A Cry for Traditional Catholic Action

by Father Christopher Hunter

Are Catholics obligated to the temporal order or do their responsibilities end with the recitation of prayers and the practice of virtue?

This question is prompted by an attitude held by many Catholics which, if not stated explicitly, is at least implied in their remarks concerning the state and their relationship to it, that action in this area is neither good nor useful and, in any event, is best left alone by Christians whose destiny is eternal, not temporal. Further, this attitude goes on to state, or imply, that Our Lady of Fatima told us what to do to combat such evils as Communism and if we just do what she says, these serious problems will go away. Besides why bother to worry about what the Communists might do to you since we are supposed to die for our Faith anyway.

This attitude is not limited to ignoring just Communism but, in fact, extends to the entire spectrum of political ills that affect the respective countries in which Christians live. It presumes that the political order with all its corruption, immorality and intrigue will be purified and Christianized by holiness of life. As a result Christians, who are otherwise conscientious, fail to rally to political causes, which are also moral issues, even to including abortion, on the grounds that the fulfillment of one's spiritual duties is all that is required of us by way of remeding social evils. Thus, our Catholic Faith has actually become an insulating factor against the world, a kind of refuge into which we retreat while Western Civilization continues to fall ever deeper into the pit of sin, social chaos and political tyranny.

Such an attitude, however, represents a serious error and a gross misinterpretation of our Catholic Faith and it is my intention to examine this attitude and answer it by looking at: the life of Our Lord, Catholic history, the teachings of the Popes, and common sense.

While many Catholics obviously feel that being "too political" is distasteful to them, the undeniable fact is that politics has been involved in our Faith since day one. When that mob stood outside the palace of Pontius Pilate and cried out: "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" it was an attempt on the part of the Jews, who could not execute others, to get the state to do it. And Pilate, as Governor of Judea, was an official representative of the Roman Government.

When Our Lord was nailed to the Cross, He was nailed by Roman soldiers who were acting in their capacity as executioners for the state. Thus, the state put Our Lord to death. And herein began that conflict which has yet to cease even to this day.

We might, incidentally point out that during the Passion of Our Lord He was deserted by His friends. During His trial Peter hung back and denied His Master while at the foot of the Cross only one of the twelve stood, St. John, the others nowhere to be seen. In this we see a foreshadowing of the subsequent desertion of Our Lord by His followers that was to take place down through history. Very often this has resulted in the creation of a vacuum that was filled by the forces of evil. These moved in to occupy a space that otherwise should have been filled by the workings of grace through men engaged in defending the honor of their God.

What lessons can we learn from the life of Our Lord that relate to what is being said here? Two things will be examined, the first being the miracles of Our Lord which serve as an important lesson with regard to the duties of Christians. Only three will be looked at here but many of Our Lord's miracles demonstrate the point I am making.

Let us begin by looking at the marriage feast at Cana. I will not repeat details the reader already knows but will begin with Our Lady's words: "Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye." At this point Our Lord began to give instructions: "Fill the waterpots with water." After this was done, Our Lord performed the miracle and the water became wine. This too was done and the rest we know. The point, of course, is that Our Lord required those present to do what was within their power to do, Christ only doing what men could not, i.e., perform a miracle. Our Lord did not miraculously fill the water jars Himself, as he easily could have, but had others do it.

Marriage at Cana

If we look at the raising of Lazarus we see identical elements: when Christ arrived on the scene He said: "Take away the stone," for a large stone covered the entrance to the tomb. This being done Our Lord said "Lazarus come forth". When he appeared Lazarus was covered with bandages. Then Our Lord said: "Loose him and let him go." Again, men were expected to do what was within their power, Christ only doing what men could not.

Lastly, we will look at the miraculous draught of fishes (John 21:1-6). After fishing all night long, they had caught nothing. In the morning, Our Lord appeared on the shore and asked if they had anything. They answered no. Then Our Lord told them to throw their nets down again and this time it was filled to capacity, so much so, that John tells us that "they were not able to draw it in." And again, we see here the same situation as we have seen above, namely, that Christ still required His disciples to throw the net overboard again. Our Lord did not fill the boat with fish but made those fishing pull up a heavy net filled with them.

God will operate when men cannot and we often pray to obtain that which is beyond our power. But God requires us to do what we can regarding the petition we ask for. If we do not make the effort to accomplish our end, God will not answer our prayer. He must see our effort, He must see that we have tried and done all that was in our capacity. If we then still fail He will act. Anything less is to ask God to do what we are able to do ourselves and this is precisely the point many Catholics overlook concerning our duties to the state.

Forms of government are devised by men to govern society for the good of the general welfare. We determine that form which is most comfortable for us and suitable to our dispositions. Provided the rights of God over men are acknowledged, the Church allows great liberty with regard to that form of government the people of a particular nation find compatible with their nature.

Now if it happens that it be a form of government based upon the participation of the citizens in that government, then a good deal of responsibility rests upon these citizens to see to it that good men are elected to office and legislation is passed which genuinely serves the common good and other legislation is opposed which is destructive of it. Now since it is entirely within the power of men to control their political order, it is therefore a sin of tempting God to expect Him to correct those social ills over which men themselves have control. And if men make no effort to correct these ills, God will not, and He will allow us to punish ourselves by becoming victims of the very men and laws we failed to oppose. Only when God has seen that we have made a genuine effort to correct problems in the state, will He then step in to help us.

Consequently, endless prayers and devotions will be of no avail if these same prayerful people are asking God to do what they themselves possess the power to do. If evils in the social order are to be corrected we certainly should pray over them. But prayer is only the beginning of the process—it is the foundation upon which action is, and must, be based. In short, our Catholic Faith is not meant to be used as an excuse to do nothing, but is a set up of beliefs that provide men with the solutions to all problems, provided they use the knowledge and insights given them by their Faith. We are not to be hearers of the word only but doers also. Our religion is not based on Faith alone as it is for the Protestants, but also on good works. And the example Our Lord Himself gave was not a spiritual work, strictly speaking. He said: "And whosoever shall give a drink to one of these little ones a cup of water only in the name of a disciple, amen I say to you, he shall not lose his reward." (Mt. 10:42). To give one a cup of water is more of a social or material act. Yet as a good work directed to God as its ultimate end, even this simple action is super-naturally efficacious. Thus, those works done to insure a Christian social order and a society where one can live in peace, free from attacks on his Faith or government, is to perform good works provided, of course, they are directed to the honor of God.

The second aspect of Christ's teaching that I wish to look at is the second of the two Great Commandments: "Love thy neighbor as thyself." If I do not wish some great evil to befall me, and there is some chance that this evil could befall my neighbor, then I am under some obligation to inform him also. For example, if I do not wish to live under Communism then I do not want my neighbor to live under it either. Therefore I warn him of it for his own protection. There could hardly be a corporal work of mercy greater than this!

Let us turn now to the lessons of our Catholic past. The examples I will use deal with the threat of the Moslems to Europe, for here we see the failure of Christians to rise to the occasion of defending itself against a deadly peril.

Without making an attempt at tracing the advance of the Turks from the beginning, let us pick up at the year 1389 when the army of Mured won a decisive victory and all of the Balkans fell beneath the sway of the Crescent, Europe now ending on the Hungarian Frontier.

As one historian has put it, tracing the retreat of Europe in the face of the advancing Moslems: "The West seemed utterly lost. In any case, divided against itself as it was, Christendom appeared to be fast signing its own death-warrant.... Through weakness, thoughtlessness and ignorance, Christian Europe committed suicide by allowing her Eastern Territories to perish. Only Hungary, which was directedly threatened by the Turkish advance, took up arms." (The Protestant Reformation, Henri Daniel Rops, pgs. 120,124).

Obviously, the passive attitude of Catholics even when their own interests were threatened has not gone unnoticed by Catholic historians. And, unfortunately, this paralysis of will, even in the face of a deadly peril, is almost a fundamental characteristic of Christians. Let us continue to look at the Moslem advancement and the reaction of our Catholic ancestors to it. In the year 1480, Mahommed II landed his forces at Otranto, on the southern coast of Italy. He boasted that his horse would soon be eating its oats off the altar of St. Peter's. At this point one man in all of Italy became alarmed, Pope Sixtus IV. "Men of Italy," he cried out, "If you still want to be Christians come out and fight! This is your last chance!" And what was the reaction of Christians to this desperate appeal from their spiritual Father? Exactly nothing!

Then there is the famous battle of Lepanto, (1571), known to every Catholic who says his rosary as an example of the power of our Heavenly Mother in coming to the aid of her embattled children engaged in a bloody conflict with the infidel. Unfortunately, however, a key lesson about Lepanto is overlooked by those same Catholics. A miracle took place because a miracle was necessary for a Christian victory. The Moslem and Christian naval forces were, to be sure, about evenly matched. But the Moslems, though not invincible, were a formidable force to be reckoned with as the continual advancement of the Ottoman Empire into Western Europe had proven since 1326. That a miracle did take place which gave victory to the Christians is proof that one was needed as God would not have intervened if such intervention were not necessary.

But it is the background to Lepanto that is so disturbing. The continuing success of the Moslem's westward expansion caused Pope Pius V to become gravely concerned. By 1526 Belgrade and Rhodes had fallen; Vienna had been besieged and the heart of Hungary became a Turkish province. Thousands of Christians had been tortured and slain. Those that escaped this fate ended up as slaves to power the Turkish galleys. Prompted by the frightening spectacle before him, Pius V formed the League Against the Turks, an attempt to rally and unite the Catholic leaders of Europe against this threat. Yet Pius V was unable to get either their support or cooperation despite everything he did to persuade them. Finally, two nations offered to supply ships for a naval engagement—the little republic of Venice and the nation of Spain. And even Venice stalled for two years before agreeing.

Pius V's biographer, Lillian Browne-Olf, tells us that the lack of Faith his own cardinals had in the plan of the Holy Father had caused him to break down and weep. Pius V knew the Turks could be defeated as their track record in combat showed they were victorious only fifty percent of the time. A reasonable show of force on the part of Christians would very likely have been all that was needed to defeat them. Yet he was surrounded by timidity. But since he had now done all that was humanly possible for him to do, he then turned to prayer and relied on God to provide that help which would insure victory. Well did Pius V understand the need for Christians to exert themselves in the face of danger. Such clear, perceptive understanding of Christian duty is rare, but, being a Saint, he keenly saw what had to be done and then attempted to do it.

But Sixtus IV and Pius V were not the only Popes who attempted to awaken a world asleep by announcing the danger which threatened to inundate it. The Popes of recent times have also tried to arouse slumbering Christians by warning of the fate which awaited them if they continued to do nothing.

Leo XIII in his encyclical against Masonry, Humanum Genus, told us: "So vehement an attack demands an equal de fence—namely, that all good men should form the widest possible association of action and prayer." He reminded us of our obligation, "to defend the glory of God and the salvation of your neighbor..." This encyclical, once read, should put aside all discussion concerning the charge that Christians should not be "too political".

Pius X, during the beatification of Joan of Arc in 1908, said:

Pius XI blamed the dethronement of Christ the King from society on "a certain slowness and timidity in good people, who are reluctant to engage in conflict or oppose but a weak resistance; thus the enemies of the Church becomes bolder in their attacks."

And Pius XII, in discussing the alarming rise in immorality in society blamed it on "the lack of reaction or the weakness of reaction of good people."

A study of those recent encyclicals which deal with dangers to modern society clearly demonstrates that they are programs of action which are to be based upon holiness of life as a means of defending ourselves against Masonry and Communism. The message is clear: as long as Christians do nothing we have no hope of a civilized future. But with prayer united to action we will win the battle, God providing the necessary help for victory.

Lastly, common sense tells us that we are to bring our religion into the streets to meet the enemy head-on. If a husband saw his wife being attacked by a criminal, the husband would come to her defence because of his love for her. Likewise, if we love Our Lord we should rush to His defence when He is attacked or dethroned from society by His enemies. Thus, those who claim they love Our Lord but fail to defend Him against attacks love Him in word only but not in deed. "They have Lord, Lord on their lips, but their heart is far from Me."

As for the assertion that we are to "die for Christ" let it be said that in most instances it is merely a noble-sounding way of excusing oneself from the battle. In any case, before one "dies for Christ" he must love for Christ so the question immediately becomes: "What have we done to defend the honor of Christ before we die?" In fact, Pius XI had something to say about this in his encyclical Divini Redemptoris:

If Catholics ever expect victory, if they ever hope to see the Papal flag fly proudly over every nation in the world then we had better rouse ourselves from the slumber of inaction and recognize our duties to the temporal order. Unless, of course, we too wish to become key characters in yet another shameful page of Catholic history.