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Introduction:
Judgment Without Evidence
This is a book born of frustration; a
frustration brought on by years of exposure to the works
of most American writers dealing with the question of
Catholic opposition to modern civilization. For the
articles, essays and volumes which such authors have
produced---promising to treat this question fully and
arousing my hopes accordingly---have seemed to me
ultimately to lead to nothing but dead ends and
disappointment. Whatever their initial goal may have
been, their arguments have generally misinterpreted both
the nature of the Catholic critique as well as the
entire problem of modernity. In doing so, they have
demonstrated the power of the spirit of the times, the
Zeitgeist, over many of even the finest minds and
best intentions.
Any American whose knowledge of the struggle
between the Church and the world in the modern era has
been shaped by the typical texts available to him in
English must be led to two conclusions.
The first and most fundamental of these
conclusions is that everyone agrees that it is
undoubtedly the modern spirit that is on the right track
in any contest with the Church. How could a person be
expected to think otherwise? Most Americans take the
truth of modernity for granted as the first
principle. And even if some writers do go beyond
deploring what they might call the aberrations of the
modern world, and actually come to believe that they
themselves espouse an anti-modernist position, they
almost invariably do so by emphasizing what is merely a
variation on the modern theme; a variation perfectly
familiar to the reader from his everyday environment.
How often, to take but a single example, one sees
certain supposedly anti-revolutionary conservatives
strike at the disease of modernity in the name of an
obsession with individual freedom that is itself a
manifestation of the presence of the same
non-traditional virus.
Secondly, anyone nourished by the available English
sources (with the very notable exception of works like
Michael Davies’ book, The Second Vatican Council and
Religious Liberty) must also conclude that Catholic
positions in the contest with the modern world are
either ludicrous or pointless. How, generally speaking,
could any other opinion be formed? After all, those
people who militantly accept modernity as a dogma
nevertheless insist that they are operating from purely
rational foundations. They cannot allow what they
consider to be irrational Catholic criticisms of
enlightened modernity to be presented as something
worthy of respect to sensible people. Instead, they
dismiss them automatically, as one would exile fruits
from a meat market, or shut his ears to the ramblings of
the insane. At best, they may triumphantly inform their
readers that even if such absurd objections to modernity
once abounded in Catholic circles, they have, since
Vatican II, been banished and no longer torture
otherwise intelligent Christian minds. Meanwhile, some
conservatives who wish to be friendly to the Church in
her commitment to tradition offer “Catholic” solutions
to present-day dilemmas that correspond to their own
unconscious modernism, harmonize nicely with what is
merely another strain of the spirit of the times, and
can be called Christian only with the greatest of
reservations. Hence, authors “friendly” to Catholicism
who have nothing distinctly Catholic to say influence
readers who see that there is nothing specifically
Catholic to learn---which is what American society has
taught them to suspect all along anyway.
This
book, then, hopes to contribute to bridging the gap
between what an American may think he knows about
serious Catholic criticisms of modern conceptions of
human life, political order and social problems, and
what he actually does know---which is generally very
faulty indeed. It is intended to help raise the
consciousness of Americans above their own Zeitgeist;
to aid them to understand that the truly sophisticated
Catholic critique of modernity has never been revealed
to them; to the fact that that critique has been
smothered beneath a smug and even totally thoughtless
disdain.
The task of providing a comprehensive
English-language introduction to this profound Catholic
analysis of the problems of modern civilization is, to a
large degree, the task of describing Catholic
counter-revolutionary thought. This is because the
French Revolution and opposition to it have been and
still continue to be the crucial historical symbols of
the battle of the modern world with the Church; the
struggle of the new order of the ages to “liberate”
itself from the “oppression” of the traditional and
Catholic past of Europe.
This book seeks to demonstrate that much
Catholic counter-revolutionary thought is not at all
“what a vain people thinks”. It will point out the abyss
that separates such thinking from mere conservatism. It
will underline the way in which the doctrines of the
Incarnation and the Mystical Body of Christ lie at the
foundation of the most developed Catholic
counter-revolutionary thinking, precisely because those
doctrines contain sublime teachings on the interaction
of nature and supernature and of individual and society
that are essential to the well-being of mankind. Perhaps
most importantly, it will discuss the profound Catholic
counter-revolutionary conviction that modernity, the
Revolution, and the civilization built upon it are
involved in a great delusion, one that psychologically,
sociologically, as well as intellectually blinds people
even to recognition of obvious truths. This is not
merely because they are objectively wrong, not simply
because they render inevitable enslavement and decay
under the guise of protecting human dignity and assuring
social perfection, but also because their manner of
penetrating and dominating the spirit of our world
causes a veil to descend before our eyes, making it
almost impossible to recognize their error.
Serious Catholic counter-revolutionary
thought is so broad in its scope that the effort of
opening it up to a readership almost totally unaware of
its existence is daunting. I have chosen to place this
task within reasonable bounds by concentrating on an
Italian journal, La Civiltà Cattolica (i.e.,
Catholic Civilization), which was published twice a
month in Rome from 1850 onwards. A study of the writings
of La Civiltà Cattolica offers the student an
opportunity of examining both the theories motivating
the leaders of the Catholic counter-revolutionary camp,
and the way in which these theories were applied to
unfolding events.
La
Civiltà Cattolica
is immensely valuable because of its systematic
presentation of important themes. Nevertheless, it is
essential to point out in an introductory work of this
type that the Roman periodical did not act in a vacuum.
It was especially influenced by events in France and, in
particular, by a French journal, l’Univers.
L’Univers is generally studied only with reference
to its seemingly exaggerated, uncritical support for
Ultramontanism and attack on Gallicanism, which are not
central concerns of this book. Its editors, however,
discussed a vast range of other topics. Many times their
arguments were contentious and flawed, but they
were also capable of great insight in ways that made
them highly useful allies of the Civiltà. Hence,
the ideas and actions of the Parisian l’Univers
will serve as a complement to this book’s primarily
Roman focus. With a view to most effectively introducing
a topic unfamiliar to the majority of American readers,
I shall attempt to develop the history and themes of
Catholic counter-revolutionary thought in as clear,
concise and simple a manner as I can. Anyone wishing to
do further research on the subject would do well to
consult the journals themselves with their wide variety
of interests.
Although the groups and individuals whose invaluable
assistance made this project possible are many---most
notable among them the Earhart and Marguerite Eyer
Wilbur Foundations and Mr. David Lane, who spent
innumerable hours patiently editing early drafts of this
text---the names of two men need to be given pride of
place.
One of
these is Emile Mersch, a Belgian Jesuit priest who died
under tragic circumstances during the 1940 invasion of
the Lowlands. It was Fr. Mersch’s books, The Whole
Christ and The Theology of the Mystical Body,
that
first led me to recognize the Catholic
counter-revolutionary concern for an ecclesiology
evoking major patristic themes. Without the formation
given me by Fr. Mersch’s teaching, I should never have
come to understand the profundity of the issues involved
in the present-day battle for the minds and hearts of
men, nor the full consequences of a Catholic defeat.
Secondly, Catholic discussion of the topics
considered in this text would be immeasurably diminished
had it not been for the courageous efforts of those
prelates of the nineteenth century who sacrificed
everything to teach both supernatural and natural truths
deemed “reactionary” by the spirit of their times. Among
those prelates, the chief figure---as La Civiltà
Cattolica and l’Univers both agreed---was
Giovanni Mastai-Ferretti, Pope Pius IX (1846-1878). A
man of action and of prayer rather than an intellectual,
Blessed Pius IX nevertheless sacrificed himself in
defense of a Catholic civilization that exalted the mind
far beyond anything that the proponents of a so-called
Age of Reason could imagine. And since he did so while
holding a position that might have been used to flatter
the powers of the world rather than risk their
vilification, it is to the memory of his life of
self-sacrifice that this book is dedicated.
• Up • Removing the Blindfold: Introduction • Removing the Blindfold: Chapter One •
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