Intercredal cooperation in the papal documents


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INTERCREDAL COOPERATION

THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION FOR INTERNATIOHAL PEACE

1312 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.

Washington 5, D. C.

19 4 3



These papers on Intercredal Cooperation were abbreviated and

adapted for publication in pamphlet form by the authors, at the

request of the Executive Council of the Catholic Association for

International Peace, from articles which appeared in Theological

Studies, Vol. IV, No. 2, June, 1943. The pamphlet is printed for

distribution by the Catholic Association for International Peace

on order of the Executive Council.

Con permissu Superiorum

Nihil Obstat:

E. A. CERNY, S.S., D.D.,
Censor Librorum.

Imprimatur

:

K MICHAEL J. CURLEY, D.D.,
Archbishop of Baltimore and Washington.



INTERCREDAL COOPERATION

IN THE

PAPAL DOCUMENTS

By

WILFRID PARSONS, S.J.

and

INTERCREDAL COOPERATION:

PRINCIPLES

By

JOHN COURTNEY MURRAY, S.J.

THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE

1312 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.

Washington 5, D. C.





INTERCREDAL COOPERATION IN THE PAPAL DOCUMENTS

Wilfrid Parsons, S .J.

TN NEARLY all of his public utterances the present Holy Father,
Pope Pius XII, has made some reference to those not of the

Catholic faith and has expressed the belief or hope that many of
these are “with him” in his gallant but desperate attempt to save

human society. Particularly toward the end of his life, Pope
Pius XI constantly made similar utterances. It may be useful
therefore, to examine the question of intercredal cooperation, from

the point of view of papal utterances, and from these, attempt to

gather ( 1 ) what are the legitimate fields in which this cooperation

may take place
;
and (2) what are the grounds for such cooperation.

Before examining the texts themselves, however, it will be

helpful to recall the historical background. From the disastrous
Peace of Westphalia (1648) up to our own times, the direct influ-
ence of the Papacy and, indeed, the Church on the temporal affairs

of Europe and the world was reduced to almost nothing. What
has been called the “secularization of politics,” which was then
made the official rule of European nations, brought, along with
other unfortunate consequences, a universal acceptance of the ex-

clusion of the Church from public affairs and a submissive spirit

of isolationism on the part of Catholics. This spirit, until very

recently, has been accepted by most modern Catholics as the normal
mode of being by which the Church shall henceforth live.

It was Leo XIII, who, the first for a long time, reminded a
startled world that the Catholic Church considers that temporal

affairs also fall under the purview of her divine mission. Leo him-
self, however, did not immediately perceive that a changed world

required a whole new set of concepts if this intervention was to
be made valid. It was no longer, as his predecessor Pius IX seems
to have imagined, a medieval synthesis which he faced, in which

political unity and religious unity were the same unity, but a world

of clashing nationalisms and religious dissensions. It is a kind of

historical irony that, just as it was post-medieval France which

pushed the Church back into the sacristy and then humiliated it,

so it was modern France which first opened Leo's eyes to the new



4 Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents

state of affairs and furnished him with the clue to what to do
about it.

The Papal Texts

In a series of Encyclicals which began within a year after his

accession, Leo began to unfold a philosophy of society which,
beginning mostly as a condemnation of the modern State, gradu-
ally developed a positive reconciliation with it on a basis of Chris-

tian principles.

Up to this point, however, the great Pope had restricted him-
self to the role of a philosophic teacher, being content merely with

setting forth correct principles of government. In 1891, with

Rerum Novarum, he emerged as a social reformer. This was a
definite departure in papal practice, for this Encyclical clearly called

for action as well as the acceptance of truth. Moreover, in this

action he explicitly engaged the Church as a partner with secular

society

:

So far as the Church is concerned, her cooperation will never be
found wanting, be the time or the occasion what it may. She will
intervene with all the greater effect in proportion as her liberty of

action is the more unfettered. Let this in particular be carefully noted
by those whose office it is to provide for the public welfare.

It became clear immediately that the test of this new policy
would take place in France. It was there that the ancient and the
modern were most closely at grips. Leo’s proclamation of social
reform came right in the middle of the crucial debate between
himself and the French Royalists over the question of allegiance to

the Third French Republic. It was in the previous November that
Cardinal Lavigerie had made his sensational toast to the Republic

in Algiers and had launched the movement of the Ralliement. After
a year of furious disputes, Leo spoke a deciding word in his Letter
to the French, Au milieu des sollicitudes, on February 16, 1892.

In this Letter the Pope told French Catholics that it was their

duty to give their allegiance to the Republic. In it he made his
famous distinction between the regime, which he declared legiti-

mate, and its legislation, which he condemned and which he wished

the Church in France, by cooperation with the regime, to change

What is remarkable about the Letter is the fact that Leo makes



Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents 5

an appeal for joint action between Catholics and non-Catholics in

the work of transforming French society:

... We believe it opportune, and even necessary, to raise Our
Voice again, and more urgently to exhort not only Catholics but also
all Frenchmen of good will and good sense ( tons les Frangais hon-

netes et smses) to put far from them every source of political dissen-
sion, in order that they may consecrate their energies solely to the
pacification of their country. All are aware of the value of that
pacification; all increasingly desire it. And We—who desire it more
than anyone because We represent on earth the God of peace—We by
this letter invite all upright minds and all generous hearts to assist
Us in rendering it stable and fruitful.

Later, speaking more directly to Catholics, he insists that “a
great union is necessary” for effective social action in the interests

of social harmony. But in two subsequent passages he makes it
clear that this unity, insofar as it is directed to the purposes of

the temporal order, is not exclusive or closed. After condemning

“tendencies hostile to religion and consequently to the interests of

the nation,” which have become incorporated in legislation, he

adds : “And here precisely is the field on which men of good will
( les gens de bien ), putting aside all political differences, ought to

unite as one man, in order to combat by every legal and honest
means the progressive abuses of such legislation.” And he gives
the reason : all such men should agree that in attacking religion the
State has violated the limits of its competence, as marked out by
reason itself; there is, therefore, a common moral duty to resist
such encroachments.

Secondly, at the end of the Letter he returns again to the same
point with equal definiteness

:

In summary but clear fashion, Venerable Brethren, We have ex-
plained, if not all, at least the principal points on which French Cath-
olics and all reasonable men (tons les homines senses) must achieve
union and concord, in order to heal—insofar as it is still possible

—

the evils with which France is afflicted, and to restore her moral
grandeur. These points are: religion and the nation, political powers
and legislation, the conduct to be observed with regard to these powers
and this legislation, the Concordat, the separation of Church and State.

His evident supposition is that his doctrine on all these points
should commend itself as reasonable to all those who, not profess-
edly Catholic, still retain a natural rectitude of mind and heart.



6 Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents

The authentic commentary on these texts is furnished by Leo's

Letter to the Bishop of Grenoble, written several months later, on

June 22, 1892. Therein he writes the following passage, unmis-

takable in its clarity

:

. . . The progress of religious life among the peoples is an emi-
nently social task, because of the close connection between the truths

which are the soul of the religious life and those which govern civil

life. Hence arises a practical rule which must not be lost from view

and which gives to Catholics a characteristic broadmindedness. It is

this : that while holding firm to our dogmatic position and avoiding all

compromise with error, it is Christian prudence not to reject, but

rather to win over to us, the collaboration of all men of good will
to the pursuit of individual and especially of social welfare.

The great majority of France is Catholic, but among those who are
not so fortunate, many in spite of all still retain a basically sound
sense and a certain uprightness which we may call the attitude of
the naturally Christian soul. Now this lofty sensibility not only
attracts them to the good but inclines them to adopt it, and frequently
this inner inclination, this generous cooperation are a preparation for

the appreciation and profession of the Christian truth. It is for this
reason that in Our most recent statements We have not neglected to
request the cooperation of these men in the triumph over the sectarian
persecution, now unbridled and openly avowed, which is plotting the
religious and moral ruin of France.

This advice to the French was quite different from Leo’s earlier,
more academic and general teaching on the civic obligations of
Catholics. Now he was urging a conscious and concerted effort at
social reform. Actually, what he wanted from France was nothing
less than a radical transformation of modern society, and this was
also clearly implied in the social reform preached in Rerum
Novarum. This was a reform which Catholics by themselves would
be powerless to effect, since it involved the whole economic and

social structure of the nations. He saw very clearly that unless
they were able to win over the collaboration of men of good will,
with their naturally Christian soul, in the pursuit of the common
good, nothing very effective or concrete was ever going to be

done. Morever, he looked on this collaboration as an excellent

means to dispose such men to the acceptance of the whole Catholic
truth.

This also, however, must be made clear. Leo XIII never had
any other idea than that the ultimate transformation of human



Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents 7

society, for which he had drawn up the master plan, would be

carried out within the framework of what may loosely be called
Christian philosophy. This thought he repeated too many times
to quote here. On the other hand, his concrete proposals, the
planks of his platform, were not derived from the Christian revela-

tion as such, but from the normal operation of human reason.
What he hoped for from the Christian revelation was the virtue of
charity, without which his politico-economic proposals would not

be accepted in practice. The anima naturaliter Christiana, he saw,
with its sens juste and its coeur droit, even though it did not profess

the whole Christian revelation, could be counted on as an ally with

Catholics, for in his time and place he naturally assumed that the
initiative in this would be taken by Catholics.

After the death of Leo XIII (1903), his grandiose conception
of social regeneration, it must be admitted, fell somewhat into abey-
ance. The program of Pius X, “instaurare omnia in Christo," did
indeed include, as he said himself in his Encyclical Letter on Cath-

olic Action, II fermo proposito (June 11, 1905), “not only that

which properly belongs to the Church's divine mission of leading

souls to God, but also that which, as we have explained, spon-
taneously flows from that divine mission—Christian civilization in
the totality of all the elements which constitute it." Circumstances,

however, as well as his own pastoral inclinations, turned his energies
primarily to the strengthening of the Church's own inner unity in
doctrine, organization and life. Nevertheless, it so happened that

circumstances also drew from him the only papal document that is

completely and explicitly devoted to a particular problem of inter-

confessional cooperation, the Encyclical Letter to the Bishops of

Germany, Singulari Quadam, of September 24, 1912.
The point at issue was the organization of Catholic industrial

workers in Germany: should strictly Catholic trade unions alone
be encouraged? or should Catholics rather join the so-called “christ-

liche Gewerkvereine," which were on principle “Christian," but

interconfessional ? In his reply, Pius X reveals an insight into the
realities of Germany's economic life as exact as was Leo XIII's

grasp of political realities in France. The Singulari Quadam
clearly recognizes the necessity of organized co-operation between

Catholics and non-Catholics in the economic field, in the interests



8 Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents

of justice for the industrial worker. Under the circumstances, and
given certain safeguards, such cooperation “can be tolerated and
permitted” ( tolerari posse et permitti), even, though not prefer-

ably. in the form of Catholic membership in interconfessional
unions. The preferable form of cooperation would be through a
federative union of confessional organizations, Catholic and non-
Catholic. In either case, the fact emerges that the Church, while

vigilantly guarding the integrity of her children’s faith, was pre-

pared to accept the cooperation of men of Christian principles, as
the members of the “christliche Gewerkvereine” professed them-

selves to be, in the work of establishing justice in the economic

order.

The reign of Benedict XV was overshadowed by the first
World War. On the accession of Pius XI (1922), the question
of whether society could be saved was once more acute, and the

new Pope showed immediately that he was keenly aware of it.

From the time that he appeared on St. Peter’s balcony the day of
his election he made it clear that he was determined to break the

shell of Catholic isolation. He immediately began to preach the
doctrine that the Church includes the temporal in its divine mission.

It was he who most insistently called the laity to participation in
the apostolate of the hierarchy through Catholic Action. By the
time of his death nearly every country in the world had a diplo-

matic representative at his court. It was he to whom it was
reserved to restore the temporal freedom of the papacy. And he
revived the Leonine tradition by his memorable series of social

Encyclicals, among which the outstanding one was a commentary
and development of Leo’s own Rerum Novarum.

As we look back on them, these documents show a definite
pattern, a pattern, indeed, very like that followed by Leo XIII.

For the first ten years Pius was most concerned with drawing

tight the ranks of Catholics themselves. He launched the move-
ment of Catholic Action ( Ubi Arcano ) ; he promulgated the devo-

tion and feast of Christ the King ( Quas Primas ) ; he promoted
spiritual retreats for laymen ( Mens Nostra). He followed that
with teachings on Christian education (Rappresentanti in Terra)

and the Christian family (Casti Connubii). All this work fur-



Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents 9

nished an almost complete picture of the Christian religion girding

itself for the trials to come.

In 1931, however, the whole tone of this thought undergoes a

change; he likewise becomes the social reformer. In that year,

the fortieth since Reram Novarum, he came out with the greatest
of his Encyclicals, Quadragesimo Anno . It was a searching an-
alysis of the whole temporal social order, and an urgent call to

substitute for it a new and more just one before it was too late. By
its very nature, this was a call directed to a wider circle than the
Catholic Church. In fact, it contained a program which Catholics

by themselves were certainly powerless to execute; the whole

secular world of business and government would be required to

cooperate. He said himself that his call was to “all men of good
will,

,, who would be willing to join with the pastors of the Church.

By October of that year, in Nova Impendet, he was already
talking of a great crusade, in which all men would participate

:

To this vigorous effort of compassion and love, which will mani-
fest a sacrificial devotion to the needs of the poor, We summon all as
children of the one heavenly Father, as the myriad members of the
same one family, and therefore as all brothers in Christ, who make a
common lot of prosperity and comfort, of hardship and sorrow. To
this great effort we summon all as to a sacred duty imposed by the
law that is distinctive of the Gospel—the precept, namely, of charity,
which Christ our Lord promulgated as His first and greatest com-
mandment and as the supreme law that sums up all else that He
enjoined. In the days when war raged and hatred was rampant, Our
immediate predecessor repeatedly and with emphasis urged this pre-
cept, and made of it, as it were, the distinguishing mark of his
pontificate.

From this stirring passage, several things are immediately
manifest. The common effort is in the temporal order—that is its
field; the grounds of cooperation are our common membership in
the race of men, the one family of the one Father

;
the cooperation

is a duty, and its motive is the law of charity promulgated in the
Gospel.

Less than a year later, Pius XI cleared away any doubt that
this passage might have left as to the meaning of “God’s family.”
To him meant the whole human race, not merely the members of
the Church

;
for in his Encyclical Caritate Christi Compulsi, he said :



10 Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents

Constrained by the charity of Christ, in our Encyclical Letter
Nov.a Impendet of October 2 last year, we spurred on all the children
of the Church, and indeed all men of good will, to a holy rivalry in
love and succor, whereby the terrible sufferings brought on human
society by the economic crisis might in some measure be lightened.

Moreover, in this Encyclical Pius XI broadened the scope of
cooperation with men of good will and made it include more con-
structive aims in the temporal order

;
he also -defined more clearly

the reasons that made it necessary. Unlike many, he did not en-
visage the crisis of the ’30’s as a purely economic one. With
extraordinary penetration he saw, even that early, that the human
race had divided itself into two camps, and was setting itself for
a struggle a outrance between the two

:

For in this battle there is at stake the most important decision that

the free will of man can be called on to make: either for God or
against God—that is once more the point at issue, and upon it hangs
the lot of all the world. For in every department of life—in politics
and economics, in morals, in the sciences and arts, in the State and in
domestic and civil life, in the East and in the West—everywhere the
same issue arises, big with consequences of supreme moment.

The conclusion that he drew from this fundamental conflict was
that all who are menaced by it should join together—and that
meant all those who believe in God : “It is imperative . . . that we
also should unite all our forces into one compact army to march
against the battalions of evil, enemies of God no less than of the
human race.

,,

This unity, which the Pope demanded that we rec-
ognize, is in a sense a unity created by our enemies

;
for he reminds

us that they are hurling their attacks “not against the Catholic

religion alone, but against every religion that recognizes God as the
author of this visible world, and as the ruler of the universe.

,, He
reminds us, too, of their organization : in a spirit of diabolical

fury these squadrons are striving, not merely by speeches, but by a

union of all their active energies, to put through their impious

designs with all possible speed.” Consequently, by their organized

attacks they have drawn together in a common cause all those who
believe in God and love mankind. In a last desperate appeal,
Pius XI says

:

In the name of the Lord, therefore, we implore both individuals and
nations. . . . Let all close ranks, if necessary at the cost of heavy



Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents 11

sacrifices, in order to rescue themselves and the society of men. In
such a union of minds and energies, they, of course, should claim the
first place who boast of being Christians, and are mindful of the
splendid example of Apostolic times, when “the multitude of the
faithful were but one heart and one soul” (Acts 4:32) ; but let all
those also, whoever they are, who acknowledge God and with sincere
hearts adore Him, give their assistance to the common cause, in order
to ward off from mankind the immense danger which threatens all
alike.

Five years later, in that Encyclical which has been called On
Atheistic Communism ( Divini Redemptoris ) , but which is really
a commentary on his own Quadragesimo Anno

,

Pius XI is still
appealing for cooperation

:

But in combating the violence with , which the powers of darkness
are striving to pluck out of the hearts of men the very idea of God,
We have high hopes that with those who glory in the name of Chris-
tian all those also—and they comprise the great majority of man-
kind—who believe in God and adore Him will effectively join. Re-
newing the invitation extended to them five years ago in Our En-
cyclical Caritate Christi, We urge them, each with his own contribu-
tion, to devote themselves to this cause.

In these words the great Pope struck a note that had not been
heard in Europe for many centuries. It is no longer a question of
fanatical Mohammedans threatening Christianity, or of Luther-
ans and Calvinists striking at the Catholic Church; it is a matter

of dark and powerful forces mustering armies against the very
foundation stone of human life, God Himself. It is well known
that in many audiences, as the clouds grew darker and the lights
began to go out all over the world, the failing Pope strove to make
his visitors see and realize the true meaning of this crisis of man-
kind itself. He made it clear that unless the Church was able to
find allies among those who were themselves really in the shadow
of the same menace, the future, humanly speaking, was dark
indeed.

His successor, Pius XII, who had been so close to him, lost no
time in sounding the same note. In his first public utterance

—

the radio message to the whole world on the day following his

election—after expressing his inner spiritual unity with the hier-
archical Church throughout all her ranks, he shows himself con-
scious and desirous of a wider unity with these words : “Moreover,



12 Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents

our thoughts go out also to those who are outside the enclosures of
the Catholic Church. They will be glad, We trust, to know that
in this solemn hour Our prayers have begged for them divine
assistance from Almighty God.”

In what follows he utters his consecration to the work of
restoring within the temporal order that spiritual unity which is

known as peace, “God’s most lovely gift”:

We exhort all to that peace which refreshes the souls of those who
are united to God in friendship, and which orders and harmonizes
family life by the sacred love of Jesus Christ; to a peace which unites
nations and peoples in the bonds of mutual and fraternal assistance;

„to a peace and concord, finally, which must be so established among
nations that all of them, united by common agreement, by a friendly
alliance, and by cooperative action, may, with God’s inspiration and
assistance, direct their energies to the progress and happiness of the
whole human family.

Nine days later, at his coronation, he spoke to the Cardinals of
the “confidence and hope placed in the Holy See not only by those
who are intimately united with Us in faith and charity but also by
numerous brethren separated from Us, and by almost the whole

human family.” This same sense of unity with the “whole human
family” was expressed in almost everything he had to say: in his
Easter homily at St. Peter’s on April 9; in his letter to Cardinal

Maglione on April 20; in his address to the National Eucharistic

Congress in Algiers on May 7 ; in his talk to the Venetian pilgrims
on August 19 (“having in our prayers so many souls of good will
who, though living outside the Church, also aspire to peace”)

;

in his radio appeal for peace on August 24 ; in his discourse to the
Belgian ambassador on September 14; in his allocution to the

Polish pilgrims on September 30 ; in his homily at the consecration

of the missionary bishops on October 29; in his allocution to the

Minister of Haiti on November 10.

Throughout all these documents there runs one constantly re-

curring and significant phrase, “We have with us”: “all men of
good will,” “all those who are upright of heart,” “all those who
have power to influence the thought and action of their fellow-

men, for whose destiny they are responsible,” “innumerable souls

of good will,” “the other millions of sincere souls,” “all men of



Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents 13

good faith,” “all those who glory in the name of Christian,” “mul-
titudes of just souls, even those alien to the Catholic faith.”

Starting with what he variously calls this “sense,” this “feel-
ing,” or even this “certainty” of having all believers “with him”
in the defense of humanity and God against their enemies, he pro-
ceeded, as did his predecessor, to call for cooperation in action for

the salvation and regeneration of mankind. In his first Encyclical,

Summi Pontificatus (to which has been given the English title,
On the Unity of Human Society ), issued on October 20, 1939,
Pius XII renewed the idea of Pius XI that the enemies of God
have not only united Catholics but with them all who believe in
God:

The difficulties, anxieties, and trials of the present hour arouse,
intensify, and refine to a degree rarely attained the sense of solidarity

of the Catholic family. They make all believers in God and in Christ
share the consciousness of a common threat from a common danger.

And he greets with gratitude this sense of unity with him as
felt by “those who, though not belonging to the visible body of the

Catholic Church, have given noble and sincere expression to their

appreciation of all that unites them to Us in love for the Person of
Christ or in belief in God.” He assures this body of believers that
his one aim is that they “may have life and may have it more
abundantly” (John 10:10).

It is, perhaps, not without significance, and certainly not with-

out interest, that his first clear appeal for actual cooperation was
addressed to the United States. Within two weeks after Summi
Pontificatus he sent a Letter to American Catholics, then celebrat-

ing the sesquicentennial of the founding of the hierarchy. In this

Letter, Sertum Laetitiae

,

among many other problems discussed,
he treats of the social question

;
its solution, he hopes, will come

from America

:

What a proud vaunt it will be for the American people, by nature
inclined to grandiose undertakings and to liberality, if they untie the

knotty and difficult social question by following the sure paths illumi-
nated by the light of the Gospel, and thus lay the basis of a happier
age. If this is to come to pass, power must not be dissipated through
disunion, but rather strengthened through harmony.

Then, to make it clear that he envisages a larger unity than that
formed by the members of the Church, he continues

:



14 Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents 4

To this salutary union of thought and policy, whence flow mighty
deeds, in all charity We invite those, too, whom Mother Church
laments as separated brethren.

*

He recalls the “sentiments full of homage and noble respect” ex-
pressed by “many of these” on his accession to the Papacy, and
adds : “This attitude—We openly confess—has encouraged a hope
which time does not take from Us, which a sanguine mind cher-
ishes, and which remains a consolation to Us in hard and troublous
times.” And he returns to the necessity of union with the words

:

“May the attempts with which enemies secretly banded together
seek to pull down the sceptre of Christ be a spur to us to work in
union for the establishment and advancement of His reign.”

Moreover, to Pius XII as to Pius XI, this united effort is a
true crusade

;
for in his Christmas sermon of that same year, 1939,

he says:

If ever there was a purpose worthy of the collaboration of all
noble and generous spirits, if ever there arose flaming courage for a
spiritual crusade, in which with new truth the cry, “God wills it!”
might resound, it is surely this high purpose and this crusading struggle

of unselfish and greathearted men, engaged in the endeavor to lead the
nations back from the turbid cisterns of material and selfish interests
to the living fountain of divine law, which alone is powerful to create
that enduring moral grandeur of which the nations and humanity, to
their own serious loss, have for far too long a time felt the absence
and the need.

It was at this juncture that President Roosevelt wrote His
Holiness a letter announcing the fact that he was sending Mr.
Myron Taylor as his personal representative to the Vatican. In
his reply, dated January 7, 1940, the Pope welcomed the Presi-
dent’s message as an “exemplary act of fraternal and hearty soli-

darity between the New and Old World in defense against the
chilling breath of aggressive and deadly godless and anti-Christian

tendencies, that threaten to dry up the fountainhead whence civili-

zation has come and drawn its strength.”

As the war deepened and spread, the utterances of the Pope
have become less frequent, but in each successive one it is possible

to discern a more ardent earnestness and a compelling desire to
unite all believers in God in a common action. In his Christmas
sermon of 1940, broadcast to the world, he offered the services of



Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents 15

the Church, “so that every people, in a manner corresponding to
its particular genius, may have the assistance of the truths and
the ethico-religious motive forces of Christianity, with a view to

establishing a society that will be fittingly human, of high spiritual
quality, and a source of genuine prosperity.” At the close of the
sermon, he offers his prayers in union not only with the faithful in

the Church, but also “with all those who recognize in Christ their
Lord and Savior.”

His Christmas message of 1941, also broadcast, reveals a deeper

and more urgent call. I think that by this time he had abandoned
the idea of bringing about any peace except one that would arise

from wide cooperation based on fundamental agreement, and not

from any political combination

:

The destruction brought about by the present war is on so vast a
scale that it is imperative that there be not added to it the further

ruin of a frustrated and illusory peace. In order to avoid so great a
calamity, it is fitting that in the formulation of that peace there should

be assured the cooperation, with sincerity of will and energy, with

the purpose of a generous participation, not only of this or that party,

not only of this or that people, but of all people, yea, rather of all

humanity. It is a universal undertaking for the common good, which
requires the collaboration of all Christendom in the religious and

moral aspects of the new edifice that is to be constructed.

In this same message he also definitely listed those among whom
he expected to find collaborators

:

. . . while unbelief, which arrays itself against God, the Ruler of

the universe, is the most dangerous enemy of a new order that would
be just, on the other hand, every man who believes in God is num-
bered among His partisans and paladins. Those who have faith in
Christ, in His divinity, in His law, in His work of love and of
brotherhood among men, will make a particularly valuable contribu-
tion to the reconstruction of the social order.

For this reason and with this in mind, he ended his message

with an inclusive blessing:

May Our blessing be also upon those who, though not members of
the visible body of the Catholic Church, are near to Us in their faith
in God and in Jesus Christ, and share with Us Our views with regard
to the provisions for the peace and its fundamental aims.

Finally, in his Christmas message of last December, Pius XII



16 Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents

reached the climax of urgent insistency on universal collaboration

in a “noble and holy crusade for the purification and rebirth of

society.” After listing the “first five milestones
,,

on the path to

this goal, he says that his words “are meant as an appeal to the

conscience of the world, and as a rallying cry to all those who are
ready to ponder and weigh the grandeur of their mission and re-

sponsibility against the vastness of this universal disaster.” In

gathering allies, he turns first to his own children, and then goes on

:

We turn to all those who are united with Us at least by the bond
of faith in God. We turn, finally, to all those who would be free of
doubt and error, and who desire light and guidance. And We exhort
you with suppliant, paternal insistence not only to realize the dreadful
gravity of this hour, but also to meditate upon the vistas of good and
supernatural benefits which we have received, and to unite and collabo-
rate towards the renewal of society in spirit and in truth.

Again we hear the familiar muster of the forces of God, and their
summons to a united effort against the forces of disruption.

The Papal Idea

I think it will be clear to all who have read thus far that the
Popes, from Leo XIII to Pius XII, have stated with increasing
emphasis that it is the duty of Catholics to initiate a new type of
cooperative relationship with non-Catholics. Our task now is to
attempt to delimit as accurately as possible the field in which this

mandatory cooperation is to take place, and then to define the

basis on which it is grounded.

First of all, however, it may not be out of place to emphasize
the fact that the cooperation with which we are here concerned
differs essentially from cooperation in the direction of “Christian

reunion.” This latter type takes its inspiration from the spectacle

of religious disunity among Christians; it supposes that the unity
of Christ's Church does not exist

;
it proposes to effect that specifi-

cally ecclesiastical Christian unity, in doctrine, polity, and worship,

and to this end it employs the technique of debate and discussion,

into which the divided parties enter on a basis of equality and in a

spirit of inquiry.

On the contrary, the type of cooperation urged in the new papal
directives, cited in this article, has an entirely distinct inspiration

—



Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents 17

the spectacle of disorder and chaos in the temporal order of human
society, caused by the rejection of the law of God as the basic prin-
ciple of social order. The supposition is that all those who believe
in God, and more particularly all those who believe in Christ, are
united in a common will to make their faith socially effective, and
in common desire to reconstruct the social order on its proper basis,
the law of God. Consequently, the specifying finality (the finis

operis) of their cooperation is definitely located in the temporal

order
;
and the technique is that of action.

Unlike the “reunionists,” therefore, the cooperators in this en-

terprise do not begin with a question, a doubt: How far do we
think together on matters of religious faith and churchly order,

and what further agreement in thought and polity can we reach?
On the contrary, they begin with a fact, a certainty: We all
acknowledge the existence of a moral imperative, binding on us

collectively, to restore the religious bases of human society, lest we
all likewise perish. Of course, behind this common acceptance
of a common obligation lies, as we shall point out, a common belief
in God. But the Popes seem clearly to regard this belief as an

existent fact, to be antecedently taken as a fact, and not as an issue

to be subjected to preliminary debate. They seem to regard them-
selves and all Catholics and all believers in Christ and all believers

in God as joined together in a bond of religious faith that—how-
ever much it leaves to be desired from the point of view of ecclesi-
astical unity—does actually create a real unity of a particular kind,
valid in the present circumstances and for the present purpose.*

The cooperation is not to create the bond (as it were, a la Stock-
holm)

;
on the contrary, the Popes seem to indicate that the bond

itself, as actually existing, is to create the cooperation. It is at once

a principle of division, setting off those who are “for God” from
those who are “against God,” and as such it is a principle of union,
to be taken for granted, not questioned, because it enters simply as

* I say “valid/’ not “adequate”
;
for the Popes do not conceal the fact that

only the integral doctrine of Christ, as preserved in, and authoritatively taught
by, His Church, is the adequate means for the renewal of society, even in the
temporal order. On the other hand, their concrete position is highly realis-
tic

;
they are willing to say, “Noster es,” to anyone who believes in God.



18 Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents

a dynamic for united social action in the face of a common social
peril.

At the risk of anticipating some developments, this much had
to be said about the essential difference between cooperation toward

“Christian reunion” and cooperation toward the renewal of society.

Later we shall return to the question of their relationship. At the
moment, we must go on to analyze in more detail the latter type.

The Field of Cooperation

First of all, the field of cooperative action is already fairly clear

from the declarations of the Popes themselves
;
but it is worth while

to repeat here just what they mean. This will aid us in the more
important later task of making clear the basis on which the coopera-

tion rests.

For Leo XIII cooperation was in the political and socio-
economic fields

;
for Pius XI it was in the national socio-economic

field, and for Pius XII it is in both the national and international
socio-economic fields. Pius XI told us in the rugged sentence:
“Either for God or against God—that is once more the point at
issue, and upon it hangs the lot of all the world. For in every
department of life—in politics and economics, in morals, in the
sciences and arts, in the State and in domestic life, in the East and
in the West—everywhere the same issue arises. . . .” The field
of cooperation, then, will lie where the struggle is—in the secular
or temporal sphere of man's activities. Since the days of Pope

St. Gelasius I (d. 496), and indeed since the Gospel (Matt. 22:21),
it has been accepted as a Christian truth that mankind pursues its
activities in two distinct spheres, each with its own proper auton-
omy, which roughly correspond, as St. Augustine pointed out, to

the body and soul. The final cause of the first is man’s temporal
happiness, and of the second his eternal happiness

;
and while the

first is subordinated to the second, yet mankind pursues its tem-

poral happiness as an end, provided this does not interfere with

the eternal salvation of individual souls. Each individual person, of

course, must use temporal things as a means to his eternal salvation,

while civil society, as such, has them as ends.

This temporal happiness of man is what we usually term social
welfare, the temporal well-being of society as such, and the proper



Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents 19

sharing by all men of the goods of the earth. In other words, it is
a common good, secured by the practice of social and distributive
justice. It is the restoration of this welfare which is the objective

of the social Encyclicals of Leo XIII, Pius XI, and Pius XII, as
distinguished from those Encyclicals in which the pursuit of a super-

natural good is enjoined. These social Encyclicals deal specifically

with the temporal life of man, and they present a comprehensive

pattern within which, by the proper use of the technical measures

of economics, a decent new society may be built.
Now it is a characteristic of man's temporal happiness that it

can be achieved only by the cooperation of all the elements of so-

ciety, whatever be their religious profession. For there is here

a question of the common good, and it is an axiom of social philos-
ophy that the common good cannot be achieved except by joint
action. It is this necessity of collaboration in the temporal sphere,

if the common good is to be achieved, that the Popes have in mind.
It should be sufficiently clear that the kind of financial and indus-

trial reconstruction they preach cannot be brought about by Cath-

olics alone, for we are everywhere a minority among the forces that
bear responsibility for such things.

It might be urged, of course, that all the Popes have in mind
for us is that we preach the principles of social justice and thus
restrict our action to attempting to persuade others to bring about

what we are told is desirable. I do not think that anybody who
reads the Encyclicals carefully can seriously uphold such a posi-

tion. In all the passages I have quoted from the Popes it is action

that they are imposing on us, not words. The real issue here is
settled in principle when we have answered the question : Do the
Popes really want us Catholics to work for social justice, as well as
talk for it? If they do, then there can be no doubt that they

expect us to perform this work in cooperation with others, by the
very nature of the work to which they call us.

The Basis of Cooperation

We have not completed the discussion, however, when we have
established this point. A more important and more difficult task
is to define the basis on which this cooperation is to be conducted.
It might be, for instance, that we are expected to work for the



20 Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents

regeneration of society solely in the purely secular groups that op-

erate, at least partially, to this end. Catholics are members of
the Democratic party, the A. F. of L., the C. I. O., and other labor

groupings, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Boy
Scouts, the Girl Scouts, and other youth organizations, various
national societies for economics, sociology, and politics

;
they work

on newspapers and national magazines. In these capacities they

are often able to make their Catholic principles acceptable to their
non-Catholic fellows, and thus secure their cooperation in this

sense. Is this all that the Popes have in mind in their commands
to us?

I do not think so. And the reason is that they uniformly put
the collaboration which they demand on a religious basis, while
the motivation of all the groupings I have listed is purely secular.

The religious basis of the Popes' appeal is clear in nearly all the
texts cited

;
in the Cavitate Christi, for instance, Pius XI says

:

Let all those also, whoever they are, who acknowledge God and with
sincere hearts adore Him, give their assistance to the common cause,
in order to ward off from mankind the immense danger which threat-
ens all alike. For every human authority must necessarily be founded
on belief in God, as on the solid basis of all civil order; and conse-
quently all those who do not wish to see a revolutionary overthrow
of all law and order must strenuously endeavor to prevent the ene-
mies of religion from carrying out their brazenly publicized designs.

Later in the same Encyclical this same idea is further elabo-
rated. Pius XI tells us that “there is no peace for the wicked"
(quoting Isaias 58:22), because “they live in continuous contra-

diction and conflict with the order established by nature and con-

sequently by the Author of nature"; this religious and moral

schizophrenia can have no cure, and there will be no social peace

in man's divided personality, until this order is restored. Then
he continues

:

But this longed for atmosphere of lasting peace will not be created
by peace treaties, nor by solemn pacts, nor by international conventions

and conferences, nor by the noble and sincere efforts of statesmen,
unless beforehand the sacred rights of the natural and divine law are
recognized. No amount of organizational and diplomatic ability on the
part of the managers of the public economy will avail to disentangle
the affairs of society, unless beforehand the moral law, based on God



Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents 21

and conscience, triumphs in the whole sphere of economic life. This

is the main sinew on which depends the strength both of the political
and of the economic life of nations; this is the most assured of all
values, and so long as it stays steady, the others cannot waver, for they
will be guaranteed by the most unshakable authority, the unchanging
and eternal law of God.

From all this, two things follow: (1) negatively, it is our
enemies who by their attacks have established the necessary body
of cooperators; and (2) positively, the link that binds this body

together is a common belief in God and a common love of His law.
The aim of this body is the restoration of “the order established
by nature and consequently by the Author of nature”; and the
means to this restoration is “the moral law, based on God and con-
science,” that is, “the natural and divine law.” The members of
this body are all those who, in the words of Leo XIII to the French,
have the anima naturaliter Christiana. Consequently, the bond unit-

ing the members is religious : Catholics are members of the body
as Catholics, not merely as citizens, and others are members, again

not merely as citizens, but as believers in God and lovers of
His law.*

We can arrive at the same set of conclusions if we re-examine
the objectives set before us in the social Encyclicals. These objec-

tives fall under the general head of a new and better social order.
In the field of economics they envisage such technical matters as

banking, credit and financing policies, industrial management,

labor relations, price structure, wage scales, social insurance, inter-

national exchange, tariffs, control of raw materials, shipping,

* It may be supposed that the Popes, in issuing their call to union among
believers, are not admitting the parity of all religious beliefs, nor conceding

that the practical union of the collaborators obliterates, or makes unimpor-
tant, their religious differences. On the contrary, they display an acute
sense of these differences, and of the difference they make. This is clear
from the texts cited. Moreover, the Popes suppose, and explicitly state, that
Catholics are to bring to the cooperative enterprise the integral resources of

their faith, and continue to make full public profession of it. They suppose,
too, that the Catholic contribution will be major—in thought, practical initia-
tives, programs, and sheer hard work. On the other hand, with the impres-
sive realism already remarked, they respect the contribution to be made by
those whose religious faith does not go beyond belief in God and the moral
order; and they welcome unity with them.



22 Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents

railroading—in a word, the whole economic order. In the socio-
logical field, the scheme of reorganization is even wider, including

such fundamental problems as the restoration of the family as the

unit of society, and the related problems of the school. In the

political field, all national and international problems are em-

braced. Summarily, in the words of Pius XI, the total objective

is “every value in the political as well as the economic life of

nations.-’

Now, the political and economic life of nations is not in the

hands of Catholics. And yet somehow Catholics are to bring about
its total renovation. How? By talking about it? Partly, but not
wholly. They are to make an appeal for collaboration—and for
collaboration based on a motive that is essentially religious, in a

matter that is essentially secular. It may be noted that this is pre-
cisely what the British bishops did, under the leadership of the

late Cardinal Hinsley. The reason for such an appeal to religious

forces is derived from the papal Encyclicals : the Popes seem defi-

nitely to teach that as a matter of fact, and in the present dis-

pensation, the renovation of secular society cannot be effected

save by forces that are animated by belief in God and—what is
more—love of Him. It is true that this renovation is to be based
on the natural law; nevertheless, the rational convictions of the

ethical philosopher will not, as a matter of fact, furnish a suffi-

ciently powerful motivation to carry it through. The natural law
must be grasped for what it is—the divine law—with the vivid-
ness and strength possible only to a mind and heart in which

dwells a deeply religious faith in God, its Author, and the Judge

of its observance. Indeed, the Popes go further, and definitely

imply that the principal power behind the conception and carrying

through of the needed program of social reform must be a per-

sonal love of Christ, the Savior of the world. At any rate, this is
what I mean when I say that the motive behind the appeal for
collaboration is essentially religious.

The Farther Goal

But the renovation of secular society is not the whole Catholic

program, nor even the principal part of it. The paramount interest
is the religious adherence of all men, through faith and love, to



Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents 23

the supernatural unity of the Church of Christ, which is the

Church in communion with the successor of Peter. It is pri-
marily for this that the Church exists at all. Historically, how-

ever, as Mr. Christopher Dawson has pointed out in The Judg-
ment of the Nations

,

‘‘heresy and schism have derived their main

impulse from sociological causes.
,,

Not that these causes actually
furnished the doctrines which disrupted unity; but they were

the natural and human motives which caused those doctrines to
be embraced.

The full teaching of the Church, even as shown forth in all
the Encyclicals, really proposes two distinct and successive steps

that have to be taken before society can be really organized on

the basis of a full and integral Christianity. The first step is the
healing of the social conflicts that divide men, as a preliminary

to the second step, religious union. As Mr. Dawson has well
said: “The ideologies which today form the opposite poles of
social tension are not religious, but political, national, and eco-

nomic ones, which have cut across and largely obliterated the

older socio-religious divisions which separated Catholic and

Protestant Europe
,,

(and, it may well be added, also the United
States, which, in its racial origins and cultural traditions, is a

cross-section of Europe). This patent fact seems to me to be an
evidence of the deep wisdom of the Popes, who saw that a nat-
ural union must precede any union on the supernatural plane,

and who consequently presented the unusual picture of religious
teachers recalling the world to the social, economic, and political

truths which are universal because they lie at the basis of human
nature and are derived from divine law. It is the old Scholastic
axiom: primum in intentione, ultimum in executione.

It seems to me that what the Popes have been telling us all
these years is that it is our duty to prepare for the coming of the

religious union of mankind by first bringing about a union of wills
on the natural plane. I cannot otherwise explain the extreme pre-

occupation of the Popes with what must seem at first sight to be
purely temporal and secular affairs. That also seems to me to
explain why the appeal for cooperation is not put on purely nat-
ural grounds, but on religious ones, on the broad basis of a com-
mon belief in God, leading to a common acceptance of the divine



24 Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents

law, as shown forth in the natural law. This, they seem to tell
us, is the first and necessary step to the ultimate Christianization

of society. Natural society must reflect its Creator before it
accepts its Redeemer.

In any case, the Popes have commanded us to unite with non-
Catholics on this secular field. The British Catholics have taken
the command seriously and have obeyed it. They have success-
fully invited their non-Catholic fellow-citizens to join with them
on a basis of the papal plans. In this country we have not obeyed,
and we remain progressively isolated from the course of human
events, as the Church was for so many years in Europe. And
there is every evidence that the enemies of God and Christ in this
country have full intentions of keeping us isolated, by branding us

as “clerical fascists” and similar foes to the nation.

It may be worth while to speculate on the reasons for our
failure. Perhaps we instinctively feel that by following the British
example we may do more harm than good. I mean that we may
fear misunderstanding. We have ingrown in us a feeling that
we are the object of suspicion on the part of non-Catholics, who
think that whenever we move on the secular field we are merely
looking to the political aggrandizement of the Church.

There is no doubt about this feeling, and there is no doubt,

either, about the suspicion. But it seems to me that our social
isolation is rather the cause of the suspicion than the result of it.

As long as our socio-economic reform movement remains an exclu-
sively Catholic movement, so long will non-Catholics naturally

harbor the suspicion that we wish to make society to our image
and likeness for our own mysterious and dangerous purposes.
The best way to break down the suspicion, as the British experi-
ment shows, is to work along with non-Catholics who believe as
we do on the fundamental truths about society, and thus let them
see at first that our aims are no different from theirs. At the very

least, this close connection with them will give them the guarantee

that we will not be able to plot any sinister social and political
revolution of our own. At the best, it will give us the opportunity,

so long desired by the Popes, of preaching a full and satisfying

Christian regeneration and thus of preparing the way, on the nat-

ural plane, for the coming of the Holy Spirit to society as a whole.



Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents 25

One last word remains to be said about the motive for our own
cooperation. It is, of course, Christian charity. I mean that we
have to rid ourselves of that curious crypto-Calvinism which thinks

that God gives His grace only to Catholics. We have no right to
push our dogmatic exclusiveness into the field of human relations.
“God’s family” is truly the object of God’s love, and all those who
believe in God are, as Pius XII calls them, peculiarly our brothers.
It is this fraternal affection which all the Popes quoted rely upon

to create a union based on that “practical rule” of Leo XIII : “It
is Christian prudence not to reject, but rather to win over the

collaboration of all men of good will in the pursuit of individual
and especially of social welfare.”



INTERCREDAL COOPERATION: PRINCIPLES

John Courtney Murray, S.J.

I
N WHAT follows, I should like, first, to state in brief outline
a Catholic theory of intercredal cooperation, and, secondly, to

indicate some of the principles that should preside over its organi-

zation. The discussion of the theory is not here documented;
but it is actually based on the recent utterances of the Holy See
which have invited the cooperation of “all men of good will” in
the construction of a new world-order. This type of cooperation
is quite unique. And, once grasped for what it is, it presents, I

think, no difficulties from the standpoint of theological principle.

If it did, we must suppose that the Popes would have indicated
these difficulties. Significantly, they have not. There are, indeed,

difficulties in the practical order, as I shall say. But it is of car-

dinal importance to realize that there exists a sound theological

theory, implied in the papal utterances, which renders the coopera-

tion in question entirely legitimate. Its expedience, on the other

hand, is a matter for separate discussion.

The Theological Problem

The fact of cooperation, in the strict sense of the term, estab-
lishes a unity between the cooperators—a unity in action, and in
the thought and will that inspire the action. In the matter of

intercredal cooperation, therefore, the properly theological issue

would be this: Can Catholics enter into a unity of thought, will,
and action with non-Catholics, without thereby compromising the

Catholic unity of the Church of Christ? Obviously, the answer

will vary according to the nature of the unity established, and this,

in turn, will depend on the purposes of the cooperation. For in-

stance, Catholics may join with non-Catholics in a Chamber of
Commerce or in a political party; the common aim is purely
economic or political, and the unity established is purely civic,

unrelated to the unity of the Church. On the other hand, as
Mortalium Animos made clear, Catholics may not ally themselves
with non-Catholics in the ecumenical movement in its Protestant



Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents 27

form
;
for, in the concrete, they would be asserting a oneness with

the Protestant participants, first, in the belief that the unity of

Christ’s Church does not actually exist, and secondly, in the will

to work in common toward its creation. And to enter into this
type of oneness in thought, will, and action with Protestants

would clearly be contrary to the Church’s doctrine on her own
unity. Our essential question, therefore, is this: What is the
precise purpose of the intercredal cooperation urged by the Holy

See? The answer will enable us to define the particular type of
unity in thought and will implied in it, and thus to vindicate its

complete legitimacy.

To understand the purposes of this intercredal cooperation,
one must first share the papal concern that prompted the invitation

to it. This concern centers on today’s cultural crisis, and on the

new order that must necessarily issue from it. The crisis, as
Pius XI often said, is unique in history. To find a parallel for it,
one would have to go back to the crisis that developed when the
infant Kingdom of Christ emerged into the world and came to
grips with the absolutism, both temporal and spiritual, of imperial

Rome. The uniqueness of the crisis, and the point of the partial
parallelism, lies in the fact that it is a spiritual crisis, but located

at the heart of the temporal order. And these two characteristics
combine to create for the Church a unique task of colossal propor-

tions. The task, briefly, is to effect a spiritual renewal of the
social life of humanity, and to direct a structural reform of the

social order, national and international. There must be, on the

one hand, a respiritualization of the whole ethos of society; the

temporal order as a unitary whole must receive a new moral
direction. And on the other hand, there must be an erection or a
restoration of social institutions that will correspond to the new
ethos; the human person must be freed from the present intol-
erable pressure of myriad institutional tyrannies, economic, social,

and political. The task is unique because of its world-wide scope,
its complexities, the issues that hang on it, the power of the forces
arrayed against its accomplishment, its desperate urgency. But its

special uniqueness derives from the initial step that must be taken

toward its achievement—not a winning of recognition for the
spiritual authority of the Church, but simply a universal reinforce-



28 Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents

ment of the primal law of human nature, the moral law of justice
between men, sanctioned by the sovereignty of God.

Confronted with this unique and colossal task, the Church has
appealed for allies among all men of good will, who believe in God
and reverence His law. The premise of her appeal is both the
nature of the task and her own inadequacy to do it (not a doctrinal
or spiritual, but a numerical and strategic inadequacy—the Church
is the Body of Christ, but she is a minority group, and an “out-
group”). The appeal itself is for unity and cooperation among
all the religious forces that exist outside her visible body, but are

not uninfluenced by the one Spirit who dwells in her. This unity
and cooperation are to be as unique as the task which makes them

necessary. This is the important point to have clear.

The task is spiritual—a spiritual crisis has to be met. More-
over, every “spiritual” man is engaged in the crisis

;
for it con-

cerns the total work of the Spirit of God on earth, which is not
merely the building up of the Body of Christ, but also the prep-
aration of mankind throughout its length and breadth and in all

the departments—even the terrestrial and secular departments—of
its life, for that “gathering into one” (John 11:52) which is its

obligatory destiny. To meet the crisis, therefore, all “spiritual”
men must unite as one “spiritual” man. The Holy See has clearly
said that today's task can only be performed by a great unity that

is at once interconfessional and spiritual. It must embrace all

religious men, and its bond of unity must be no mere political or

economic interest, but a religious faith in God and a love of His
law as the spiritual source of all order in human life.

Consider now the other aspect of the task: it is to be per-
formed in the temporal order. For the spiritual crisis is in the

temporal order. Consequently, the Holy See desires a spiritual

and interconfessional unity to be organized (I shall suppose for

the moment that it is to be organized) for a work, the immediate
scope of which is within the confines of the earthly city, but which

remains fundamentally a spiritual work. For the earthly city

must have its spirit renewed, as well as its institutional pattern

changed. From this special finality the interconfessional coopera-
tive action receives its distinctive character, which in turn reflects



Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents 29

back, and characterizes the spiritual unity which is its source

and inspiration.

Obviously, then, we have here a quite unique unity, not easy
to categorize. It does not belong wholly to the spiritual order,

nor wholly to the temporal order
;
by definition it is a border-line

thing. Perhaps, for the sake of a name, one might call it “religio-

civic.” It partakes of the nature of a civic unity because it is

formed for the pursuit of the common good in the socio-economic
order. But it transcends a mere civic unity because its bond is

religious—faith in God and love of His law. Moreover, though
its purposes remain within the temporal order, it concerns itself

with the spiritual dynamic of the entire order, as well as with the

techniques for its management in particular spheres. Conse-
quently, it partakes also of the nature of a religious unity. For

this reason, the qualification “religio-civic” might stand.

At all events, this spiritual and interconfessionally organized
unity appears clearly as not ecclesiastical. It does not pretend

to be the City of God in its terrestrial form, the economy of eternal
salvation, the way to the Father in heaven. It is not divinely
willed, except insofar as the will of God is manifested in the
exigencies of our particular historical situation, which demands
that men create it. In itself, it remains within the natural order
of human institutions

;
of itself, consequently, it does not pretend

to be a means or a milieu of “grace.” It puts itself forward simply
as the means necessary in a concrete context for communicating
to mankind as a unity the benefits of a rightly directed and rightly
ordered earthly city—a means which is necessary because it can
call on the religious energies without which the city cannot be

inspirited or ordered. It does not put itself forward as an “inter-

confessional Church.” Consequently, the Holy See relaxes none
of the exigencies of the Catholic Unity of the Church, when at the
same time it urges with remarkable boldness the establishment of
an organizational unity that will be both spiritual and inter-

confessional. The point is that the two “unities” exist on two
different planes. The unity of the Church is essentially super-
natural, having its exemplar in the unity of Father and Son
within the one life of God, that admits of no divisions (John 17:11,
21-23). Moreover, even in its visible, historical realization, the



30 Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents

unity of the Church is not of this world
;
for its efficient principle

is the positive will of Christ, who determined the structural lines
within which the action of His Spirit would organize the spiritual
life of humanity in God. On the plane of supernatural, ecclesi-
astical unity, therefore, any species of interconfessionalism is dis-
ruptive of established reality, and contrary to the revealed will
of God. But no expressed will of God forbids the human estab-
lishment of a spiritual and interconfessional unity on a distinct,
non-ecclesiastical plane, and for a distinct non-ecclesiastical purpose.

There is, therefore, a cardinal distinction that must be firmly
maintained in this whole question. An “interdenominational
Christianity” that sets itself up as a religious system, supposedly
deriving from Christ and supposedly sufficient for eternal salva-

tion, is one thing; quite a different thing is an interconfessional

agreement on certain necessary religious and moral bases of a

just social order within the earthly city. With regard to the
former, the Catholic judgment is clear and unwavering: “Noth-

ing,” said Pius X, “is more contrary to the teachings of Jesus
Christ.” Consequently, the Catholic conscience may show neither
theoretical approval nor practical sympathy with such interconfes-

sionalism in religious belief and worship. However, common
agreement between men of different faiths on the religious and
moral principles that are directive of the social order is, in con-

trolled circumstances, entirely legitimate. It is true that the pas-

tors of the Church have called attention to the dangers attendant

upon such agreements; they can be pitfalls for the uninstructed,

and consequently their formation and execution come under the

vigilance of the Church. Nevertheless, no theological considera-

tions forbid them
;
for, properly understood, they leave the integrity

of Catholic faith untouched. The Catholic does not place himself—
his interior religious life or his apostolic activity—on that “com-
mon ground”

;
on it he puts simply his union with others for certain

common tasks in the temporal order. The content of the agree-
ment is simply the basis of a cooperative relationship in the in-

terests of the common good. It brings together, not different
faiths, but persons of different faith, with a view to united social

action. Moreover, it does not pretend to contain the full motiva-

tion of Catholic social activity, which will always derive from the



Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents 31

fullness of Catholic faith and charity. For instance, a Catholic

and a Jew must agree that “victory over hatred which divides the
nations today and the disappearance of systems and actions which

breed this hatred’' are indispensable conditions of a new world-
order; but a Catholic will work toward this end because he sees
in every man “the brother for whom Christ died”

;
while a Jew,

sharing the idea, will not share this motivation for its realization

in fact.

Interconfessional agreements of this type are not only legiti-

mate, but also imperatively necessary today. This is clearly the

view of the Holy See, which has done its best to furnish their

content. Whatever their attendant dangers, they must be formu-

lated and carried through in order to confront a still greater

danger, and to afford a practical solution to a concrete problem.

The fact is that we are living, and shall continue for a long time
to live, in a religiously divided society. Because of its religious

divisions and all they entail, and because, too, it contains so many
members who have no religion, our society is spiritually weak,
dangerously at the mercy of anti-religious and irreligious forces.

It is, furthermore, a fact that our society finds itself in a state of

spiritual crisis : from without, it is under attack by the totalitarian

state, which has deliberately apostatized from the principles upon

which the temporal order of the West has been built; and from
within it is being disrupted by a pervading materialism, which

has gone perilously far in the secularization of our traditional

culture. Obviously, the action of these destructive forces cuts

across the frontiers of existing religious differences, and threatens

to undermine the common good of humanity itself. These are the
terms of our problem

;
we are not at liberty to change them at our

convenience. And in the face of this problem, the only alternative
to a general chaos is the discovery of some spiritual unity capable
of resisting the common threat. The imperative thing is a social
unity based on sound principle with a universal appeal to the con-

science of mankind, and not on error or mere sentiment.

Evidently, the problem is not only social, but also religious.

And there are only two approaches to its solution. Many “liberals”
take hold of the religious end of the problem, and ask for agree-
ment on certain “fundamentals of Christianity,” and for the sinking



32 Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents

of religious differences, in order to effect a union of the churches.

This solution attempts to reduce religious pluralism to unity on

the religious plane. But it would solve absolutely nothing; for a
solution that is false in the religious order cannot be true in the

social order. As interdenominational Christianity is not the way
to the Kingdom of God, so it is not the way to strength and order
even in human society. In itself, it is a spiritual disorder that
necessarily must have its reflection in the sphere of the temporal.

On the other hand, the Holy See has taken hold of the social end
of the problem, and has asked for agreement on the natural re-

ligious and ethical principles which are the basic structural ele-

ments of right order in human society, and for sincere cooperation
towards their realization in social institutions. This solution, there-

fore, reduces religious pluralism to unity on the social plane. And
consequently, it opens a way to a practical solution at least of the
social problem, which is all it pretends to do.

In saying that this is the solution proposed by the Holy See,
I am thinking, of course, chiefly of the four sets of five points set
forth by Pius XII in his successive Christmas Allocutions. I am
thinking, too, of the large section of the Summi Pontificatus which
deals with the natural law in its social applications, and of many
pronouncements which repeat and develop this central theme of

papal teaching; “Before all else, it is certain that the radical and

ultimate cause of the evils which we deplore in modern society is
the denial and rejection of a universal norm of morality as well

for individual and social life as for international relations; We
mean the disregard, so common nowadays, and the forgetfulness
of the natural law itself, which has its foundation in God” (Summi
Pontificatus). All the papal teaching on this theme was, I think,

explicitly proposed for common agreement. It is significant, for
instance, that none of the “points” put forth in the Christmas

Allocutions derives necessarily from divine revelation; all of them

state truths of the natural order, which must commend themselves
to the man of right reason.

Consequently, on the basis of this religio-social program the

Catholic can appeal, as Pius XII has in fact appealed, to the con-

science of mankind for agreement and cooperation. Such agree-

ment and cooperation would respect at once the exigencies of truth



Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents 33

and the rights of conscience, both Catholic and non-Catholic. It

should be emphasized that the Pope’s position is wholly affirma-

tive: he asks for a common affirmation of the natural order of
human life, basing joint action on the common good of humanity.
And he involves himself in no destructive negations, either ex-
pressed or implied, of the supernatural unity of the Church as the

divinely constituted, uniquely salvific Body of Christ. Realistically,
he has faced the immediately urgent problem in the temporal order,

and he remains within its terms, which concern, not the unity of

the Church, but the unity of human society.
Obviously, no Catholic—and least of all the Holy See—would

maintain that this solution is ideal, or adequate, or free from

dangers. Still less would anyone be deceived into thinking that

intercredal cooperation would somehow absolve us from the obliga-
tion of pursuing more intensively our distinctively Catholic pro-
gram of prayer, study, and organized action. The point, however,
is to note the breadth and scope of the papal program. “The call
of the moment,” said Pius XII in his 1942 Christmas Allocution,
“is for action.” And the action of the moment, as he sees it, must
be all the action that is necessary at the moment. Wherefore,

immediately after issuing this call to action, he turns “from the

crib of the Prince of Peace” to his “beloved children, who adore
Him, Christ your Savior.” But not only to them—he turns also
“to all those who are united with us, at least by the bond of faith
in God.” And he exhorts all, in an hour of dreadful gravity, “to
unite and collaborate towards the renewal of society in spirit

and truth.” In the logic of the Pope’s thought is the idea that

anything short of this universal collaboration will result in a be-

trayal of humanity’s common interest and profound need—peace
and order on earth.

So much, then, for the strictly theological aspect of intercredal

cooperation. All it needs, I think, is clarification. And the clari-
fying principle is simply the familiar Catholic distinction between

two orders of truth and of human life. On the one hand, there
are the doctrinal truths, contained in the Christian revelation and

taught by the Church of Christ, which are the pillars of her unity

and the inspiration of her total life. These truths are a body

which may not be dismembered by any selective, intercredal



34 Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents

affirmations. But there is, too, a body of religious and ethical
truths, imbedded in the human conscience as such, and promul-
gated by its imperative, which are the bases of a just social order

on earth. There is a natural law, and its precepts, in themselves

and in their essential social applications, may be made the object
of a common affirmation by men of different religious creeds,
without prejudice to the integrity of faith.

Moreover, the value of this common affirmation must not be
underestimated. It is, indeed, sometimes objected that on the

basis of the natural law alone only partial solutions can be given

to the great evils of modern life, and that a full solution must be

preceded by a general acceptance of the total law of Christ—His
divinity, the supernatural reality of the Church in which His Spirit

dwells, all her doctrine, sacraments, and spiritual authority. The
Church is—so the objection runs—the principle of mankind's
unity

;
until all men are gathered into her, they will not be gathered

into one, and have peace and order; let us, therefore, concentrate

exclusively on “our own program"; others can supply us with
nothing that we have not already got

;
let us leave them to what-

ever devices they can contrive, and go our own way.

The objection does not lack power. In the practical order it
derives strength from the lamentable fact that our own social pro-
gram, particularly with reference to international order, is still

so undeveloped as to need intensive concentration. In the theo-

retical order it has behind it the awesome doctrine that integral
humanity, whether in personal or social life, is the gift of the Holy

Spirit of Christ, who indwells by faith in the souls of the just.
It rests, too, on the doctrine that the Church alone has the spiritual

authority authentically to interpret the moral law. Finally, in the

emotional order, it has behind it the power of a great fear of

indifferentism. Nevertheless, this objection has against it one

powerful fact that for the Catholic should be decisive: it does not

represent the position of the Holy See. As a matter of fact, the
Holy See esteems intercredal agreement on the religious and

ethical bases of human society so highly, and regards it as so neces-
sary, that it has explicitly called for it, and has made it, and the
cooperation it prompts, an integral part, though not the primary



Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents 35

part, of its peace program. For my part, I think that this “super-
naturalist” position (sit venia verbo, but one must use some word)

fails to reflect the fearless realism with which the Holy See has

confronted today’s crisis and seen the extent of its demands. More-

over, this position fails to give due weight to a truth that is cen-

tral in the papal thought, namely, that if mankind’s political, eco-

nomic, and social thinking and activity and institutions could be

brought under the governance of the natural law, the result would

be, not indeed a paradise on earth, nor yet a blanket assurance

that all men would be eternally saved, but at least a recognizably
human social order, within which a man could lead a human life,
and be free from today’s inhuman tyrannies that imperil both his

body and his soul.

However, the Catholic theory of intercredal cooperation does

not rest merely on a distinction
;
primarily, it rests on a love—that

“universal love which is the compendium and most general ex-
pression of the Christian ideal, and which, therefore, may serve
as a common ground also for those who have not the blessing of
sharing the same faith with us” (Christmas Allocution, 1939).
This point emerges with particularly luminous clarity from the

utterances of Pius XII. His invitation to cooperation in the

Sertum Laetitiae was issued “at the compulsion of charity.” The
object of his charity is the immense “crowd” upon which our

Lord Himself had compassion—the whole human race, so dis-
tressed by the warring strife that divides it against itself. And
the source of his charity is a profound insight, revealed in many
utterances, into the divinely-willed unity of the human family, one
in nature and one in its redemption by Christ. The Holy See has
made clear that charity makes unique and urgent demands today,
not least among them being the fostering in every way of man’s
native sense of common kinship, the development of a profound
concern over the common peril that hangs over all men, and the
employment of every possible means whereby the peril may be
warded off, and a new order in human life come to realization.
In this respect, intercredal cooperation appears as an expression

of Christian charity; for it is a means of assisting mankind to
realize its natural unity (and thereby achieve peace) on the plane

of social and international life. It is charity guided by truth—the



36 Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents

truth that has so far illumined all of Pius XIPs thought and
activity, namely, that all men are one.

Let me conclude this section by a brief comment on the second
issue in the matter of intercredal cooperation—I mean its ex-
pediency, the possibility of launching it without occasioning mis-

understanding or scandal. I am tempted to treat this issue rather
ruthlessly: a certain type of cooperation has been proposed by

the Holy See as necessary; it is, therefore, up to intelligent and
responsible Catholic (and non-Catholic) leadership to see that it

it made expedient. This should not be impossible
;

it is simply a

matter of an adequate educational effort, whereby exact ideas

may be clearly formulated and widely publicized. As a matter of
fact (if I may venture a personal opinion on perhaps inadequate
grounds), my own fear would be that intercredal cooperation and
all it entails would not be a matter of scandal

;
rather, to too many

people, both Catholics and non-Catholics, it would be a matter of

no particular consequence. It might well leave the public, not

shocked but apathetic.

The Organizational Problem

In the practical order, the organization of an intercredal effort

towards world reconstruction presents a real problem. However,

since I do not believe that it can be solved on paper, but only by

controlled experiment in the field of actuality, these comments on
it must be confined to matters of principle. First of all, the fact

that the intercredal effort should be somehow organized results
from the whole description given by the Holy See of the work

to be done. This work is the creation of a new complex of ethical
currents in society, and their incorporation in a new set of social
institutions, in order that both together may support, instead of
crushing, the moral conscience as well as the temporal happiness

of mankind. To do all this, organization is absolutely necessary.
The moral life of an isolated individual has a certain inspirational
power, but it will not create an ethos in society. One family's
heroic devotion to the moral ideals of family life will not shatter

the whole existing set of social institutions that now render the
achievement of those ideals inhumanly difficult; still less will it

create a new set of social institutions that will exert a permanent



Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents 37

pressure on the social conscience in the direction of high domestic

morality. Again, it is generally recognized today that even a

general “will to peace” on the part of individual nations will not

insure a stable international order unless it is institutionalized in

an international organization, that will function as a sort of col-

lective conscience and be able to enforce its imperatives. The
principle is clear: action for social organization must be social

and organized in its principle. There is hardly need to belabor the

point.

I might, however, add one consideration. In the Sertum Lae-

titiae Pius XII speaks of effecting a “salutary union of thought and

policy” between Catholics and other believers in God with refer-
ence to the problems of the social order. The whole point of or-
ganization is to make this union really salutary. And it will be
salutary, first, if it reckons with and respects the most delicate

demands of conscience, and secondly, if it becomes an effective

instrument for the common good, that is, if it is able strongly to
influence public and governmental opinion, and to support seri-

ous practical measures for a new order based on justice. The
union has this particular purpose, and its organization must be

suitable to the achievement of this purpose.

A more difficult question concerns, not so much the fact as the
mode of organization. However, from the standpoint of the ascer-
tainable wishes of the Holy See, there are two principles avail-
able for its solution. Cooperation might be organized on the

principle of fusion, that is, mixed membership, Catholic and non-
Catholic, in a single association. In the case of the Christian trade

unions in Germany at the beginning of the century, this principle
was, under certain safeguards, “tolerated and permitted.” But

its use seems hardly possible or prudent in the American scene

at the moment. The other organizing principle is that of federa-
tion, that is, distinct Catholic and non-Catholic organizations united

by a joint committee of mixed membership. This arrangement

was “preferable” to Pius X in the German trade union question.
It had brilliant success in Holland about the same time and in

the same field. In England today cooperation is, in general, or-
ganized on the principle of federation—the Sword of the Spirit
is joined to Religion and Life by a Joint Standing Committee; and



38 Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents

there seems to be mutual satisfaction with the formula evolved:

“Parallel action in the religious sphere, joint action in the social

and international field.
,,

In this mode of organization, the cooperation, in the strict
sense, would be largely committed to the members of the joint
committee, who would be persons of particular qualifications. To
them, for instance, would be entrusted the drawing up of the

joint statements of which mention has been made. They would
have at their command the means of publicity, etc., whereby public
opinion would be enlightened and guided. And they, too, would
plan whatever measure of joint action might be judged possible

and prudent. This would vary according to circumstances, and

it is impossible to describe it in detail. At all events, it is difficult
to see why this principle of federative union could not be adapted
to the peculiar situations obtaining in the various regions of the

United States.

In this mode of organization, each religious body would have
its own distinctive program, which it would seek to carry through,
its members being supported in their activity by the proper moti-

vation of their own religious faith. Catholics would have the in-
tegral papal program; Protestants, the “Guiding Principles,” the

so-called “Six Pillars,” etc.; Jews, the various statements of the

Synagogue Council, the Rabbinical Assembly, etc. In other words,

the cooperation of the distinct organizations would be subordinate

and supplementary to the operation of each. From the Catholic
standpoint, this hierarchy is obviously desirable. Yet the net

effectiveness of the various organizations would be considerably

broadened by the fact of their federation, and by the support it

could give to joint statements. As a matter of fact, in the state-
ments already issued by the three faiths there is an impressive

agreement on many fundamental prerequisites on a new national
and international order. At the moment, this agreement is known
only to the professional student

;
but were it publicly formulated,

the hope would be that it might clarify the popular intelligence,

and kindle the popular will to demand a peace on ethical grounds
that are by common agreement compulsory.
A further question now arises: Who should be brought into

this salutary union of thought and policy on the problems of the



Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents 39

temporal order? In general, of course, “all men of good will”
must be united—all those with fixed religious convictions, and, as
Pius XII indicated, even those who have merely good will

,

“those

who would be free from doubt and error and who desire light and
guidance.” More in particular, however, the Holy See envisages
two assemblages : there must be, first, a muster of moral senti-

ment among the masses of men, and secondly, a muster of the
technical competence found in a relative few. A muster of the
masses is imperative in order to furnish the large-scale spiritual

driving force necessary for the renewal of society in spirit; and a

muster of specialists is necessary for the work of institutional re-
construction.

It is impressive to see the conviction of the Holy See that the
Spirit of God somehow still dwells in the masses of men as a
dynamic power which, if roused and organized, will prevail against

the evil spirit who seemingly directs the godless minority now in
control of the destinies of the masses. Pius XI speaks of those
who believe in God as comprising “the vast majority of mankind”

;

his hope was that, if they could somehow be brought to partici-
pate as a unit in the present “battle of the powers of darkness

against the very idea of divinity,” their part would be decisive.

Behind this hope is the ancient Catholic doctrine on the univer-

sality and spontaneity of the idea of God in the heart of man, His
image—an idea that is all but innate, and is quite inextinguish-
able. Likewise, behind this hope is the doctrine that the Spirit

of God, who dwells in the Church as the organizing principle of
her unity, also animates much holiness beyond her visible borders,
and acts in every man of good will. Every inarticulate groan
after spiritual freedom is His voice, every glimpse of human unity
is His grace, and every blow struck at the chains that bind men,

or at the particularisms of race and culture that divide them, has

His strength behind it.

This sense of God present in the inarticulate multitude seems
to me to underlie the papal utterances on intercredal cooperation.
Pius XII seems particularly to feel it. He would rouse “the
people” to a sense of the power that is in them by reason of their
belief in God

;
but he would also rouse them to a sense of guilt for

their careless acquiescence in the steps that have led to the present



40 Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents

universal disaster. There is, for instance, the strong text in his

Christmas Eve Allocution, 1942, which deserves quotation; it fol-
lows on his “appeal to the conscience of mankind ... to ponder
and weigh the grandeur of their mission and responsibility by the
vastness of this universal disaster” : “A great part of mankind,
and, let us not shrink from saying it, not a few who call them-
selves Christians, have to some extent their share in the collec-

tive responsibility for the growth of error and for the harm and
the lack of moral fibre in the society of today. . . . Who can see
the end of this progressive demoralization? Do the people wish to
watch impotently this disastrous progress ? Should they not rather,

over the ruins of a social order which has given such tragic proof

of its ineptitude as a factor for the good of the people, gather to-

gether the hearts of all those who are magnanimous and upright in
a solemn vow not to rest until in all people and in all nations of
the earth a vast legion shall be formed, bent on bringing back so-

ciety to its center of gravity, which is the law of God.”

This is what I mean in speaking of the Pope’s wish for a muster
of all men of right moral sentiment, who will throw their unified
power against today’s hurrying currents, and redirect the flow of

human life toward safe harbors. If this vast body, filled with a
spirit of victory as well as of penitence, can somehow be brought
together, the Pope feels that the world may yet be saved from
further “inundation by violence and terror.”

But good will alone will not save society. Not even saints are
enough. Without them, of course, and without the multiplied

prayers of all humanity, for which Pius XII has so often appealed,
there will be no salvation. Nevertheless, Pius XII condemned
those “currents of thought which hold that, since redemption be-

longs to the sphere of supernatural grace and is therefore ex-

clusively a work of God, there is no need for us to cooperate on

earth.” There is, in fact, a work of reconstruction to be done,

and the formula for it is not “sola Dei gratia.” Pius XI made this
clear

:

“To achieve this lofty purpose [i.e., a better social order] and

to further the common good in true and lasting fashion, We be-
lieve that it is necessary, before and above all else, that God should



Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents 41

come to our aid, and then that all men of good will should join
forces and work to that end. Moreover, We are convinced that
the goal will be more certainly achieved the greater the number of
those who are prepared to devote their technical and professional
and social competence to its attainment, and—what is more im-
portant—the greater the contribution to the cause made by Cath-
olic principles and their application. We look for this contri-
bution, not to Catholic Action (which deliberately stops short of

any strictly syndical or political activity), but to those of Our sons
whom Catholic Action has imbued with these principles and trained
for an apostolate under the guidance and instruction of the Church/’

This significant text suggests in briefest compass the structural

lines of the Church’s own organization of herself for her contem-
porary social task. Implied is a mobilization of her total resources.

The strategically decisive element in the work of social reconstruc-
tion is a corps of trained specialists, Catholic laymen, possessing

requisite technical competence in all the fields in which today’s

problems rise, and willing to use their competence in the Chris-

tian cause out of a sense of Christian responsibility. Behind them

is an organization, Catholic Action, that educates them to their

responsibility, unites them in indispensable bonds of solidarity,
and is the source of their spiritual inspiration, their integral Chris-

tian life, whose demands they are to realize concretely and in
institutional form by the use of their professional abilities in the

social field. And behind Catholic Action is the total sacramental
reality of the Church, the Body of Christ, which powerfully deploys
its sacerdotal action in prayer and sacrifice, to the end that the

whole body may be filled to all the fullness of God, and flow over
in beneficent action for the common good of all men. To this
mobilization of the Church’s own resources join the wider efifort
implied in intercredal cooperation, embracing “all men of good
will,” and you will have a more extensive spiritual force. You will
have, too, a larger corps of “those who are prepared to devote their
technical and professional and social competence” to the c&use of

reconstruction, out of a sense that God wills it. These men will
draw their spiritual inspiration from their own religious traditions,
which preserve the idea of the divine sovereignty and the obliga-

tion of universal charity. Thev will be made conscious of a cer-



42 Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents

tain spiritual unity with their Catholic brethren, based on a certain
shared spiritual dynamic and a certain community of religio-social
purpose. And in their professional work they will establish and
maintain solidarity with Catholic specialists, and work with them
in friendly and cooperative relationships. Were all this to reach
realization, there would indeed be in the world a formidable power
for the common good of humanity.

In this scheme of things, the Catholic contribution to the com-

mon good would be multiple—spiritual, theological, programmatic.
The spiritual contribution would be the holiness of her own mem-
bers, a leaven operating in hidden supernatural ways. It would

also be the “sense of the collective responsibility of all for all,”

which Pius XII has spoken of as part of the very soul of the
Church. And it would be the heroic charity that has always been
inspired in those who have been brought by able spiritual direction
into contact with her soul. The theological contribution would be
her total doctrine of man, his personal and social nature, and his

transcendent destiny, together with the insight that this doctrine

gives into the causes of today’s distress and disunity. It would

also include, at least for her own children, her spiritual authority
and the clarification of conscience that it brings. The program-
matic contribution would be the social doctrine elaborated by a

series of noble Pontiffs, whose moral stature and deep concern for

humanity’s problems have been almost universally recognized. In

the order of personnel, the Church’s contribution would be a corps

of laymen who have been carefully formed for the social apos-
tolate, and who by that very fact have been also formed for cooper-
ation with all men of good will. Supporting them would be a
group of priests, not only theologically trained, but also, in Pius

X’s phrase, “gnari temporum,” familiar with the needs and the

facts of the time. Ideally, their function would be essentially

priestly, terminating at the direction of conscience in lay leaders;

but in America, for obvious reasons, their role would have to be

considerably broadened. However, the Church’s primary and chief

contribution in the order of personnel will always be her Bishops

and their spiritual leadership, skilful, courageous, sympathetic,

paternally vigilant. The example of Cardinal Hinsley, and of the

English hierarchy in general, has most recently shown how de-



Intercredal Cooperation in the Papal Documents 43

cisive for success this leadership is. In the nature of things, it

must always be so.

Hitherto I have outlined certain principles to be taken into

account in discussing the organization of intercredal cooperation,

in itself and in its relation to the distinctively Catholic social aposto-

late. It would carry me beyond my scope to discuss the practical
possibilities in America. I may simply say that I believe that
they exist, but that if they did not, it would be necessary to create

them. In conclusion, let me go back to the beginning. I ventured
the opinion that the strictly theological aspect of intercredal co-

operation, as understood by the Holy See, presents no difficulty
;
a

formula establishing its legitimacy is available by simple clarifica-

tion of the papal idea. The problem of organization is real enough
in the practical order; but at least principles for its solution are

available, and for the rest, as Mrs. Micawber wisely said, “Ex-
perientia does it.” The real, fundamental difficulty, to my mind,
lies in the relative absence from the average American Catholic

mind of what must be the dynamic of the whole idea—a profoundly
felt and energetically operative concern over today’s spiritual crisis

in the temporal order. The crisis itself is there, perhaps more
darkly menacing in America than elsewhere because its menace is

so inadequately realized. Concern over it certainly exists in the

heart of the Church and has been voiced in anguished fashion by

our last two Popes. But until this concern is somehow thrust into
the center of our consciousness and sharpened to the point of

poignancy (for which perhaps tragic events are needed), discussion

of intercredal cooperation—a problem allied to today’s spiritual
crisis—will command only academic interest, or perhaps be re-
garded as annoying.





nrHE Catholic Association for International Peace is a mem-
bership organization. Its object is to further, in accord with

the teachings of the Church, the “Peace of Christ in the Kingdom

of Christ,” through the preparation and distribution of studies

applying Christian teaching to international life.

It was organized in a series of meetings during 1926 and

1927—the first held just following the Eucharistic Congress in
Chicago, the second held in Cleveland that fall to form an organ-

izing committee, and the third in Easter week, 1927, in Wash-

ington, when the permanent organization was established.

The Association works through the preparation of committee

reports. Following careful preparation, these are discussed both

publicly and privately in order to secure able revision. They

are then published by the organization. Questions involving

moral judgments are submitted to the Committee on Ethics.

The Association solicits especially the membership and co-

operation of those whose experience and studies are such that

they can take part in the preparation of Committee reports.

A junior branch of the Association was composed of students
in International Relations Clubs in more than a hundred Cath-

olic colleges and in Catholic clubs of secular universities. The

separate clubs were united in geographical federations known as

Catholic Student Peace Federations and received the coopera-

tion and assistance of the parent organization. These Student

Peace Federations have formed the nucleus of the more recently

organized International Relations Commission of the National

Federation of Catholic College Students, in relation to which

the Catholic Association for International Peace stands in an

advisory and consultative capacity.



PUBLICATIONS OF THE C.A.I.P.

PAMPHLET SERIES—10c a single copy, 10% discount on orders from $1.00 to
$5.00; 20% on orders over $5.00.

No. I —International Ethics.*
No. 2—Latin America and the United States* (out of print).
No. 3—Causes of War, and Security, Old and New* (out of print).
No. 4—Haiti, Past and Present (out of print).
No. 5—Francis de Vitoria (out of print).
No. 6—American Agriculture and International Affairs* (out of print).
No. 7—Puerto Rico and the United States (out of print).
No. 8—Europe and the United States—Elements in Their Relationship* (out of

print).

No. 9—The Ethics of War.
No. 10—National Attitudes in Children (out of print).
No. 1 1—Tariffs and World Peace.*
No. 12—Manchuria—The Problem in the Far East.*
No. 13—International Economic Life* (out of print).
No. 14—The Church and Peace Efforts* (out of print).
No. 15—War and Peace in St. Augustine's "De Civitate Dei."
No. 16—Peace Education in Catholic Schools.
No. 17—Peace Action of Benedict XV.
No. 18—Relations Between France and Italy.
No. 19—Catholic Organization for Peace in Europe.
No. 20—The United States and the Dominican Republic (out of print).
No. 21—An Introduction to Mexico.*
No. 22—A Papal Mosaic (out of print).
No. 23—Arbitration and the World Court*
No. 24—Agriculture and International Life.*
No. 25—Patriotism, Nationalism, and the Brotherhood of Man.*
No. 26—The Church and the Jews (out of print).
No. 27—The Obligation of Catholics to Promote Peace, and the Rights of Peoples.*
No. 28—America's Peace Aims.
No. 29—The World Society.*
No. 30—The Morality of Conscientious Objection to War.*
No. 31—Transition from War to Peace.*
No. 32—A Peace Agenda for the United Nations.

MISCELLANEOUS SERIES

Appeals for Peace of Pope Benedict XV and Pope Pius XI 10c
Syllabus on International Relations 10c

Intercredal Cooperation 10c

Monthly News Letter (issued during school months) $1.00

* Study Outline Appended.