Our Crumbling Civilization

by Rev. P. W. Browne, D.D., Ph.D.

One is not necessarily a pessimist who feels that we are being whirled toward a crisis in our civilization, more terrible for the magnitude of its conflicting causes, more tremendous for the gravity of its issues, more appalling for the seriousness of its consequences, than any which history has yet recorded. This thought was expressed three decades ago by the illustrious Leo XIII in the immortal encyclical, Rerum Novarum: "The momentous seriousness of the crisis fills every thoughtful mind with anxiety and dread. Wise men discuss it, practical men propose schemes, platforms, clubs, parliaments, and potentates, all think of it and talk of it. Nor is there any subject which so completely engrosses the attention of the world." Furthermore, he told us to what the pending crisis is due: economic changes in the material order; false philosophy in the intellectual order; professional agitators in the social order. Since his day, conditions have not improved; and the world today seems to rest on the thin edge of a volcano of which the ominous rumblings are being heard throughout the length and breadth of every civilized nation.

Recently there came into my possession a copy of a splendid pastoral letter issued for the Advent season by the Archbishop of Birmingham, which, mutatis mutandis, is applicable to conditions existing in the United States. It says that in the sphere of doctrine and morals, when people set aside the principles taught by Christ, there is a complete absence of a guiding principle and of positive standards by which we may judge and estimate problems which face us. The Protestant view of religion is that it is a purely private affair; it rejects the idea of a Church with a central teaching authority. The result is that no Christian body, except the Catholic Church, can declare authoritatively what it believes and what it requires its ministers to teach.

Statesmen, when engaged in formulating treaties or agreements, do not mention God, nor do they pay heed to His commandments. Men engaged in commerce or trade do not submit to the guidance of Christian principles. Greed, not conscience, rules; and the inexorable law of "supply and demand" has supplanted the command to "do unto others as others would do unto you." Wealth is hardening its purse-strings, entrenching itself behind huge trusts; and it is daily drawing to itself powers that make it well-nigh impregnable. Workmen look with distrust upon their employer, whom they have come to regard as their natural foe; and they give willing ear to every extravagant theory for the amelioration of their condition; they grasp at every weapon left to the hands of desperate men, in their frantic desire to pull down the strong.

Time was when the world acclaimed the Church as the bounteous mother of humanity, and hymned her praises in divers tones; but today the welkin rings with the frenzied cry of evil men who rend the air with blasphemous shibboleths. They have forgotten that the Church is the moral self of the loving Christ, who, nineteen centuries ago, under the shadow of the Hill of Hattin, said: "I will have compassion on the multitude." As Christ is the "way, the truth, and life," so it is that only through the Church that man or nation can survive in healthy normal life. She teaches the rich that they are merely the stewards of their wealth — that the right of ownership brings with it an imperious duty to give unto the poor whatever is above their reasonable needs.

She likewise teaches the poor that they have duties as well as rights. The Church is independent of economic change; and she fears neither those who sally forth from the "Tents of Wickedness," nor the loud moaning of turbulent passions. Christ's power is as active now in the Church as when He trod the earth. His voice can be heard as it was heard that night upon the Sea of Galilee, when, 'mid shrieking winds and blinding spray, it rang out clear through the murky shadows: "It is I; be not afraid!" Over the tempest-tossed sea of the ages, over the surges of passion and sin, through the darkness of doubt and denial, the Church of Christ has safely passed, when the wicked thought she should be engulfed.

Our social and educational reformers aim at developing healthy minds and bodies; but they seem to ignore the reminder given by Christ that the gain of the whole world will not compensate for the loss of a soul. Dogmatic Christian teaching cannot be given in our public schools because those responsible for them cannot say what ought to be taught. Thus the majority of American children grow up with no definite Christian teaching.

Hence it is that our civilization is crumbling. God is not mentioned, nor is there any word of our duty to Him; and He is ignored in the political, social, and economic life of the nation. Sometimes, even, He is opposed. It may be a far cry from the United States to Russia; but are we not heading in the direction of the dreadful situation that exists under the domination of Sovietism? The transition is logically not a very big step, for Christ says: "He who is not with Me is against Me." The danger in our midst, of an anti-God movement is perhaps not far distant.

If we desire to prevent the crumbling of our civilization, and to stem the tide of anarchy that threatens to overwhelm the nation, we must seek the guidance of the Church which is the only power on earth to withstand the thunderous blows that are being directed against our social fabric. The Church speaks not only with a commission from Christ, but with an absolute guarantee of His guidance: "Behold! I am with you all days unto the consummation of the world." The Church never compromises on doctrine or morals, whatever scientists and social reformers may say. However low human nature may fall she never despairs of it; divine grace can transform and heal it. Race and color, social rank and customs, riches and political power count for nothing with her.

The only constructive ideas for human peace and happiness were taught by Christ, and the commonwealth of man and the unity of mankind can come only through Christ. Yet it must not be forgotten that the Church, which is a replica of the moral self of Christ, cannot bring order out of chaos or solve the problems which now confront our civilization, if her children are apathetic or disloyal. We must be loyal to her teachings and to the commands of those whose duty it is to instruct us. We must be dutiful in submission, generous in our support, and, above all, be watchful, lest we be drawn into the vortex of pernicious principles which threaten to engulf society:

God! Give us men. A time like this demands
Strong minds, stout hearts, true faith, and
willing hands —
Men who can stand before the demagogue,
And damn his flattering treasons without
winking —
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog
In public duty and in private thinking.

To stave off the perils that threaten us we must "aim to restore all things in Christ." We must develop a stronger common consciousness. This possibly may differentiate us from other people, in education, in trade, in commerce, and in many other departments of public life. The more we realize this truth, the greater will be our influence in solving existing problems, and in saving civilization from wreckage. It is of tremendous importance that we understand how numerous and how insidious are the agencies that imperil our civic and social life.

Recently Father Ronald Knox, the noted convert, who directs the Catholic students at Oxford, published a book that grips you from preface to Index. Its theme is the "Broadcast Mind." Though written for British readers, it contains much that applies to the United States. The book was interpreted recently in America, by Hilaire Belloc, during the course of a learned article on what he terms "The New Atheism." Belloc says that Fr. Knox's book deals drastically with the principal mark of our time — unintelligence. This applies to persons who talk over the radio, to large audiences, concerning matters of which the speakers know nothing. He continues: "Modern unintelligence is especially noticeable in those who attack religion positively or negatively." The broadcasts "deluge millions . . . with uncertain science, false history and childish, crude philosophy . . . Through all their learned (?) discussions there runs the note of irreligion, the denial of the supernatural, what may be called the atheism of the half-educated."

This, I may say, is not peculiar to England. Only a few evenings ago I was an unwilling auditor of stuff coming in to an audience (largely Catholic) that was just as worthy of condemnation as some of the utterances of the Rev. Bob Schuler, who lost his broadcasting license some days ago, by a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States. Such stuff is, in my judgment, equally as harmful as many other things that are contributing to the destruction of our social fabric.

Possibly the most serious menace to our civilization is the persistent effort being made to educate the children of this country under a system that is fraught with serious consequences. The main purpose of this system is to develop "good citizenship." Those who support the system hug the delusion that citizenry is the only function of man, and they forget, or do not understand, that the individual means much more than the citizen. It is not enough for a boy or a girl to become a good citizen, for "the preparation that our boys and girls must receive is not merely for life, but for membership in the great community of the hereafter." These words were spoken recently by an English educator. He added (quoting the celebrated dictum of the Duke of Wellington): "If you teach your children the three R's and leave out the great R of religion, you will produce a fourth R-Rascaldom."

Whilst the intellectual aberrations are deplorable, the economic tendency in our county is infinitely worse. The most lamentable feature of this is the fact that very many Catholics are ill-informed of the nature of the protean cult which is being propagated by its votaries, who, under various disguises, are hoodwinking the American public. This cult is the hydra-headed monstrosity known as Socialism. In some of its forms the modern, or popular, brand of this monstrosity differs from the crude system outlined by Marx and Engels, yet it is fundamentally the same: "The voice indeed is the voice of Jacob; but the hands are the hands of Esau (Gen. xxvii, 22). Hence no Catholic may subscribe to its teachings. This point is admirably set forth by Dr. John A. Ryan in the December issue of the Ecclesiastical Review.

Socialism, no matter how disguised, tends to sap the foundations of the social order, and to destroy the vital principle of national existence, the civil power. The socialist spider deftly spins the web in which the proletariat will sacrifice their liberty and lose the meaning of a higher life, while its vampire-like officialdom, will suck the lifeblood of the unfortunates who become enmeshed. Were this system realized, the workingman should lose his independence, his home, the fruits of his labor — everything that his toil renders sacred. He would have no protection against lawlessness, for the system recognizes no established authority. It stigmatizes patriotism as mere sentiment, and it regards the national flag as "a piece of calico fastened to a stick." It rants vociferously of the "brotherhood of man," but it eliminates the august Person of the Incarnate God who became our brother in the mystery of the Incarnation. It clamors for the destruction of everything that makes for the welfare of humanity. The socialist rabble must follow the dictates of the high-priests of the cult who assert "law is but a clumsy pretext to bolster up the right to rule and rob"; "violence must be the lever of reform"; revolution is the only means to attain success; "religion is a fantastic degradation of human nature, the sentiment of a heartless world, the opium of the people"; "Christianity stands for what is basest and lowest in human life."

A former candidate for the highest office in the United States styled Christ "The Tramp of Galilee"; and the author of a horrible book, "God and my Neighbor," tells us, "Free will is a myth"; "there is no such thing as sin"; "Carlyle is more moral than Jeremiah"; "Ruskin is superior to Isaiah"; "Ingersoll, the atheist, is a nobler and better moralist than Moses." Another Shavian individual, a high priest of the socialistic cult, holds up for derision and derisive laughter that supreme moment on Calvary, burlesques the adorable Figure on the Cross, toward whom the noblest minds are turned, and with whose Sacrifice are entwined our deepest sympathies.

This system leads to anarchy and to mob supremacy, oscillating wildly between a despotism, an oligarchy, and a universal muddle. We need not go to Bolshevik Russia for an example. Picture that evening some two years ago in Catholic Spain! The glory of the Castilian sun is obscured by huge clouds of smoke that roll upwards from burning churches, convents, orphanages, and asylums, while the daylight is mocked by the lurid glare of flames that flash like eruptions from the infernal regions. Round about the burning buildings seething socialistic masses circulate in fiendish delight, heaping fuel, on the deadly fagots.

Such an outrage is possible anywhere when a frenzied mob is intoxicated with principles that appeal to brutish passions. History is ever repeating itself; and it will do so with terrible emphasis, and with horrible accuracy, if the people are taught that they have no God but Mammon, no master but socialist officialdom, no altars but the shrines of vengeance.

Socialism would revive the principle that the State is supreme. It would change the home into a mere lodging place where are fed and sheltered the dupes of the system. It would deprive the father of the God-given right to be master of his own fireside; it would banish the mother from what should be her kingdom. It would make the child a ward of the State, and a chattel of the community. The child would thus become a stranger to its father and mother, without the influence of a home, without any knowledge of God or religion, to become a mere mechanical unit in the machinery of the State, moved only by human pleasure, deterred only by human pain, until its time should come to sink into death like any brute beast.

Our people should realize that socialism is not a panacea for the ills of mankind. It can provide no remedy for existing conditions. It would subvert the entire social fabric, and it would cause modern society to swing back into barbaric callousness or the cultured cruelty of paganism. It deals only in chimeras and futilities.

The progress of this monstrous cult is being accelerated in our land, many do not understand what it actually means. Catholics are unaware of its true aim and purpose; and the time has come for us to dig beneath the surface and find what the specious pleas of the followers of the red flag really mean. That Socialism constitutes a dreadful menace is not fully appreciated. More than two decades ago Pius X warned us: "Socialism, breathing hatred of Christianity, advances with ruin in its trail — blotting out the hopes of Heaven from the hearts of the people — to destroy the whole fabric of society."

Leo XIII issued a similar warning, and he made the following appeal to the Catholic world: "Catholics must take the initiative in all true social progress; to show themselves the steadfast and enlightened counsellors of the weak and defenceless; to be champions of the eternal principles of justice and Christian civilization."

Do we need even a more recent pronouncement from the Chair of Peter? We find it in the encyclical, Quadragesimo Anno of Pius XI: "Whether Socialism be considered as a doctrine, or as a historical fact, if it really remains Socialism, it cannot be brought into harmony with the dogmas of the Catholic Church, even after it has yielded to truth and justice in the points we have mentioned: the reason being that it conceives human society in a way utterly alien to Christian truth."

© Rev. Eugene P. Burke, C.S.C.

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