Chapter 14 - FILL IN HERE

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How They Have

Uncrowned Jesus Christ

“At the last judgment, Christ will accuse those who have expelled Him from public life and will have the most terrible vengeance from such an outrage.”

Pius XI

At the risk of repeating myself, I come back to the social kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ, that dogma of the Catholic Faith, which no one can put in doubt without being a heretic: yes, exactly: a heretic!

Do They Still Have the Faith?

Make a judgment then on the dying faith of the Apostolic Nuncio in Bern, Bishop Marchioni, with whom I had the following conversation on March 31, 1976, in Bern:

-Archbishop Lefebvre: “Some dangerous things can easily be seen…In the Declaration on Religious Liberty, there are some things contrary to what the popes have taught: it is decided that there can no longer be Catholic States!”

-The Nuncio: “But of course, that is evident!”

-Archbishop Lefebvre: “Do you think that that is going to do the Church any good, this suppression of the Catholic States?”

-The Nuncio: “Ah, but you understand, if we do that, we will get a greater religious freedom with the Soviets!”

-Archbishop Lefebvre: “But the social Reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ, what are you doing about that?”

-The Nuncio: “You know, that is impossible now; perhaps in the distant future?…Right now, this Reign is in individuals; we have to open ourselves up to the masses.”

-Archbishop Lefebvre: “But the encyclical Quas Primas, what do you do with that?”

-The Nuncio: “Oh…the pope would not write that anymore, now!”

-Archbishop Lefebvre: “Did you know that in Colombia it was the Holy See that asked for the suppression of the Christian constitution of the State?”

-The Nuncio: “Yes, and here also.”

-Archbishop Lefebvre: “In the Valais?”

-The Nuncio: “Yes, in the Valais. Now, you see, I am invited to all the meetings!”

-Archbishop Lefebvre: “Then you approve the letter that Bishop Adam [Bishop of Sion, in the Valais] wrote to the faithful of his diocese to explain to them why they should vote for the law of separation of Church and State?”

-The Nuncio: “You see, the social kingship of Our Lord, it is very difficult now…”

You see, he no longer believes in it: it is an “impossible” or “very difficult” dogma, “which would not be written now anymore”! How many people think like this today! How many are incapable of understanding that the Redemption of Our Lord Jesus Christ must be brought about with the help of civil society, and that the State therefore must become, within the limits of the temporal order, the instrument of the application of the work of the Redemption. They answer you, “Oh, those are two different things; you are mixing politics and religion!”

Yet, all has been created for Our Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore for the accomplishment of the work of the Redemption: everything, including civil society, which, I have told you, is itself a creature of the Good Lord! Civil society is not a pure creation of the will of men; it results above all from the social nature of man, from the fact that God has created men so that they will live in society; it is written into nature by the Creator. Therefore civil society itself, no less than individuals, must render homage to God, its author and its end, and serve the redeeming design of Jesus Christ.

In September 1977, I gave a conference in Rome at the residence of Princess Palaviccini, and I read there a document from Cardinal Colombo, archbishop of Milan, saying that the State should not have a religion, that it should be “without ideology.” Well, far from contradicting me, the cardinal responded to my attack in L’Avvenire d’Italia by repeating the same thing, saying it again with still more force throughout his article, so much so that it was entitled “lo Stato non puo essere altro que laico”: the State cannot be anything but secular, therefore without religion! A cardinal said that! What idea does he have of the Redemption of Our Lord Jesus Christ? That is unheard of! Look at how much Liberalism has penetrated the Church. If he had said that twenty years before, it would have had the effect of a bomb in Rome; everyone would have protested; Pope Pius XII would have contradicted it and taken measures. However now, it is normal; it appears to be normal. So it is essential for us to have the conviction of this truth of faith: everything, including civil society, has been devised to serve, directly or indirectly, the redeeming plan of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Condemnation of the Separation of Church and State

I stipulate first that the popes have condemned the separation of Church and State only in so far as it is a doctrine and in its application to the nations that have a Catholic majority. Obviously the possible tolerance of other cults in a city that is otherwise Catholic is not condemned, nor, with greater reason, the fact of the plurality of cults that exists in numerous foreign countries which do not belong to what was called in times past Christendom.

This being specified, I affirm with the popes that it is an impiety and an error close to heresy to pretend that the State should be separated from the Church, and the Church from the State. The spirit of faith of a St. Pius X, his profound theology, his pastoral zeal, rise up with vigor against the laicizing enterprise of the separation of Church and State in France. Here is what he declares in his Encyclical Vehementer nos, of February 11, 1906, that I invite you to meditate on:

That the State must be separated from the Church is an absolutely false thesis, a very pernicious error.

Based indeed on this principle that the State must not recognize any religious cult, it is first of all very seriously injurious to God; for the Creator of man is also the Founder of human societies; he keeps them in existence as He sustains us there. We therefore owe Him not only a private worship, but a public and social worship in order to honor Him.

Moreover, this thesis is the very clear negation of the supernatural order. It indeed limits the action of the State to the sole pursuit of public prosperity during this life, which is only the proximate reason for public societies; and it is not concerned in any way, as being foreign to it, with their last reason for existence, which is the eternal beatitude offered to man when this very short life will have come to an end. Since the present order of things, which unfolds in time, finds itself subordinated to the acquisition of that supreme and absolute good, not only must the civil power not place an obstacle in front of this acquisition, but it must besides help us in this.

This thesis likewise upsets the order very wisely established by God in the world, an order that demands a harmonious concord between the two societies. These two societies, religious society and civil society, have indeed the same subjects, although each of them exercises its authority over them in its own sphere. It inevitably results from this that there will be many matters of which the knowledge and judgement will be in the province of one and of the other. Now, when the accord between State and Church comes to disappear, from these common matters the seeds of disputes will easily swarm; they will become very sharp on both sides; thus, the notion of truth will be clouded from this and souls will be filled with a great anxiety.

Finally, this thesis inflicts grave damage onto civil society itself; for it cannot prosper or last a long time when place is not given there to religion, which is for man a supreme rule and sovereign mistress for the inviolable protection of his rights and his duties.

Remarkable Continuity of this Doctrine

The holy pope then relies on the teaching of his predecessor, Leo XIII, from whom he quotes the following passage, showing by the continuity of the doctrine the authority with which it is vested:

Therefore, the Roman Pontiffs have not ceased, according to the circumstances and the times, refuting and condemning the doctrine of separation of Church and State. Our illustrious Predecessor Leo XIII, particularly, several times and magnificently exposed what should be, according to Catholic doctrine, the relations between the two societies.

There follows the passage from Immortale Dei that I have quoted to you in the preceding chapter, and again this quotation:

Human societies cannot, without becoming criminal, conduct themselves as if God did not exist, or refuse to be concerned with religion as if it were a foreign thing to them or something that could not serve them in any way… As for the Church, which has God Himself as its originator, to exclude it from the active life of the nation, from the laws, from the education of youth and from domestic society, is to commit a great and pernicious error.1

We have only to reread once more that passage of Immortale Dei to ascertain that Leo XIII in his turn affirms that he is only taking up again the doctrine of his predecessors:

These doctrines, which human reason rejects, and which have a very considerable influence on the running of public things, the Roman Pontiffs, Our predecessors, in full consciousness of what the Apostolic Charge demanded of them, have never suffered them to be expressed with impunity. So that, in his Letter-Encyclical Mirari vos, of August 15, 1832, Gregory XVI, on the subject of the separation of Church and State, expresses himself in these terms: “We cannot expect for the Church and the State the best results from the tendencies of those who pretend to separate the Church from the State and to disrupt the mutual harmony between the priesthood and the empire. Indeed the instigators of an unrestrained liberty dread this harmony, which has always been so favorable and beneficial to religious and civil interests.”

In the same manner, Pius IX, each time that the occasion presented itself, condemned the false opinions that were most in vogue; and afterwards he had a collection made of them,2 in order that, in such a deluge of errors, Catholics might have a sure direction.3

I conclude that such a doctrine, which teaches the union that must exist between the Church and the State and condemns the opposed error of their separation, takes on, by its perfect continuity with four successive popes from 1832 to 1906, and from the solemn declaration that St. Pius X made on this at the consistory of February 21, 1906, a maximum authority, and beyond a doubt even the guarantee of infallibility.

How then does a nuncio Marchioni or a Cardinal Colombo arrive at denying this doctrine, which is derived from the Faith and is probably infallible? How an ecumenical council managed to put it aside, in the museum of archaic curiosities, this is what I will explain to you soon by telling you about the penetration of Liberalism into the Church owing to a movement of pernicious thought, which is liberal Catholicism.

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1 Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, cf. PIN. 149.

2 The Syllabus, in which condemned proposition number 55 is stated thus:

“The Church must be separated from the State, and the State from the Church.”

3 Immortale Dei, PIN. 151.

Part II

Liberal Catholicism