By Prince Bertrand of Orleans-Braganza
The following article was taken from the keynote speech delivered by Prince Bertrand of Orleans-Braganza on October 27 at the American TFP’s 2013 National Conference in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania. The theme of the event was centered around the book, Return to Order.
The book, Return to Order, tells us that we face a problem of what the author calls frenetic intemperance. It leads to a culture where there are no restraints and everyone gratifies all desires. It leads to what the book calls a rule of money where the only things that have value are quantity, material things and those things that are Revolutionary.
It is easy to say: reject these things. Get rid of frenetic intemperance in your lives. Don’t adopt our frenetic lifestyles. This is easy to say, but hard to do.
When you create a void, you have to fill it with something.
That brings me to the topic of my talk which is: Why honor?
The answer to this question is we need honor to fill the void. The best way to fight against the rule of money is to adopt the rule of honor.
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| Prince Bertrand of Orleans-Braganza giving the closing speech at the American TFP’s 2013 National Conference. |
What is honor? Honor is the esteem we give to all that is excellent. Honor leads us to esteem, admire and praise all that which is excellent, good, true and beautiful. It leads us to reject by contrast all this ugly, false and bad.
We have honor when we hold ourselves to a standard of excellence. And so, if we can be souls that seek after honor, we can more easily abandon frenetic intemperance.
There are many reasons to adopt honor. The first one is that honor is anti-egalitarian. It recognizes inequalities and differences. It creates a social atmosphere of respect, affection, and courtesy. A rule of honor towers above today’s vulgarity, brutality and lack of respect.
When honor is not present, we become people without manners, consideration, or charity. There is no recognition of excellence in others. Social life becomes impossible.
Why honor? Another reason is because when a person has honor, his values cannot be bought and sold. Honor teaches us to hold firm to our principles, The greatest product of the rule of honor is the building of character.
It is the best way to fight against the rule of money because when honor is spread throughout all levels of society, the rule of money loses its attraction. When honor reigns, money’s influence lessens, institutions and families uphold their names, and culture flourishes.
Why honor? Because honor makes us good Catholics. At the height of all excellence is found the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church. It is the source of all that is good, true and beautiful. The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, and to Christ and His Church all glory and honor is due.
When we give honor to the Church, we ourselves participate in that honor. We are held to the standard of being Catholics that seek after, admire and love excellence and finally to love God with all our heart since He is Excellence itself.
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Prince Bertrand of Orleans-Braganza is the Prince Imperial of Brazil. He is active in defending Christian civilization in his native country and is the author of the recent book, Envirornmental Pyschosis, which denounces the agenda of the ecological movement.