(Z REV GERALD C.TREACY, S.J M \ PAMPHLET No. 4 in the Series FOUNDATIONS FOR TRUE PEACE IN THE POST-WAR WORLD GOD IN SOCIETY By REV. GERALD C. TREACY, S.J. THE PAULIST PRESS 401 West 59th Street Ne^j York 19, N. Y. Imprimi Potest: James P. Sweeney, S.J., Nihil Obstat: Provincial. Arthur J. Scanlan, S.T.D., % Censor Librorum. Imprimatur : © Francis J. Spellman, D.D., Archbishop of New York New York, November 16, 1943. * Copyright, 1943 , by The Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle in the State of New York PRINTED AND PUBLISHED IN THE U. S. A. BY THE PAULIST PRESS, NEW yORK 19 , N. Y. GOD IN SOCIETY %V7"E have seen total war and we know what it is. We have™ witnessed global war and we know that, too. Out of this welter of suffering, sorrow and blood, we want total peace, global peace, true peace. Is this true peace attainable? Yes. Is it easily attain- able. No. Neither is total war nor global war easily obtain- able. Before total war can be waged there must be long preparation. For a nation to wage total war it must be conditioned long before war begins. That means that every man, woman and child in the nation must be mobilized for the coming war effort. For total war does not mean a big army and navy at war. It means the whole nation at war. If we want total, global peace, true peace, we must prepare for it, as total war, global war is prepared for. . The Need for Order True peace means first of all order. And it means inter- national order. For unless all nations subscribe to it, there will be no true peace. This international way of life must be guided by law. And this law must assert itself through a court or a group of courts. These courts or this court must have power to enforce decisions. All nations must agree to grant this power, and assist in enforcing this power. This is a central point in the Peace Plan of Pius XII. Inter- national order cannot be hoped for unless there is order within each nation. A nation that has no order within its own borders will be incapable of contributing to world order and world peace. 4. Order Depends Upon Law True peace means order in tranquillity. That is what St. Augustine said, and St. Thomas Aquinas said, and what Pope Pius XII and his precessors have continued to say. It does not mean order maintained by fear and force. The totalitarian states have that kind of order. It is secured by firing squads, concentration camps, terror, murder. The or- [ PAGE 3 ] der our Holy Father means is upheld by the willing co- operation of all citizens, expressed by their willing and cheerful obedience to Law. God's Law Is the Foundation All human law, to be true law must come from God’s Law. It must be built on God’s Law. God’s Law must be the beginning as God’s Law is the end of all human activ- ities, all human life. Otherwise there is confusion and dis- aster. The pre-war world proves that. For that world of yesterday worked out its way of life on economic plans, political plans, social plans built on anything and every- thing but God’s Law. And that pre-war world is dead, killed by its own hand. Its hand was held up by Ration- alism, Liberalism, Individualism, Unbridled Capitalism, Unrestrained Competition, Power Politics, all leading up to the right of might, and all going down together under an avalanche of blood. If the post-war world is to be a world of peace it must be built on God’s Law. For God’s Law means man’s peace. God made man for peace not for war. He gave him a plan of life. It is His Law. Nothing can take its place. No matter how scientifically and cleverly men may scheme, there is no substitute for God’s Law. It is the only way of peace. The world was a peaceful world when God made it, and a man and a woman made up its population. That was at the dawn of man’s world. Peace left this world when the man and the woman pushed God’s Law aside and said: “We will be a law unto ourselves.” Every time men have repeated that fatal saying, peace has vanished from the earth. God Is the Origin of Society Man was created by God to live in Society. He was not created to live alone. He cannot live alone and live a com- plete human life. Unless he lives a complete human life he cannot reach the destiny that God created him to attain. Father Farrell, O.P., in The Fullness of Life expresses this truth clearly: [ PAGE 4 ] The purpose of Society is to fulfill the natural needs of man. It exists that man’s individual life might be fuller, that it might offer greater opportunities for living the life of virtue, for the attainment of individual perfection. Indeed the final end of the State-peace and the life of virtue—is itself a means to the fur- ther end of the individual, the perfection of his immortal soul. Society then, is to be measured and evaluated by the opportu- nities it gives a man for living his individual life more fully, by the help it offers him to perfect himself (^4 Companion to the Summa , Vol. 3, p. 187). Society and the Declaration of Independence The signers of the Declaration expressed in their own way the same truth about Society. They began by making the statement that God created all men equal. By the fact of God’s creation men were given three inalienable rights — life, liberty and the seeking of happiness. Society and government were established by men to secure these rights. The First Americans broke with their former Society, the British Empire, because it was using its Government to crush the natural rights of the colonists. The colonists declared that they were forming a new Society, the United States of America, to secure these natural rights for them- selves and their posterity. They closed their Declaration with the prayer that God would aid their new Society in attaining its object. The First Americans wanted God in Society. They wanted Government to rest on the consent of the governed. For as men had a God-given right to form a Society, they necessarily had the right to choose the kind of Government that was to rule them. Society and the Constitution The Founders who wrote our Constitution, which is based on the truths contained in the Declaration, made clear the way of securing the natural rights of Americans. They explained it in the .first ten amendments. We call these ten amendments the Bill of Rights. It proclaims certain freedoms. First is freedom in the practice of religion: Congress shall make no law concerning the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. [ PAGE 5 ] Next are the freedoms of persons and property: Persons shall be secure in their persons and houses . . . and not be deprived of life, liberty or property without process of law. As the abuse of the taxing power of Government was the spark that kindled the flame of the American Revolution, the Founders curbed the taxing power: Excessive fines shall not be imposed. . . . Private* property shall not be taken for public use^without just payment for it. The First Americans placed God in Society for they made the law of their land rest on the Law of God. They built on justice. And that is God’s Law in one word. Jus- tice works out in Society through human law based on God’s Law. The Meaning of Law Law is a command. It is a direction saying: “Go this way, do not go the other way.” Life after all is going. It is moving toward an object. Law keeps men right for it keeps them on the right path. There are by-paths and cross-roads to be avoided if men are to go straight. That is briefly the meaning of law. Yet few Americans think of this when they think of law. They look at law mainly as restriction. They resent law, they chafe at law. James Truslow Adams has said that Americans were born fighting against law, and have re- mained ever since a people resenting law. Other nations have spoken of the lawless Americans. Our crime statistics warrant that title. When making his report for 1939, the Director of the F. B. I., Edgar Hoover, stated: A major crime took place in the United States every 21 sec- onds, a felonious homicide every 44 minutes, a larcency every 3 seconds, a citizen was robbed every 9 minutes, a burglary oc- curred every 1 and 2/3 minutes, and on an average an automobile was stolen every 3 minutes. • That is a picture of peace-time America. [ PAGE 6 ] The Object of Law God in Society then, means God’s Law as the founda- tion of all law. All law then will be reasonable. For the rule of human action is reason. Our actions are human in as far as they are reasonable. If we act against reason, we do not act like human persons. Our human laws do not come into our statute books because a body of legislators says: “It is about time we passed some laws.” If laws have no object they are not laws at all, even though they are written into our statute books. The object of all laws is the common good, or the gen- eral welfare. For that is the object of Society. If we ask: “What is the common good of the State?”, the answer is: “Immediate peace and unity.” Peace and unity are at- tained when the citizens of the State are assured of the necessities of life, when justice prevails in the distribution of rewards and punishments, and when protection is guar- anteed against outside enemies. That is the immediate common good. What is the final common good? Both Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas teach that the final com- mon good of the State, is to secure the citizens’ right to lead a life of virtue or reason. The Declaration of Inde- pendence calls this right the pursuit of human happiness. If we know what law means, we realize that Society needs law, and that law benefits the members of Society. As God’s Law is given to man by his Creator for his benefit, all human law that is a rule of reason, is of benefit to men. For all human law is a picture of God’s Law, if it is true law. It is an application of that Law to the details of human living. Men Jiving without law, cannot live as men. The Origin of Society How did human Society begin? God tells us that in the first book of the Bible: And God created man to His own image. . . . And the Lord God said : It is not good for man to be alone ; let us make him a help like unto himself. . . . And after that men began to be multi- plied upon the earth (Genesis i. 27; ii. 18; vi. 1). { PACK 7 ] That is the beginning of Society. God created man for Society. Man needed Society for«his own good. Unless he led a social life, that is a life with others, he could not live a full human life. God in creating man gave him an urge in his nature that impelled him to lead his life with others. With this urge in his nature man formed the first So- ciety, the family. When families multiplied they found they needed each others’ help. So they formed a larger social unit, the State. This is the beginning of Society. This is its origin. Marriage and the Family The family is the unity of Society. For Society begins with the family, its foundation is the family. It precedes the other groups that make up social life, the Church and the State. Neither Church nor State may justly absorb it. It has its own rights, given it by God, and neither Church nor State may infringe upon those rights. In human life, then the family comes first. That is God’s Plan. Marriage begins the family. It is the origin of the family. And God instituted marriage. Man did not. When God established the society called the family, He made its laws. Man did not make its laws. What right could he have to make its laws, since he did not establish it? Then when our Blessed Lord came upon earth, He reaffirmed God’s laws on marriage and raised marriage to the dignity of a sacrament. Pope Leo XIII declares in his encyclical on Christian Marriage: Marriage has God for its Author, and it was from the begin- ning a kind of foreshadowing of the Incarnation of His Son. And therefore there abides in it something holy and religious; not extraneous but innate, not derived from men but implanted by nature. Marriage moreover is a sacrament because it is a holy sign which gives grace, showing forth an image of the mystical nup- tials of Christ with the Church. ... If we consider the end of the divine institution of marriage, we shall see very clearly that God intended it to be a most fruitful source of individual benefit and public welfare. God’s Law for marriage is this: a permanent bond should exist between one man and one woman. [ PAGE S ] Unity and permanence then are God’s Laws for mar- riage. They forbid divorce. It is true that conditions may arise that may make the living together of man and woman in wedded life practically impossible in some instances. But divorce is not the answer. Separation is the remedy when such conditions must be faced, as Pope Pius XI ex- plains: This separation which the Church herself permits, and ex- pressly mentions in her Canon Law, . . . removes all the alleged inconveniences and dangers. It will be for the sacred law and to some extent also the civil law, in so far as civil matters are affected, to lay down the grounds, the conditions, the method and precautions to be taken, in cases of this kind. • * What does America think of the sanctity of marriage? Our divorce record is the answer. Over the period 1929 to 1937, our annual divorce rate increased from 201,458 to 250,000. The following table is from the official govern- ment report: i DIVORCES Per 1,000 Per 100 Year Number Population Marriages 1929 1930 201,468 1.66 16.3 191,591 1.56 17.0 1931 183,664 1.48 17.3 1932 160,338 1.28 16.3 1933 165,000 1.31 15.0 1934 204,000 1.61 15.7 1935 218,000 1.71 16.4 1936 236,000 1.84 17.2 1937 : 250,000 1.93 17.5 Year MARRIAGES » Number Per 1,000 Population 1929 1,232,559 10.14 1930 1,126,856 9.15 1931 : 1,060,914 . -% 8.55 1932 981,903 7.87 1933 1,098,000 8.74 1934 1,302,000 10.28 1935 1,327,000 10.41 1936 1,369,000 10.66 1937 1,426,000 11.03 l PAGE 9 J In these days we are spending billions of dollars and thousands of lives to save America and bring peace to the world. Yet all this expenditure will never save America unless America saves herself. Tanks and bombers and ships of war can repel the enemy from without. It is the enemy within that is the dangerous enemy. It is the home front that is the all-important front. And the heart of the home front is the home. The strong unit of the State is the family. Only one thing protects, preserves and hallows the family—the sacredness of marriage under the Law of God. The war madness devastating nations, has smashed homes and uprooted families. Peace must mean the re- building of these homes, the restoration of these families. Are we to do this task with divorce-madness fast making us a nation of broken homes and shattered families? Pope Leo XIII, writing his encyclical on Christian Marriage in 1880, declared: Divorce, once being tolerated, there will be no restraint power- ful enough to keep it within the bounds marked out or presur- mised. Great indeed is the force of example and greater still the might of passion. With such incitements it must needs follow that the eagerness for divorce . . . will seize upon the minds of many like a virulent contagious disease, or like a flood of water bursting through every barrier. . . . Unless things change the family and the State have every reason to fear absolute ruin. When that warning was written the annual American divorce rate was 25,000. By 1930, fifty years later, when Pius XI wrote his encyclical, Casti Connubii, the American divorce rate had risen to 200,000. When our present Holy Father wrote his first encyclical, the annual divorce rate in the United States was 250,000. As the family is shattered by divorce, so it is throttled by birth control. The corner-stone of the family is true mutual love based on unselfishness. Birth control means selfishness, self-worship. Its aim is self, first, last and al- ways. It kills true love. It considers man merely as an individual. It ignores the plain truth that man is also a member of society, and owes duties to Society. Birth con- [ PAQB 10 ] trol advocates tell him that he is a law unto himself. It is anti-social to such a degree that if its practice became uni- versal, there would be no Society left. What the birth- controller really says is: “I will betray Society. I will take a God-given power and defeat the purpose of God and nature for my own sensual pleasure. God and nature give me the pleasure attached to a responsibility. I will shirk the responsibility and grasp the pleasure ” God in Society means God’s- Law observed in marriage. Birth control flouts God’s Law, substituting its own law: “Decrease and nullify.” In clear terms Pope Pius XI enunciates God’s Law: No reason, however grave, may be put forward by which anything intrinsically against nature, may become conformable to nature and morally good. Since therefore the conjugal act is destined primarily by nature for the begetting of children, those who in exercising it deliberately frustrate its natural power and purpose, sin against nature, and commit a deed which is shame- ful and intrinsically vicious (Encyclical On Christian Marriage , The Paulist Press Edition, p. 17). The Wrong of Birth Control Birth control is wrong not because the Catholic Church says so. If there were no Catholic Church in the world birth control would be wrong, and man left merely to the use of his reason or common sense could see that it is wrong. For he could see that it is frustrating a law of nature, which means God’s Law. The Catholic Church as the God-ap- pointed teacher of God’s Law proclaims it to be wrong, and explains why it is wrong. The Catholic Church does not make it wrong. The Quality Plea Quality rather than quantity, the small family well taken care of rather than the large family with many chil- dren neglected, all for the good of Society, the State, the race, the world. This is the humanitarian and patriotic appeal for birth control. Very fine if it were only true. But in nearly every century out of large families have come the greatest benefactors of the race in every line of human endeavor. [ page 11 ] The advocates of birth control often maintain that the Catholic Church is their only opponent, because she advo- cates each family having an unlimited number of children. Both statements are false. Everyone who believes in the Ten Commandments, everyone who with the light of reason to guide him, knows what the Law of Nature means, is against birth control. The most representative members of the medical profession are against birth control. The Catholic Church does not advocate each family having an unlimited number of children. What the Catho- lic Church teaches is this: All human activities are subject to right reason. The more important the activity the more important the control of reason. The rights of husband and wife, like all rights, have attached to them duties. It is the plain duty of husband and wife in the use of their marriage rights, to regard not merely themselves but so- ciety and the common good. Father Victor White, O.P., in the Clergy Review makes the Church’s position clear: Nothing is further from the truth than to suppose that the Church encourages instinctive, indiscriminate breeding of all and sundry. Marriage itself, it has been said, is a method of birth control; and the Church has constantly asserted the necessity of course and reproduction, according to the requirements of right reason. Why then do we hold birth prevention to be intrinsically immoral and vicious? Because as Pope Pius XI says, it is a frustration of the marriage act, an abuse of sex, an unnatural sin in the strict technical sense of the word. That means that con- traception is in the same class with other sins called unnatural, self-abuse and the rest. And the reason is, it is like them a per- version, an abuse of the sexual act and consequently a positive destruction of sexual energy and activity. God in Society means more than God in the family. It means God in the State. Just as God’s Law must govern the family, so must it be the basis of all State law. The family is the unit of the State for the gathering together of many families makes the State. The family cannot live alone. It needs the help of others. That is how and why [ page 12 ] * the State begins. The family is a society but not a com- plete society. It has not the means to lead a complete life. So it is called an imperfect society. For example the family has the right and duty to edu- cate its children. But there is neither the ability nor the equipment in the family for this work. Again the family needs protection; security from attack by the lawless and the unjust. It has not the means to this protection and security. That is why the State is necessary. That is why men made tjje State. Pope Leo XIII, in his encyclical, Immor- tale Dei, makes this clear: Man’s natural instinct moves him to live in civil society. For he cannot, if living apart, provide himself with the necessary re- quirements of life, nor procure the means of developing his men- tal and moral faculties. Hence it is divinely ordained that man should lead his life, be it family, social or civil, with his fellow men, among whom alone his several* wants can be adequately supplied (Immortale Dei , Paulist Press Edition, p. 2). The State cannot carry on without direction. It needs authority. It must have laws, courts, officials, if it is to fulfill its duty which is the security of the common good. Pope Leo continues in the same encyclical: As no society can hold together unless someone be over all, directing all to strive earnestly for the common good, every civi- lized community must have a ruling authority. And this author- ity no less than society itself, has its source in Nature and has God for its Author. Hence it follows that all public power proceeds from God. For God alone is the true and supreme Lord of the world. Everything without exception must be sub- ject to Him. Everything must serve Him. So that whosoever holds the right to govern, holds it from one sole and single source, namely God, the Sovereign Ruler of all. “There is no power but from God” (Rom. v. 1 ).— (Immortale Dei, Paulist Press Edi-. tion, pp. 2, 5). This authority may take any form provided it rules with justice. There is no best form of government. There is no best form of society. Because Americans want the democratic form of government, that does not prove it the best form. Nor does it mean that every other people in [ PAGE 13 ] the world must Alopt it, in order to secure the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Democracy is not the only right form of government, the only way of peace, the only path to freedom. The way of peace and freedom is the way of justice securing the common welfare; the way of good will expressed in the co-operation of all classes in the State, under whatever form of government the people of the State may choose. Norman Angell, writing in the Sunday Times Maga- zine, correctly says: This must be a war to give all nations the right to lire under the system or doctrine of their choice, free from alien aggres- sion, from external violence. To impose a party or a doctrine by the power of the State is the very thing against which we are supposed to be fighting. The foundations for peace do not rest on one form of government. They rest on a just form of government for every nation in the world. Foundations for peace cannot rest on names. They must be built on principles. And the first of all principles is justice. On it must rest every na- tion’s government, and it must be the basis of all interna- tional relations. That is why the call of the Popes for' more than half a century has been a call to the world to return to the paths of justice. The seeds of war were sown in a world-order planted by unbridled capitalism, flowering into unlimited competition. Its roots were not in justice. Pope Leo XIII saw that in 1891. His Rerum Novarum is a cry to the world to return to the paths of justice. From Leo to Pius there is no empty talk about a brave new world coming from nowhere. There are no charters and schemes pro- claiming glittering generalities. There is a practical plea to all men not to try and discover some new formula for a new world. The Papal plea is to rebuild and reform the old world order, the Christian world order. Men for 400 years have abandoned and betrayed their Christian heri- tage. For they have weakened and in most instances re- jected the sacred teachings of Chrisit, the Lord of Justice. [ PAGE 14 ] Years ago Chesterton declared that modern man, with all his boasting of civilization and progress, had lost his way. He was not the forgotten man, he was the forgetting man. He forgot where he came from, and so he could not remember where he was going to. What Chesterton said, Belloc has continued to say. Modern man has lost Some- thing and in that is the crisis of our civilization. He has lost Christ and His Justice. He must find them again or his civilization will perish, and he with it. He must go back if he will go forward in the true way of life which is the way of peace. The roots of his civilization are Christian. They stem from Christ and Christ’s teaching. Modern man must get back to those roots. He must become a real radical. Writing in Harper’s Magazine recently, President Wris- ton of Brown University, remarked: A brave new world is not a requisite for peace. . . . We can best reach the goal of peace by helping the brave old world abandon the sins that made it weak, and recover the courage that made it heroic. Not by escapist dreams about the future but by building upon the deep and firm foundation of the past, can we bring peace to the earth. . . . The crisis of our time is moral. Root out of American life every manifestation of the retreat from reason. . . . Revive faith in the individual as the key to values, recognizing that man was created to the image of God. It is written in the very first chapter of the very first book of the Bible. All the classical apologists acknowledge that as the foundation of freedom. Jefferson in the Declaration of Inde- pendence proclaimed that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights. Neither in Scripture nor in the writings of any great political thinker, is it written that Society or the State, has any divine attributes. _ i It is on the dignity of man as God’s image, that democ- racy is founded. It is on the value of the human person as God’s creature, son, and heir that inalienable human rights rest. Democracy means a way of life that subordi- nates every value to human values,, to the dignity and des- tiny of the human person. Democracy as a form of gov- ernment secures and protects those rights and values. Democracy as a way of life means the Christian way [PAGE 15] of life; the way of justice and charity; the brotherhood of man under the Fatherhood of God. It is rooted in respect for the individual and the God-given rights of the individ- ual, no matter who that individual may be, no matter to what group in Society he may belong, no matter his race or his creed. Democracy as a way of life expresses itself in a form of government. That form of government is to safeguard the democratic way of life, the Christian way of life. It secures the utmost liberty for the individual that is compatible with the rights and liberty of others. The liberty it secures is liberty under law, not any kind of liberty which means license and not true liberty. And law means the rule of right reason, founded on the Law of God, and conformed in every respect to the Law of God. We are at war to secure the Christian way of life for every nation under heaven, to bring back the Christian way of life into the world. This is what our President has declared to Pope Pius XII. We are not at war to make every nation adopt our Constitution. We are at war to substitute the Christian way of life for the pagan way of life. We are fighting the idea that the citizen is for the State, that the State has all power and all rights, and the citizen only those rights that the State wishes him to have. These ideas that we are fighting are called totalitarian. They are found in the Communist, Nazist, and Fascist State. They deny that the State and its government have any dependence on God, or owe any accountability to Him. They outlaw God. They change the command of Christ into: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to Caesar also the things that are God’s.” We are fighting against this Absolute State. And our battle has to be on the home front as well as on the battle front. We have to struggle against any ten- dency that under the cloak of promoting the war effort denies the truths of the Declaration, and ignores the pro- visions of the Constitution. Our Government is a govern- ment of laws, not of men. Our Constitution is our bul- [ PAGE 16 ] wark of liberty, the guarantor of our rights. If it is to be chamged, it provides the method of the change. We the people and no one person, no one group, have the right to change it under due process of law. Our Constitution is built on the Declaration of Inde- pendence. The Declaration is the root, the Constitution the tree. And the truth of the human person is the root of the Declaration. The truth of the human person is God’s Truth. The First Americans in looking for man, found first God. Then they found man, and on man, on the human person, his dignity, his value, his rights, they built the American Way of Life. And the American Way is man first, then State and Government. The dignity of the human person comes from the fact that God is his Creator, and Christ, Son of God, his Re- deemer. That makes all men equal and nothing else does. For that makes the family and household of God, and it makes all men one. “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free but all are one in Christ,” as St. Paul told the Roman world many centuries ago. And the dignity of the human person is the first pillar for peace, as Pius XII said in his last Christmas encyclical: He who would have the star of peace shine out and stand over society should co-operate for his part in giving back to the human person the dignity given to him by God from the very beginning ; should oppose the excessive herding of men, as if they were a mass without a soul. The social order that is crashing in the welter of war denied and repudiated the dignity of the human person. For it was built on materialism. Machines took precedence over men. Gold dethroned God. Men were of value ac- cording to classes and not because of their human dignity. Leo XIII more than fifty years ago raised his voice in pro- test against the paganism of an order built on unbridled capitalism and unrestrained competition, which disregarded the dignity of the human person: * The great mistake is the idea that class is naturally hostile to class; that rich and poor are intended by nature to live at war with one another. . . . The exact contrary is the truth. . . . Each [ page 17 ] requires the other. Capital cannot do without labor, nor labor without capital. . . . Religion teaches the worker to carry out honestly and well all equitable agreements freely made, never to injure capital, nor to outrage the person of an employer. . . . Re- ligion teaches the employers that their work people are not their slaves, that they must respect in every man his dignity as a man and as a Christian; that labor is nothing to be ashamed of, . . . but is an honorable employment; and that it is shameful and in- human to treat men like chattels to make money by, or to look upon them merely as so much muscle or physical power. What has been the plea of the Popes from Leo XIII to Pius XII finds a heartening echo in the Basis for Peace Statement of the joint committee of the Protestant, Catho- lic and Jewish Post-War Peace Plan, announced on Octo- ber 6, 1943. For the second point of this seven-point pro- gram for a future peace basis declares: The rights of the individual must be assured. The dignity of the human person as the image of God must be set forth in all its essential implications, in an international declaration of rights, and be vindicated by the positive action of national governments and international organization. States * as well as individuals must repudiate racial, religious or other discrimination in viola- tion of those rights. Man and his human dignity is the all-important truth that must begin any worthwhile peace plan. For in finding man as man we find God. Just as the First Americans did when they wrote their Declaration. They proclaimed that truth as self-evident. They began the American Way of Life with God the Creator. They followed the Christian Tradition. Any sound pillar of peace must rest on the Christian Tradition. That is echoing all through the Papal Peace Plan. In the past 400 years the Christian Tradition became the lost horizon. It was first dimmed out by Protestantism. The dimout grew darker and darker until Rationalism, Naturalism, Liberalism, Unbridled Capitalism turned the dimout into a blackout. Then the skies of man’s world became totally overcast. Communism, Nazism, Fascism made the blackout complete. Then came the deluge. Hate, horror, blood, war, the Four Horsemen riding the [ PAGE 18 ] modern world. And man as man was not. He was* no longer a son of God, and blood-brother of Christ. He was but a pawn of power; the power of the group, the race, the State. But the lost horizon is never totally lost. The Chris- tian Tradition never dies completely. It goes down into the tomb but it comes out of the tomb. It went down into the tomb of the barbarian invasions. But it emerged from the tomb and brought the barbarians with it. It civilized the barbarians and gave us the nations of Europe. It gave us Western culture. We are the heirs of Western culture. We stem from the Christian Tradition. We must get back to the stem. We must return to our roots. That is the Popes’ plea from Leo to Pius. We need no new world. Not even a new order. We need to remake, reform, re- build the old order, the order that is ever new, as the Chris- tian Tradition is ever new, for Christ is ever new. “The same yesterday, today, forever,” declared St. Paul. A war-cursed world does not make itself. Men make it. Their sins make it. God permits this because He made men free. They are free to love and free to hate, free to be men and free to be brutes. And their world is made acordingly. They reap what they sow. Many are the plans for the post-war world. Economic plans, political plans are offered day by day. Without a foundation they are useless. The Holy Father is not con- cerned with these plans. His concern is the foundation for peace. The economists, the professors, the political lead- ers are drawing up blueprints and plans. They are dis- cussing policies; the Pope is declaring principles. He is practical, they are theoretical. They speak about a society of nations, but they are silent about the principle upon which this society is to rest. The Pope speaks about an inter- national order and announces the principles upon which that order must be built. That is practical. There cannot be peace among nations unless there is peace within each nation. We cannot have a peaceful world order until each nation builds its domestic order on justice [ PAGE 19 ] and charity. That is the principle announced by Pius XII, as it was by Leo XIII. Peace is a growth from within. It cannot be imposed from without. An armistice may be imposed but not peace. Since the last World War the world has been living under an armistice. An armistice does not last. It did not last. Peace depends on national order first. Then we can have international order. In his last Christmas encyclical our Holy Father stated: International relations and internal order are intimately re- lated. International equilibrium and harmony depend on the in- ternal equilibrium and development of the individual States in the material, social and intellectual spheres. A firm and steady peace policy towards other nations is in fact impossible, without a spirit of peace within the nation that inspires trust. It is only then, by striving for an integral peace , a peace in both fields, that people will be freed from the cruel nightmare of war, and the material and psychological causes of further discord and dis- order will be diminished and gradually eliminated. Man's Urge for Peace Civilized man wants peace. He is impelled by his na- ture to join with his fellow men and form Society. Why? To live a life of peace. That is the urge within him. For God has given him that urge. That is what was in the minds of the men who signed the Declaration. Life, liberty and the quest for happiness are inseparable from peace. The First Americans went to war to win peace . They de- clared that they exhausted every means to persuade a tyrannical ruler to give them peace . There was but one last resort—war. Their declaration of war was a declara- tion for peace . The acts of the British government against the Colonies were acts of war, for they were acts of force and not of justice. What the Colonists really said to Lon- don was: “You are waging war against us by your govern- ment of force. You act towards us as if might made right. We have taken every ordinary means to show you your in- justice. Now you force us to take the extraordinary means to secure peace—war. It is your choice, not ours. Trust- [ page 20 ] ing in the justice of an all-just God we will fight for peace ” What the Colonists wanted every civilized nation wants. “Every society, worthy of the name, has originated in a desire for peace, and hence aims at attaining peace,” are the incontrovertible words of our Holy Father. Five Facts the Foundation for Peace In placing the foundations for peace the Pope states five facts. They are not theories, policies, blueprints, but FACTS. Namely: The way of life is the way of peace. The foundation of peace is order. There can be no order without justice. There can be no effective justice without charity For peace is the tranquillity of order. Unity of Minds and Wills Two things then must prevail in Society; a living to- gether in order and a living together in tranquillity. Now order in Society does not mean merely the grouping to- gether of men, as we group together the parts of a machine. The unity that bespeaks order is not holding the human parts of Society together externally, which can be accom- plished by the terror of the sword or the club. It means an internal union of all the human parts. It means the agreement of the MINDS and the WILLS of men in So- ciety, seeking by COMMON ACTION A COMMON OB- JECTIVE. Unify in Diversify This internal agreement of men in Society does not ex- clude individual differences, characteristics, preferences, temperaments, that go into the common pattern of men as men. True order allows for differences but composes dif- ferences and blends them for the COMMON GOOD. We Americans express the idea when we write under the Stars and stripes—E Pluribus Unum . The first step necessary for modern man, declares the [ page 21 ] Pope, is to learn the true meaning of SOCIETY. For modern man is: Man, impregnated by the poison of error and social aberra- tions, tormented by the fever of discordant desires, doctrines and aims. He is excitedly tossing about in the disorder which these fallacies have created, and is experiencing the destructive force of false ideas that disregard the Law of God or are opposed to it. The Light Gleaming in Darkness t A correct notion of Society is the light in the present darkness. An ordered world can never be had without this correct notion of Society. As God is the Origin of Society, human life in Society is an image, imperfect but true, of its Divine Exemplar, the One and Triune God. The aim and object of Society is to protect and develop the human person. Any social theory that ignores this fact and disregards the respect due to the human person will lead to ruin. Man is worthy of this respect for this one reason — he is God’s creature and God’s child. He comes from God and will go back to God. Society is intended by God to help him attain this destiny. Every relationship in life is finally referred to God. God is the Beginning and God is the End. A Society that leaves this out of account, in its organization, its legislative and executive functions, ignor- ing the all-important relationship of God to man and man to God and makes utility its goal, will lead AS IT HAS LED to chaos . The Foundation of Right Order Real life in Society, calling for unity of minds and hearts and wills, does not exclude human differences which by nature exist between man and man. The differences as well as the similarities that are human, find their fixed place in Society, by means of a RIGHT ORDER of being, values, and hence of morality. That is provided God holds FIRST PLACE, as the Supreme Controller of all that relates to man. God is the FOUNDATION. Lacking this FOUN- DATION .there can be no blending of the different parts that make Society a UNIT. Passing fancy, blind human [ PAGE 22 ] instinct can never be the UNIFYING force that Society needs. During the past few decades Society was dom- inated by the PROFIT motive. All values were subordi- nated to MONEY VALUES. Today ALL VALUES are subordinated to the STATE. This vicious error is just as bad as the MONEY MOTIVE. Juridical Order Society cannot attain the end set for it by God unless it is guided and protected by LAW. That is, it needs a JURIDICAL ORDER. The function of this juridical ORDER is to serve ALL classes in Society not to dominate. It must have Authority back of it. The authority of LAW that cannot enforce its mandates is useless. This Legal Authority must ever keep in view its responsibility to the Eternal Legislator, from Whom it derives its rights. All law has its foundation in God’s Law. Society is based on THIS LAW. Human power may defy it. It can never overthrow it. Conditions change with the changing years. GOD’S LAW DOES NOT CHANGE. It is the same today as yesterday and will be the same tomorrow. The Purpose of Society Whatever changes may sweep over the world, the pur- pose of Society remains the same. It is the development of the personal values of man as God’s image. And this is the obligation that rests on every individual member of Society for this is why he was created. This is and must be the aim of his life. A True Legal Order Because this is true, man has an inalienable right to a LEGAL ORDER that secures the common good. This Legal Order moreover must promote the peaceful and friendly relationships between individuals and groups, and among individuals themselves. A Legal Order founded on false principles cannot do this. For to do this successfully it must be rooted in TRUTH. [ PAGE 23 ] Three Modern Errors There are three current errors that nullify any real Legal or Juridical Order. First there is Juridical Positivism, which teaches that human laws are supreme and denies any Higher Law. This drives a fatal wedge between law and morality. Then there is the vicious error of Racism. This gives to particular nations, races or classes the right to make their law, the law of final appeal. Finally there are the various theories of Statism, that make the State abso- lute, supreme, omnipotent. They put the State in place of God. They exempt the State from control or criticism. From the State there is no appeal, even though the State denies the essential beliefs of the human and Christian con- science. Orddf in Society depends on a TRUE JURIDICAL ORDER. A true Juridical Order cannot be built on MA- TERIALISM. The evidence is before our eyes in the chaos of the modem world. For the Juridical Order of the mod- ern world has been built on materialism. A true Juridical Order calls for a SPIRITUAL FOUNDATION. It is built on respect for human dignity, on appreciation for Society and its God-given purpose. A True Idea of Law We must return to an idea of law that is SPIRITUAL and ETHICAL. Such an idea is vivified by a truly human and Christian spirit. Its result is PEACE. FOR THE WORK OF JUSTICE SHALL BE PEACE, as Holy Scrip- ture affirms. And Holy Scripture is GOD’S WORD. Then justice joins hands with love, and the effect is a Society in which despite its human failings, the different members are swayed by a spirit of brotherhood. The Tranquillity of Action A peaceful Society then means a Society in which men live together in ORDER and TRANQUILLITY which re- sult from LAW. Now tranquillity does not mean sloth or [ PAGE 24 ] * apathy. Nor does it mean accepting things as they are, and opposing all changes in the social order. Far from it: For a Christian who is conscious of his responsibilities even towards the least of his fellow men, there is no such thing as slothful tranquillity. There is no question of flight, but of struggle. It is a tranquillity of action against every inaction and desertion in the great spiritual battle, where the stakes are the CONSTRUCTION, nay, the VERY SOUL of the Society of Tomorrow. The Appeal to Youth To the young people of today let Us say that in rebuilding the social order, enthusiasm and courage are not enough. You must fix the foundation of all your activity on the Eternal Law of God. You must fight fearlessly for Truth and the dignity of the human person and his eternal destiny. You must co-operate with your elders, benefiting by their experience and maturity. Both young and old must work together in a truly Christian spirit. ( Christmas Message , Pope Pius XII, 1942. N. C. W. C. Edition.) The Workers 1 Rights There can be no true peace in any Society that disre- gards the just rights of the workingman. °As Pope Leo said years ago, by the labor of the workers the State grows pros- perous. The worker’s dignity as a human person must be secured. Neither private capital nor the State may exploit him. In rebuilding the social order, all must strive for the ' widest possible distribution of property. God has given the goods of this earth to all, not to the few. Society in re- building the world of tomorrow must work for the widest possible distribution of property, so that all may share in its ownership. The Hour for Action This is the hour for action. It is the time for all men of good will to unite in a New Crusade. This crusade is to rescue the spirit of man from ERROR, DOUBT and SIN, and to gather together all forces of Society in a world-wide battle for TRUTH, JUSTICE and LOVE. The aim of this crusade is to spread the saving light of the Star of Bethle- hem over all mankind. r PAGE 25 ] Five Requisites for Peace The Holy Father names five stages in the crusade to re- store Society and to rebuild a shattered world: 1 — Everyone must co-operate in the struggle to give back to the human person the dignity and rights wherewith God endowed him from the very beginning. The Society of free men must not be considered as a herd. Each per- son has basic rights and responsibilities that Society must guarantee. He has the right to develop his physical, intel- lectual, moral and religious life. He has the right to wor- ship God privately and publicly. He has the right to carry on religious works of zeal and charity. He has the right to marry and bring up a family. He has the right to work as the necessary means for maintaining family life. He has the right to choose his state of life, priestly or religious. He has the right to the use of material goods necessary for ful- filling his duties and responsibilities. 2 — Society is made up of free human persons bound to- gether in internal unity, all the various groups collaborating for the eternal and temporal good of each and all. Every- one therefore must strive to restore matrimony and the fam- ily to their God-given place in Society. Matrimony makes the family and the family is the cell of Society. Every safeguard must be placed around family life. A healthy moral and material atmosphere must surround the family. Working conditions must be suitable to family interests. Schools must be such as to foster what has been taught in the home. Their function is to carry on the work of true education begun in the home. 3 — The dignity and rights of Labor must be respected. Man is dignified by work and develops his human person- ality through work. This is God’s plan. From it there follows the worker’s right to a living family wage. The Church ever teaching the nobility of work, calls upon Soci- ety to procure for the worker as wide a share as possible of property ownership. The children of the worker should be given opportunities for higher education when they are fit and eager for it. Labor should be freed from any sense of isolation from the other classes in Society. This will be accomplished by promoting a spirit of Christian solidarity among all classes l PAGE 26 ] in the community, beginning with the small neighborhood, and extending to larger districts and provinces, and so throughout the entire nation. Each nation must have sufficient economic resources to build up a just national social order. There must be a shar- ing of these resources among the nations, the strong help- ing the weak. National egoism and isolation must be re- nounced if there is to be a true and lasting world-peace. 4 — We need to rebuild our JURIDICAL Order. All our laws must rest on God’s Law and not on human whims. That is the meaning of a JURIDICAL Order. Based on God’s supreme dominion it stretches forth its arm, in pro- tection or punishment, over the natural and inalienable rights of man, defending him against the attacks of every human power. The relations of man to man, of the indi- vidual to Society, to Government, to his civic duties, as well as the relations of Society and Government to the indi- vidual, must be placed on a solid JURIDIC basis, backed by the authority of the Courts. This means a body of laws and Courts upholding these laws against popular or utili- tarian sentiment, as well as against arbitrary State encroach- ment on the liberty, property, honor and well-being of the individual citizen. 5 — A correct idea of the State and its functions must be restored to the modern world. The State' has no other pur- pose but to serve and procure the well-being of its citizens. It must give full recognition to the dignity of the human person and his eternal destiny. The deepest meaning of ruling is serving. The State and all its officials are bound by God’s Law, and depend on the Will of the Creator just as the individual is bound by that Law and depends on that Will. Responsibility for War-Guilt On whom may we put the guilt of this hideous war? All are in some way responsible, even those who glory in the Christian name. For all have accepted or condoned the growth of error during the past decades. For what is this war but the crumbling process of a Society that built its foundations on unbridled lust for money and power? Masked behind appealing phrases, such as progress, pros- [ PAGE 27 ] perity, patriotism, national and international policies cared nothing for justice and the real values of life. Power- politics alone was the code of conduct. Truth and Justice were outlawed. This was the world-wide way of life. World-wide war was its answer. To restore world-wide peace and rebuild a shattered order, Society must be brought back to its center of gravity—God’s Law. International Order The Pope gives five postulates for world-peace and in- ternational order in a rebuilt world: 1 — No matter how small its territory, or how incapable of defense it may be, no State is to be deprived of its free- dom, integrity and security. When the Big Nations form economic groups they must respect the rights of the Small Nations to political freedom, economic development, and neutrality in the event of war. This is the only way the Small Nations can share in the common good of the fam- ily of Nations. 2 — Minority groups within the Nations have the right to their cultural and language traditions. Their economic re- sources, necessary for the development of their natural fer- tility, must not be limited or curtailed. Governments that respect the rights of minority groups will receive in return their loyalty. 3 — All Nations must participate in the natural riches of the earth. Hence economic resources and materials des- tined for the use of all, should not be hoarded by the cold egoism of the favored Nations to the exclusion of the Na- tions less favored by nature. 4 — All Nations must honestly plan for a real limitation of armaments. To secure justice among Nations, instead of crushing armaments, international courts should be es- tablished. These courts should be empowered by the Na- tions to enforce the observance of treaties. They should also have the power to modify and amend treaties when changing conditions call for revision. The conscience of the world today must be reawakened [ PAGE 28 ] to the realization of the sacredness of treaties. The spirit of mutual trust among Nations must be revived. This is essential if lasting peace is to be established. On the part of all Nations this calls for superhuman strength and good will. 5—No Nation should persecute Religion or the Church. Moral strength is the need of Society today. This must come from Faith in a Personal and Transcendant God, fill- ing the whole life of Society. Faith is not only a virtue. It is The Virtue by which all the virtues enter the temple of the soul. It is the foundation of that strength of character which accepts every demand of reason and of justice. Statesmen as well as all citizens of the world need FAITH, COURAGE AND MORAL STRENGTH to reconstruct a new order on the ruins accumulated by a world-war, and by the hatred and disunity among men. Conclusion God in Society means Religion ruling Life. It does not mean an occasional practice of Religion.® It does not mean every other interest every day, and a few hours on Sunday given to God. It means the TRUTH of God and the LAW of God motivating individual life, family life, social life, business life, government and political life, national and international life. All Foundations for Peace must rest on THE FOUNDATION-RELIGION. Madame Chiang Kai- shek has expressed it well: Religion on which the doors of diplomacy seem to have been slammed is the MAIN PILLAR of civilization. Without it, there can be no international righteousness, no justice, no common de- cency, no guaranteeing of the honor of the pledged word. Without Religion NO STATE CAN LONG ENDURE. That should now be clear enough. If religious principles governed all TREATY-MAKERS there would be NO TREATY-BREAK- ERS. If religious feelings beat in the hearts of all destroyers there would be no destruction. When NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS and INDIVIDUAL CONSCIOUSNESS are developed through belief in Religion, when Religion is accepted as the CENTRAL PIVOT and the MOTIVATING FORCE of LIFE and CONDUCT, then the doom of civilization may be averted. BUT NOT TILL THEN. [ PAGE 29 ] Summary If there can be total war there can be total peace. But it must be prepared for. It needs solid foundations. The first foundation is God’s Law, known and observed in Soci- ciety. Its observance should be fostered, its violation atoned for. God is the Origin of Society for He created man to .live in Society. Our Declaration of Independence is based on this truth. And our Constitution is built on the Decla- ration. All human law to be law must reflect God’s Law. It is the application of God’s Law to the details of human life in Society. In observing it, man fulfills God’s Will and fur- thers his destiny. Americans have forgotten the true mean- ing of Law. Our crime statistics prove that. Men need God’s Law and human laws to enable them to live as men. God is the Origin of Society and the family is the UNIT of Society. God established marriage as the origin of the family. God is the Author of marriage. Man is not. He is free to enter or not to enter upon marriage. If he enters upon marriage, he enters a unit established by God Whose laws are fixed by God. Americans have ignored this TRUTH, as our divorce record and birth control practices demonstrate. The State is made by man for man. Man needs the State to lead a full human life. The family is the unit of the State. The State to fulfill its duty to man needs AUTHORITY. It must have government, courts, laws and officials. There is NO BEST FORM of government. Any form of government based on God’s Law and the consent of the governed, that procures the common good or the general welfare, is true and right government. Its name does not matter. World Peace does not depend on a special form of gov- ernment for all nations. It means a just form of govern- ment for all nations. Democracy does not mean peace for democracy may be only a name . World Peace can only be built on principles, not on names . [ PAGE 30 ] We do not need a New World. We need to rebuild and reform the Old World. We must salvage Christian Civili- zation that men have almost ruined. We must get back to Christ. Modern man has lost Something. He must find it again before he will have peace and happiness. We need Democracy as a WAY OF LIFE, for that means Christianity. That may be attained by any just form of government. We have to struggle against the totalitarian idea. It is the idea that outlaws God and deifies the State. It is the idea of decrees instead of laws, issued without the consent of the governed. This idea is not confined to the Axis Powers. It is found among men of all nations. There has been a growing tendency in our own nation toward that idea: The first step in the foundation of peace is the recovery of the dignity of the human person. God has given that dignity. From it arise human rights. For more than fifty years the Popes have taught this necessary truth. It is an- nounced as self-evident in the Declaration. For the Decla- ration stemmed from the Christian Tradition. Any sound peace plans must follow the Christian Tradition. The Papal Peace is radical. It goes back to roots. The roots of the Christian Tradition. For 400 years men have tried to follow other traditions. Their failure is written in a welter of blood. The Papal Peace aims at remaking, re- building the world on the Christian Tradition. The Papal Peace calls for social justice and charity first within the Nations. Each Nation must contribute to World Peace. Unless it has true peace within its own borders it can contribute nothing. True peace comes from within. It cannot be imposed from without. A spirit of peace with- in each Nation first. Then International Peace. .True peace means the living together in tranquillity and order. Minds and wills of men must be united in seeking a common objective by common action. It means unity in diversity. The first thing men must agree upon is the cor- rect notion of Society. Society exists for the good of men. Its Foundation is God. Its function is to help men reach God, for God is their End as well as their Beginning. So- [ PAGE 31 ] ciety cannot fulfill its purpose without Law and Authority. That is it needs a JURIDICAL ORDER. A true Legal or Juridical Order must be founded on Truth. There are three vicious modem errors that nullify any real Legal or Juridical Order. They are Positivism, Racism and Statism. The chaos of the modem world shows that a real Juridical Order cannot be built on Materialism. We must return to the true idea of Law, which is ethical and spiritual. From true Law there come ORDER and TRANQUILLITY, which is REAL PEACE. It must be emphasized that no Society can enjoy true peace that disregards the just rights of the workingman. All men of good will must enter the battle for LAST- ING PEACE. It is the NEW CRUSADE to rescue the spirit of man from error, doubt and sin. It is a world-wide battle for truth, justice and love. There are five stages in this battle. We must restore to the human person his dignity and rights; we must restore matrimony and the family to their God-given place in So- ciety; the dignity and rights of Labor must be respected; our JURIDICAL ORDER must be rebuilt; THE COR- RECT IDEA of the State must be brought back to the modern world. There are five postulates for a peaceful world-order. No State, however small it may be, should be deprived of its freedom, integrity and security; minority groups within the Nation must be protected in their national rights; all Na- tions must have access to the natural riches of the world; all Nations must honestly agree on a policy of real limita- tion of armaments; every Nation must refrain from perse- cuting Religion and the Church. r PAGE 32 1 “Blessed be those who realize that great work for a new and just order is not pos- sible unless their eyes are lifted to GOD, keeper and ordainer of all human events, initial source, guardian and avenger of all justice and right.”—Pope Pius XII. A SET OF 6 PAMPHLETS ON God in the Post-War World "GOD—MAN'S FIRST NEED" Rev. Francis J. Connell, C.SS.R. "GOD IN THE HOME" Rev. John A. O'Brien, Ph.D., LL.D. "GOD IN EDUCATION" Rev. Robert I. Gannon, S.J. "GOD IN SOCIETY" Rev. Gerald C. Treacy, S.J. "GOD IN ECONOMIC LIFE" Rev. Wilfrid Parsons, S.J. "GOD IN GOVERNMENT" Rev. James M. Gillis, C.S.P. 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