarchy, and anti-centralist federalism. Carlists, supporting the legitimist Carlist pretenders against the liberal Bourbon line, waged three civil wars (1833–1840, 1846–1849, 1872–1876) to restore a confessional state where the king's authority derived from and served the Church's moral order. Ideologues like Juan Vázquez de Mella (1861–1925) integrated integrist principles into Carlist doctrine, promoting a corporate social order under Catholic principles against both liberal capitalism and socialism. By the early 20th century, integrism and Carlism converged in opposition to the Second Republic (1931–1936), with Carlists forming the Requeté militia and allying with Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), though Francisco Franco's subsequent regime prioritized authoritarian nationalism over pure integrist theocracy. Other affiliated movements included early 20th-century groups like Acción Española, which echoed integrist calls for Catholic restoration amid perceived cultural decay, but these waned post-1939 under Francoist centralization. Integrism's legacy in Spain thus lay in reinforcing Catholic resistance to secularism, influencing traditionalist thought despite electoral marginality and the regime's pragmatic deviations from strict doctrinal governance.

Modern Revival

20th-Century Decline and Post-Vatican II Context

The decline of integralist movements accelerated in the interwar period following World War I, as the collapse of European monarchies and the rise of mass democracies, fascism, and communism eroded the institutional bases for confessional Catholic governance. In France, where integralism had achieved significant intellectual influence through figures like Charles Maurras and the Action Française, Pope Pius XI's 1926 condemnation of the movement for its nationalist excesses and insufficient supernaturalism severely weakened its momentum, leading to its marginalization by the 1930s. Similarly, in Portugal, the Integralismo Lusitano's role in shaping António de Oliveira Salazar's Estado Novo (1933–1974) represented a late implementation, but the regime's fall during the Carnation Revolution on April 25, 1974, amid decolonization pressures and internal dissent, marked the end of such experiments in Iberia. By the mid-20th century, World War II and the ensuing Allied victory entrenched liberal democratic norms globally, rendering integralist advocacy for Catholic state confessionalism politically untenable outside isolated contexts like Francoist Spain, which transitioned to constitutional monarchy after Francisco Franco's death on November 20, 1975. Post-World War II geopolitical shifts further diminished integralism's viability, as the United Nations' 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the spread of secular international law prioritized individual freedoms over religious establishments, pressuring Catholic-majority states to liberalize. Empirical outcomes showed integralist-inspired governance struggling against modernization: Brazil's Ação Integralista Brasileira, peaking with over 200,000 members in the 1930s, was outlawed after the 1937 Estado Novo coup, and its remnants faded into obscurity post-1945 democratization. In this context, the Catholic Church increasingly accommodated pluralism, reflecting causal realities of minority Catholic status in Protestant or secular societies, where aggressive confessionalism risked backlash rather than the common good. The Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) intensified this trajectory through its Declaration on Religious Freedom, Dignitatis Humanae, promulgated on December 7, 1965, which affirmed that individuals and communities have a civil right to immunity from in religious matters, grounded in and the voluntary of . Integralists critiqued this as a rupture from prior teachings, such as Leo XIII's Immortale Dei (1885) and Pius XI's Quas Primas (1925), which obligated states to profess Catholicism publicly as the true religion for societal order. While Dignitatis Humanae claimed continuity by distinguishing civil liberty from moral error—"leaving untouched traditional Catholic doctrine on the moral duty of men and societies toward the true religion and toward the one Church of Christ"[](Dignitatis Humanae, 1)—its emphasis on non- in pluralistic conditions effectively deprioritized integralist models, aligning Church diplomacy with democratic regimes during the Cold War. Post-conciliar popes, including John Paul II, applied this framework in supporting transitions to religious liberty in Eastern Europe after 1989, contributing to integralism's eclipse in official Catholic political theology, though debates persist among traditionalists on whether the declaration constitutes doctrinal development or concession to modernity.

Neo-Integralism and Postliberalism in the 21st Century

Neo-integralism represents a 21st-century resurgence of integralist principles among Catholic intellectuals, emphasizing the subordination of temporal authority to the Church's spiritual guidance to orient society toward the supernatural end of human life. This movement gained traction in the 2010s through online platforms and publications critiquing liberal secularism's inability to foster the common good, drawing on pre-Vatican II Catholic social teaching while adapting it to contemporary political failures such as moral relativism and state neutrality toward religion. Central to neo-integralism is the rejection of liberalism's separation of church and state, positing instead that the state's coercive power must align with divine law as interpreted by the magisterium, as articulated in works like Integralism: A Manual of Political Philosophy by Fr. Thomas Crean, O.P., and Alan Fimister, published in 2020. Key figures in neo-integralism include P. Edmund Waldstein, O.Cist., who founded The Josias in 2015 as an online compendium of integralist essays and resources, compiling arguments for politics ordered to eternal beatitude over temporal autonomy. Waldstein's contributions, alongside those of philosopher Thomas Pink, trace the intellectual lineage from historical integralists like Charles Maurras to modern defenses of confessional states, emphasizing empirical shortcomings of liberal democracies in upholding natural law. Harvard Law professor Adrian Vermeule has influenced the discourse through his advocacy of "common good constitutionalism," which, while not explicitly integralist, proposes administrative state mechanisms guided by classical legal traditions and Catholic moral reasoning to override liberal precedents like originalism or living constitutionalism—a framework some scholars interpret as de facto integralist in subordinating law to pre-liberal teleological ends. Neo-integralism intersects with broader postliberalism, a Catholic intellectual current that diagnoses liberalism's atomistic individualism and procedural neutrality as causally linked to societal decay, including family breakdown and cultural erosion, as evidenced by declining birth rates in Western nations (e.g., 1.6 children per woman in the EU as of 2023). Postliberal thinkers like Patrick Deneen, in Why Liberalism Failed (2018), argue for thick communal goods over market-driven autonomy, but neo-integralists extend this critique by insisting on ecclesiastical direction, distinguishing themselves from "postliberal liberals" who retain democratic pluralism. Figures such as Sohrab Ahmari advocate "political Catholicism" akin to integralism, influencing politicians like J.D. Vance, who has cited postliberal sources in opposing liberal hegemony while stopping short of full confessionalism. This synthesis has manifested in publications like the two-volume Integralism and the Common Good (2021 and 2024), edited by Waldstein, which compile essays defending the state's duty to promote true religion against indifferentism, supported by historical precedents and philosophical reasoning from Aquinas. Neo-integralists contend that post-Vatican II accommodations to liberalism, such as religious liberty declarations, have empirically weakened Catholic influence, citing metrics like church attendance drops (e.g., from 75% weekly in 1950s Europe to under 20% by 2020). While postliberalism broadly garners attention in conservative circles, neo-integralism remains a niche, rigorous strand, prioritizing causal realism in statecraft—where misaligned authority leads to disordered ends—over pragmatic alliances with nationalism or populism.

Criticisms and Counterarguments

Liberal and Secular Critiques

Liberal scholars contend that Catholic integralism is unreasonable because it rejects the liberal commitment to treating citizens as free and equal participants in a system of social cooperation, instead prioritizing the subordination of the state to the Catholic Church's spiritual authority. This view conflicts with public reason, as integralism demands that political decisions align with Catholic doctrine, excluding reasonable pluralism in diverse societies where citizens hold irreconcilable comprehensive doctrines. Secular critics extend this objection by arguing that integralism's reliance on revealed truth for governance imposes unverifiable supernatural claims on non-adherents, rendering it epistemically arbitrary and incompatible with neutral, evidence-based policymaking grounded in observable human needs. A core liberal critique focuses on integralism's threat to religious freedom, as it endorses state coercion to promote Catholic ends, such as restricting public roles or citizenship to the baptized or limiting non-Catholic practices deemed contrary to public order. For instance, historical applications, like the 1858 Edgardo Mortara case where a secretly baptized Jewish child was seized by papal authorities, exemplify how integralist principles justify overriding parental rights and individual conscience for ecclesiastical claims. Secular perspectives amplify this by highlighting integralism's rejection of moral disagreement as a rational feature of human society, instead viewing pluralism as a defect to be remedied through hierarchical enforcement, which fosters instability rather than cooperation in multinational states with varied beliefs. Philosophers like Vallier argue that integralism fails on grounds by inconsistently permitting religious against the baptized—despite Catholic prohibitions on forcing —while exempting unbaptized individuals, a distinction unsupported by theories of hypothetical , , or . This selective application undermines equal , as the state's in enforcing treats as a normative for obligations that liberals see as illusory and unfair in pluralistic contexts. Even if integralist regimes achieved stability, critics maintain they would remain unjust by denying reciprocity and autonomy to dissenters, prioritizing one tradition's telos over universal human rights.

Internal Catholic Objections

Some Catholic theologians and scholars argue that integralism conflicts with the Second Vatican Council's Dignitatis Humanae (1965), which affirms the right to religious freedom as grounded in human dignity, stating that no one should be coerced into faith or its practice, and that the state must protect this immunity from civil authority in religious matters. Integralists' insistence on state suppression of public false religions and privileging of Catholicism is seen as incompatible with this declaration's rejection of coercion for supernatural ends, prioritizing instead voluntary adherence to truth. Critics within Catholicism, such as philosopher Kevin Vallier, contend that integralism's mandate for governments to secure both earthly and heavenly goods unjustly burdens the state with impossible tasks, as civil authority lacks competence over salvation and risks violating natural rights through enforced orthodoxy. This view holds that while the state may acknowledge divine law, it cannot legitimately direct souls toward God via coercive means without infringing on conscience, echoing Thomistic distinctions between spiritual and temporal powers that integralism allegedly conflates. Historical assessments from Catholic perspectives highlight integralism's practical failures, such as in interwar regimes where church-state integration led to clerical scandals, political overreach, and weakened evangelization, contrasting with the Church's relative flourishing under pluralistic arrangements post-Vatican II. Proponents of these objections, including contributors to First Things, argue that integralism underestimates modern pluralism's realities, fostering that alienates potential converts rather than fostering authentic .

Empirical Achievements and Causal Analysis of Alternatives

In Portugal's Estado Novo regime (1933–1974), influenced by Integralist corporatist principles emphasizing Catholic social doctrine and hierarchical organization, economic policies yielded measurable stability and growth, particularly after initial autarkic phases. Fiscal austerity under António de Oliveira Salazar balanced budgets recurrently, transforming a 1939 deficit of $90 million into a $68 million surplus by 1943 through wartime neutrality and export booms in tungsten and fisheries. From the 1950s onward, GDP per capita rose at an average annual rate exceeding 5%, driven by infrastructure investments and colonial resource integration, outpacing many European peers until the 1960s colonial wars strained resources. Social indicators reflected corporatist mediation: labor disputes declined via mandatory guild structures, and family-oriented policies correlated with stable birth rates (around 25 per 1,000 in the 1940s–1950s) and low urbanization-induced unrest compared to contemporaneous liberal democracies like France, where strikes averaged over 1,000 annually in the same period. Spain's Francoist era (1939–1975), incorporating Integrist elements through National Catholicism and vertical syndicates, demonstrated post-Civil War recovery via similar mechanisms. The 1959 Stabilization Plan, liberalizing trade while retaining corporatist controls, ignited the "Spanish Miracle," with real GDP growth averaging 7% annually from 1960–1974, expanding the economy from $12 billion to $76 billion in nominal terms through foreign investment and export-led industrialization. Unemployment fell below 3% by the late 1960s, and infant mortality dropped from 120 per 1,000 births in 1940 to 20 by 1970, attributable to centralized welfare tied to Catholic moral imperatives rather than universal entitlements. Political stability ensued, with no major coups or revolutions post-1939, contrasting with the partisan violence in Weimar Germany or interwar Italy before Mussolini's corporatist turn. Causally, these outcomes stemmed from Integralist-aligned structures subordinating economic activity to transcendent ethical norms, enabling long-term coordination absent in liberal individualism's market volatility. Corporatist guilds preempted class warfare by institutionalizing subsidiarity—local Catholic associations handling disputes—reducing strike losses (e.g., Portugal's industrial downtime under 1% annually in the 1950s versus 5–10% in strike-prone Britain). This fostered investment confidence, as evidenced by Spain's capital-efficiency wedge driving 60% of miracle-era growth, per decomposition analyses, unlike liberal democracies' reliance on consumer debt cycles that amplified 1970s stagflation. Alternatives like secular liberalism, prioritizing procedural rights over communal ends, correlated with higher social fragmentation: U.S. divorce rates surged 2.5-fold from 1960–1980 amid welfare expansions, eroding family capital that bolstered Iberian resilience. Communist models, conversely, stifled initiative through materialist centralization, yielding Soviet growth deceleration to 2% by the 1970s despite initial industrialization. Pure Integralism lacked full state trials—Brazil's movement peaked at 200,000 adherents in 1937 but was outlawed without governance—yet approximations suggest causal efficacy in aligning incentives with natural law hierarchies, outperforming atomized alternatives in stability metrics where empirical controls for initial conditions hold.