“ “O little town of Bethlehem/How still we see thee lie/Above thy deep and dreamless sleep/The silent stars go by,” runs the famous Christmas carol sung all over the English-speaking world as it celebrates Christmas…….. In today’s Bethlehem “dreamless sleep” is more like a nightmare, and the town can only “lie still” when Israel’s occupation ends.”
“Catholics would be injured in their religious sentiment and rightly fear for their rights if Palestine would belong exclusively to the Hebrews,” – Cardinal Luigi Maglione, Pope Pius XII‟s Secretary of State (7th April 1943)
” ‘To restore all things in Christ’ includes not only what properly pertains to the divine mission of the Church, namely, leading souls to God, but also what We have already explained as flowing from that divine mission, namely, Christian civilization in each and every one of the elements composing it.
Since We particularly dwell on this last part of the desired restoration, you clearly see, Venerable Brethren, the services rendered to the Church by those chosen bands of Catholics who aim to unite all their forces in combating anti-Christian civilization by every just and lawful means. They use every means in repairing the serious disorders caused by it. They seek to restore Jesus Christ to the family, the school and society by re-establishing the principle that human authority represents the authority of God. They take to heart the interests of the people, especially those of the working and agricultural classes, not only by inculcating in the hearts of everybody a true religious spirit (the only true fount of consolation among the troubles of this life) but also by endeavoring to dry their tears, to alleviate their sufferings, and to improve their economic condition by wise measures. They strive, in a word, to make public laws conformable to justice and amend or suppress those which are not so. Finally, they defend and support in a true Catholic spirit the rights of God in all things and the no less sacred rights of the Church.
All these works, sustained and promoted chiefly by lay Catholics and whose form varies ac cording to the needs of each country, constitute what is generally known by a distinctive and surely a very noble name: ‘Catholic Action,’ or the ‘Action of Catholics.’ At all times it came to the aid of the Church, and the Church has always cherished and blessed such help, using it in many ways according to the exigencies of the age”.
Creature Comforts, Social ‘Respectability’, Career ……….
The greatest enemies of Christian Civilisation are those who call themselves Catholic but who refuse to physically help defend and fight for the Catholic Moral and Social Order.
“After the Brexit vote, Britain’s politicians are scrambling around for ideas. They should begin with Pope Leo XIII’s masterpiece Rerum Novarum”.
Apart for the nonsense about Christian Democracy – i.e. in historical practice it was Social Modernism and Liberalism – of which Pope Leo XIII gave warning and which Pope Saint Pius X had to suppress [ “Moreover, Christian Democracy must have nothing to do with politics, and never be made to serve political ends or parties ; this is not its field….” ] this is a very worthwhile article.
