Re-Christianisation: A First Public Priority

litielsilef -de In Bedoyere
THOUGH the hurdle of the
Italian elections has still to be safely jumped, the signs are that the West has at last caught up with the Soviet and is likely to outstrip it in the present stage of the race for freedom and civilisation against tyranny and barbarism The rapid passing into law of the Marshall Aid plan—another example of the efficiency of democracy when working under emotional pressure—is a decisive gain. On this side of the Atlantic there is. at any rate for the moment, a strong disposition to reach firm agreements and understandings, even though no one is very clear about the direction to be taken. Meanwhile, the Soviet behaviour in Berlin bears every mark of a childish irritation and nervousness in the face of a sense of temporary impotence to achieve anything of a decisive nature without incurring the real danger of unprepared and unwanted war.
But, as we have so often stated before, the most important factor of all is lagging far behind. ibis is the spiritual and moral mobilisation 01 the West.
It is, of course, easy for us as Catholics—and even for others as Christians without being Catholics —to press for the public adoption of Christian principles, and we are right to do so. But we need also to realise that generations of secularism have created a spiritual an moral problem that cannot so simply • be solved. Politicians representing every shade of religious thought and none, and themselves too often more or less unbelieving. are not in a position to preach and recommend Christianity except in the vaguest humanitarian sense. While the people, as the people. are unlikely to be greatly influenced by principles. the dogmatic grounds for which they doubt and for the practice of which they are far from being trained.
Yet the problem would be by no means insoluble were our public men less prejudiced against the taking of Christianity seriously. And it is our job to help remove that prejudice.
Helping Catholics To Be Catholics
AS a German reader of this paper points out in a letter in this issue, in Western Europe to-day we are dealing with a population that is largely Catholic in tradition and heritage, even though the full practice of Catholicism may in many cases have been abandoned. Apart from the Scandinavian countries, the countries of Europe, reaching for that matter deep into the Soviet zone, are either wholly Catholic or at least half Catholic. Unfortunately (in this respect) the leadership of the movement to save the West comes from Britain and America, countries with Catholic minorities and deeply secularised particularly as regards their effective public action.
Were it not for a positive antiCatholic bias, the resulting situation could be tackled in a perfectly objective, indeed scientific. spirit. There is no reason at all why tremendous emphasis should not be put on the value to these peoples of their own Catholic heritage and tradition. To do so would in no way commit governments to agreement with the whole of this Catholic outlook. In Britain and America, and indeed still more in the Continental countries. there are plenty of believing Christians per fectly capable of advising governments and of directing or advising propaganda in a genuinely Christian sense. The B.B.C. alone, as our German correspondent complains. is missing opportunity after opportunity of helping to reawaken the native faith of those to whom its work is directed.
The Need for Faith MORE difficult, no doubt, than
such a plan to take advantage of conditions as they are would be a second method, namely the demonstration, as a mere matter of history, of the necessity of a strong spiritual faith if a community is to be built up and grow strong. The days of a negative liberal secularism are numbered, The future lies with those who believe strongly enough to labour for the realisation of an
order that seems to them to be positively good. So much is now common ground between Christians, Communists, Socialists of all hues and plain Nationalists.
Christianity, which is not a temporal faith. can blend with any of these ideals, except Communism. and at once strengthen and modify them. Surely, it would be commonsense for Socialists as well as for the more nationalist-minded people of the Right to concentrate to-day on the plain historical and political lesson of the relevance of Christianity to their own ideals By doing so, they will re-awake in millions the dormant Christian conscience, and go far towards rekindling that communally and socially held spiritual ideal which is absolutely necessary if permanent advantage is to be taken of the tactical improvement of our situation in the face of the Cornmunist heresy.
An Albert Hall Meeting A GREAT Albert Hall meeting of Christians of different Communions has been announced. It is not difficult on such occasions to rouse a temporary fervour. We suggest, however, that more good would be done on such an occasion if the concrete problems of re-Christianisation in present circumstances were publicly faced; if inter-Communion or secularist prejudice were openly combated; and if practical and effective resolutions demanding the attention of governments to the above practical questions were passed.
The re-Christianisation, or if one prefers the term, the genuine re-spiritualisation of Europe is to-day a first priority for the attention of public men. They alone can create the conditions. as well as provide the means, with the help of which the Christian preacher and thinker and worker can effect the actual work of disposing men and women to co-operate with God's grace.
Is Catholicism Tolerant or Intolerant ?
THE controversy about the
inclusion of Spain within the Marshall Plan, coupled with the recent resignation of the NewsEditor of the Daily Worker, and his declaration of intention to become a Catholic, seems to have stimulated newspaper correspondence on the hoary subject of whether political freedom is consistent with the profession of Catholicism.
The only possible short answer is " yes and no." The Catholic— and indeed for that matter the instructed Anglican. however much he may protest against Rome's tyranny—cannot be free to support political parties, ideas or movements which are inconsistent with Christian moral teaching. Thus the famous word " liberalism " which is quoted from continental, and chiefly Spanish, catechisms by anti-Catholic controversialists is there held to mean the doctrine that the social order and institutions must have nothing to do with God and religion. Naturally a Catholic—or an Anglican Christian—could not in
YOUR DAILY MASS GUIDE
April 11-17 SUNDAY, APRIL 11. Second Sunday after Easter. Comm. of St. Leo. Cr. Pref. for Easter. (White.) MONDAY, APRIL 12. Of the Feria. 2nd Coll. Concede, 3rd Coll. Ecclesiae or for the Pope. Easter Pref. (White.) TUESDAY. APRIL 13. St. Hermenegild. 2nd Coll. Concede, 3rd Coll. Eccles/ac or for the Pope. (Red.) WEDNEsDAY. APFUL 14. Solemnity of St Joseph.. d.I.cl. with common Octave. Comm. of St. Justin in private Masses. Cr. Pref. of St. Joseph. (White.) THURSDAY APRIL 15. Of the Octave. sd. 2nd Coll. Concede, 3rd Coll. Ecclesiae or for the Pope. Cr. Pref. of St. Joseph. (White.) FRIDAY, APRIL 16. Of the Octave (as yesterday). SATURDAY, APRIL 17. St. Stephen Harding. ad. 2nd Coll. of the Octave. 3rd Coll. of St. Anicetus. Cr. Pref. of St. Joseph. (White.)
conscience support a view so obviously contrary to Christian teaching. Matters are worse when it is known, even though not specifically said, that such " liberals" are positively anti-Christian, as so many of them were Where this is the meaning of political freedom Catholics cannot be politically free. Where political parties and doctrines, as is usually the case to-day, with one exception, are consistent with the freedom to practice Christianity and to work for the truth. as Christians see it. within the general ideoloey of the party, then of course Catholics are politically free. as practice shows,
A difficulty always arises about what the Church would do .to-day. were she in a morally authoritative position as in the Middle Ages. the answer is that it is inconceivable that the Church should be in such a position unless the overwhelming majority of people were freely professing the same faith as the Pope and sharing his moral views. In such conditions — and surely it would he good democracy—the Church would support the Catholic
civil government in protecting the accepted spiritual and moral basis of the good State, even as every country within the limits of its brief does to-day. As regards minorities. it is certain that so far as the Church is concerned, their existence would in modern times be tolerated and their social activities respected within the limits of the natural law. It does not of course follow that the civil government, even though Catholic, would take the same view as the Pope, since different considerations of temporal government arise for which the Church as such could not be responsible.
While therefore it is true that Catholicism is intolerant of evil, it is also true that the Church respects and defends the liberty of conscience of Catholics where faith and morals arc not directly concerned. as in the vast range of political and social matters in the modern Stale. and she wholly respects and upholds the liberty of others in so far as the exercise of that liberty does not endanger the basis of the good society. Analyse out the position and one will 6nd that precisely the same outlook is professed by any other reasonable person with moral convictions.