look at the Catholic Church!

Over the last couple of years I have noticed a serious effort on the part of some Portuguese intellectuals, some of them over the internet, to read, understand and discuss the thought of some proeminent liberal authors, such as Hayek, Mises, Rand, Rothbard, Friedman, Nozick, Berlin, even Tocqueville, Adam Smith and the American Founding Fathers.

There is one liberal author who is rarely, if ever, quoted: British historian Lord Acton whom Hayek considered the greatest intellectual liberal ever. This neglect might be due to the fact that Acton was a devoted Catholic who, among other things, wrote the following statement:

"Church as a political model: Nearly all of the elements of modern Liberty prefigured in her: Election, Representation, Equality, Tradition, Absence of arbitrary power, Local self-government, Money for the poor, Humanity in punishment, Deliverance of slaves, no Legislator, Trial by one's peers".

(J. Rufus Fears (ed.), Selected Writings of Lord Acton: Essays in Religion, Politics and Morality, vol. III, Liberty Classics: Indianapolis, 1988, p. 612).

If I understand him well what he says is: if you want to build a liberal society look at the Catholic Church!