On the Square Today

In today’s On the Square feature, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput reflects on Catholics and the American future :

My theme tonight focuses on Catholics and the American future. But sometimes the best way to look at the future is through the lens of the past.

One of the most sacred symbols of the Roman state was an altar to the goddess Victory. It stood in the Roman Senate for nearly 400 years. In a.d. 382, a Christian emperor removed the altar as idolatrous. Two years later, after his death, the pagan prefect of Rome—Quintus Aurelius Symmachus—wrote one of the most interesting letters of Late Antiquity. Addressing the new Christian emperor, Symmachus asked that the Altar of Victory be restored. In effect, in arguing for the altar, he argued the case for an entire way of life. He described the altar’s removal as unwise and unjust. He praised past emperors for their tolerance in maintaining the old religion and funding pagan ceremonies. He said that Rome’s pagan worship had protected the city and subdued the world, and therefore deserved to be treated with the reverence due to posterity.