By Anna Abbott EWTN News - During the turbulent time leading to the First World War, Pope Leo XIII wrote his encyclical Sapientiae Christianae (On Christians as Citizens), issued in January 1890. He stated, “If the natural law enjoins us to love devotedly and to love the country in which we had birth, and in which we were brought up, so that every citizen hesitates not to face death for his native land, very much more is the urgent duty of Christians to be ever quickened by like feelings toward the Church.”... Leo XIII writes of “natural love of our own country” and “supernatural love for the Church.” Taking the Lord as his guide, the Pope says ‘both/and’ to illustrate there shouldn’t be a problem with patriotism and faith.