The challenge to democracy


THE CATHOLIC HOUR

THE CHALLENGE TO DEMOCRACY
BY

REV. BENJAMIN L. MASSE, S. J.

NOV \ 9
1946

The last in a series, of four addresses delivered in the Catholic
Hour, broadcast by the National Broadcasting Company in cooperation
with the National Council of Catholic Men, on October 27, 1946, by
Rev. Benjamin L. Masse, S.J., Associate Editor of America and Execu-
tive Director of the Catholic Mind. After the series has been concluded
on the radio, it will be made available in one pamphlet.

National Council of Catholic Men
Washington,' D. C.



THE CHALLENGE
Throughout the world the

Catholic Church celebrates today

the feast of the Kingship of

Christ.

Beneath that simple statement,

which will mean very little to

many of our people, there lies
the whole tragic story of the

past quarter century—the story

of a man who was ahead of his
time.

By 1925, it had become clear
to the late Pope Pius XI that

the whole civilized world lay in

mortal danger. With a wisdom

born of the church’s long experi-

ence—an experience that stretch-
ed back twenty centuries—he
saw rising on the horizon a cloud

no bigger than a man’s hand.

And in the cloud he beheld the
threat of a second and more ter-

rible war: a vision of cities

bombed to rubble and millions

dying and civilization smashed

to pieces. He saw even more : he
saw the frail flower of human
freedom bend and break before

the blast. He saw the return of
slavery and the tyranny of the

absolute state.

In December of that year the

Pope began his great campaign

to save the modern world from
the consequences of its folly. He
established the Feast of Christ

the King. During the next four-

TO DEMOCRACY
teen weary years, with superb

courage and astonishing insight,

he carried on the good fight for

peace and human liberty. The
climax came in the dangerous

spring of 1937. Within five days,

five days that will live for ever

in history, His Holiness con-

demned by name the two sources
of infection that were poisoning

the world and leading it to war

and slavery : he condemned

atheistic communism and the
nazi tyranny of Hitler.

As we celebrate for the twen-
tieth time the Feast of the King-

ship of Christ, we know, of
course, that Pope Pius XI lost

the great battle of his pontifi-

cate. For an answer to its ago-

nizing problems the modern

world refused to turn to Christ.

It turned instead to dictatorship

and war. But the truth which

His Holiness spoke was not in-

terred with his bones. It lives

on still, as pertinent and chal-

lenging as when he first spoke

it to a skeptical world. It has

been taken up by his successor,

Pope Pius XII, and trumpeted to

the four corners of the earth. As

the days go by a constantly in-

creasing number of earnest and

thoughtful men find it an answer
to their doubts and questions.

Pope Pius XI lost a battle to



restore all things to Christ. He
may yet win the war.
For the war rages still and

will continue to rage until the

great issue of our day has been

decided one way or the other.
Hitler has gone and with him the

tyranny he spawned, but the final

choice has not yet been made.

The modern world must still

choose between liberty and hu-

man dignity on the one hand, and
coercion and collectivism on the

other; between freedom and

slavery; between democracy and

the totalitarian state.

For many of us the grim
reality of this choice is not easy

to appreciate. Here in the Uni-

ted States we live in a kind of
fool's paradise. We have become
so accustomed to the exercise of

our civic rights and democratic

freedoms that we take them for
granted, like the air we breathe,
and the water we drink. Who
among us can even imagine life
in any other way?

Too easily we overlook the
gloomy records of the past. We
forget that before the coming

of Christianity the usual form of

government was dictatorship,

and slavery was the normal con-
dition of the vast majority of the

human race. That the pre-
Christian era reached its highest

development in the ancient em-
pires of Greece and Rome, we

remember well enough; but we
do not sufficiently recall that “the

glory that was Greece and the

grandeur that was Rome" were
built on the ugly foundation of

human slavery.

If we remembered the past, we
would understand more clearly

the great problem of the present.

We might still be shocked, and
perhaps discouraged, by the re-

appearance of slavery and the re-

turn of the totalitarian state, but

we would not be surprised. In-
deed the history of western civi-

lization would lead us to expect

exactly what is happening today.

The institution of slavery and

the absolute state were destroy-

ed in the western world by one

force and one force alone; and

that force was Christianity.

These ancient evils did not dis-

appear overnight, for they were

deeply entrenched, but once west-

ern society accepted Jesus

Christ, it was only a question of

time before they would disap-

pear. How could men believe
that every human being had a
personal dignity which stemmed

from his creation by God and his

redemption by Christ, and at the

same time defend a political or-

der which subordinated the in-

dividual to an absolute state?

The birth of Christianity was

the death of ancient tyranny,

for from the natural law as un-



derstood by Christian tradition,

there grew the precious doctrine

of inalienable rights. Now men
knew that they possessed rights

which came from God, and that

since the state had not given

them, the state could not take

them away. The Founding Fath-

ers of this country learned the

lesson well. On the doctrine of
God-given, inalienable rights,

they reared the structure of Am-
erican democracy.

How strange, you may hear
people say, that after all these

years of progress, the modern

world should be challenged by the

blackest kind of reaction! We
have discovered the most hidden

secrets of nature; we have con-

quered space and annihilated

time; we have routed illiteracy

and taught the masses to read

and write. How surprising,
then, that after all these tri-

umphs we should find ourselves

locked in mortal struggle with

the reviving institution of the

slave state. How odd that in the
full light of the twentieth Cen-

tury we should have to wage once

more the age-old fight for hu-

man liberty—for the right to live
our lives as free men.

But there is nothing strange

or surprising about this. That

democracy should be dead these

days in large parts of the west-

ern world and under severe at-

tack in others, is no more sur-

prising than it is that a tree

should die when its roots have
been destroyed. For democracy

arose in the fertile soil of Chris-

tian culture, and now that this
culture has become cold with the

chill of paganism, now that
Christ is so widely ignored and

denied, it is the most natural

thing in the world that democ-

racy should be tottering.

There is, then, nothing wrong
with democracy that Christianity

cannot cure. We are where we
are, not because the totalitarian

state is particularly strong or

attractive to people, but because

we have sold our glorious heri-
tage of human dignity and free-
dom for a mess of sensual pot-
tage. Whatever we may believe
in our hearts, we have said in
practice that we will not have
This Man to rule over us. As a
result, instead of the Kingdom

of Christ, with its respect for

right and justice and its spirit

of brotherly charity, the modern

world has its Neroes and Diocle-

tians trampling on our historic

freedoms and bathing the globe

in blood. For the gentle rule of

Jesus Christ, the modern world

has made the terrible exchange
of gangster rule and concentra-

tion camps.

In this dark moment of his-
tory, does not our course lie



straight and clear before us? If

we are to save the ideals of de-

mocracy, we must bend our knees

and pledge again whole-souled

allegiance to Jesus Christ: “for

there is no other name under

heaven given to men by which we
must be saved” (Acts 4:12). The

sweep of the barbarian, which

has now reached the heart of

Europe, can be stopped in no

other way.

In a notable address last

summer, in which he voiced the

sentiments of all God-fearing

men, Pope Pius XII said bluntly

that the choice today lies be-

tween “the champions or the

wreckers of Christian civiliza-

tion” (Allocution to the College

of Cardinals, June 1, 1946). Why-

is it that the wreckers of our

civilization seem to realize this

so much better than its cham-

pions? They are going about

their destructive work with an

energy, an enthusiasm and clar-

ity of purpose which all of us

might well envy and imitate. In

the face of our common danger
the champions of Christian civi-

lization appear, alas, fearful and

uncertain of their course. On
one thing only do they seem uni-

ted: that the new barbarism is

the worst form of slavery the

world has ever seen, and that

people must be steadily warned

against it.

That is well and good as far as

it goes. But it does not go nearly

far enough. If the champions

of Christian civilization are

going to save freedom in the

modern world, they must do more

than criticize and raise alarms.

They must offer a positive pro-

gram of their own, a program of
social and political reform that

will cut to the heart of the evil

and lay it bare. Against the

threat of slavery, the best de-

fense is to make freedom work.
Right in the beginning we

must
^
frankly recognize and

boldly proclaim the rule of

Christ over public life. Let there

be an end once and for all to the

shameful fiction that we can ob-
serve the Christian code in our

private lives and disregard it in

our public lives. In the Chris-

tian tradition there is no room
for a double standard of moral-

ity.

The individual citizen who be-
lieves in the Kingship of Christ

will accept wholeheartedly all the

duties of democratic citizenship.

It will not be a matter of indif-

ference to him what laws are
passed or what men are elected
to office. He will be interested in
public affairs and strive to the

best of his ability to understand

the issues of the day. Before

taking his stand on any question,

he will weigh the arguments



carefully and judge them in the

double light of human wisdom

and Christian truth.

The office-holder who admits

that Christ rules over public life

will strive to see that the laws

of the land promote the general

welfare and not merely the eco-

nomic interest of clamorous pres-

sure groups. He will be at all
times scrupulously honest, as be-

comes a servant of the people,

and on a matter of principle he

will stoutly refuse to compro-

mise. Speaking the truth as he

sees it, he will make it clear that,
concerned as he is with election

to office, he is more concerned

with doing his duty to God and

country.

The years that lie ahead are

certain to be dangerous and diffi-

cult, but we can make them
glorious years as well. At the

present moment, the forces of

slavery are on the march and

they seem very powerful, indeed.

But the forces of freedom are

more powerful still, if only the

champions of freedom will real-

ize it. The same Jesus Christ

Who died for us on the Cross,
and dying doubly dignified our

human nature, remains with us
still. By turning to Him who
first taught us the freedom of the

children of God, we can find the
strength and inspiration to make

our democracy work.

The answer to dictatorship

and secret police and concentra-

tion camps is very simple and

overwhelmingly convincing. It

is the loyal acceptance of the

Kingdom of Jesus Christ—“a
kingdom of truth and life; a

kingdom of holiness and grace; a

kingdom of justice, peace and

love” (Preface of the Feast of

the Kingship of Christ).



,
-T*



333 tey-t.

THE CATHOLIC HOUR
y . • ^ i ; •

1930—Seventeenth Year—1946

The nationwide Catholic Hour was inaugurated on
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in cooperation with the National Broadcasting Company
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