THE ANGELUS PRESS
1985
Published on the web with permission of the author.

Contents:

FROM SELF-CRITICISM TO SELF-DESTRUCTION: A QUOTE FROM CARDINAL RATZINGER
INTRODUCTION
DEFINITION OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
DECLINE AND RENEWAL
CITIZENS OF HEAVEN
THE DIVINIZATION OF MAN
RATIONALISM
PROTESTANTISM
MODERNISM
A SAINT INTERVENES
THE ENCYCLICAL HUMANI GENERIS
MARXISM
DEMOCRACY
OCCULT FORCES
THE EVE OF THE COUNCIL
THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL
POPE PAUL VI PROTESTS
THE COUNCIL AS AN EVENT
BISHOP ADRIAN'S TESTIMONY
THE SPIRIT OF VATICAN II
FANTASY VERSUS FACT
THE CRANKS TAKE OVER
NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR
THE DEIFICATION OF MAN
THE SATANIC CONNECTION
INEVITABILITY?
CATHOLIC RESISTANCE
THE CONSERVATIVE OPTION
THIS SCHISMATIC IMPASSE
THE CATHOLIC WAY
BACK COVER STATEMENT

FROM SELF-CRITICISM TO SELF-DESTRUCTION:
A QUOTE FROM CARDINAL RATZINGER

The text of this pamphlet was delivered as a lecture in Belfast and Dublin in October 1984. No attempt has been made to adapt the Format to the printed word. Two months later L'Osservatore Romano, the official journal of the Holy See, carried a report of an interview given by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which endorses the conclusion of Mr. Davies concerning the effects of Vatican Il in a very dramatic manner. We quote:

FROM SELF-CRIIICISM TO SELF-DESTRUCTION

"Certainly, the results [of Vatican II] seem cruelly opposed to the expectations of everyone, beginning with those of Pope John XXIII and then of Paul VI: expected was a new Catholic unity and instead we have been exposed to dissension which---to use the words of Paul VI---seems to have gone from self-criticism to self-destruction. Expected was a new enthusiasm, and many wound up discouraged and bored. Expected was a great step forward, and instead we find ourselves faced with a progressive process of decadence which has developed for the most part precisely under the sign of a calling back to the Council, and has therefore contributed to discrediting for many. The net result therefore seems negative. I am repeating here what I said ten years after the conclusion of the work: it is incontrovertible that this period has definitely been unfavorable for th Catholic Church."

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger,
L'Osservatore Romano (English edition),
24 December 1984

INTRODUCTION

I HAVE BEFORE ME a recent letter from an Irish bishop. I had better not mention his name as the sentiments he expresses are not likely to win him an award as the most popular prelate of the year in any poll conducted among his fellow bishops. "It seems to me," he says, "that ordinary Catholics here want to keep the old traditions---as indeed does the Pope himself. For too long we have been sold an anti-Catholic style of ecumenism by the media. If we don't wake up to the danger soon, it can be for the next generation a case of one religion being as good as another---and for the next generation after that, why worry about belonging to any religion at all?"

"If we don't wake up to the danger soon ..." warns the bishop---but what danger? If we are to believe what the Catholic media inform us, if we are to believe what most of the Catholic clergy tell us, including the bishops, perhaps above all, the bishops, we are a blessed generation, blessed because we have the great privilege of living during the great Vatican II renewal.

This brings me to the subject of goldfish. I understand that there is a most effective method of killing goldfish which can be employed by tender-hearted people who do not wish to inflict pain upon these colorful little creatures and yet, for some compelling reason, wish to dispose of them. I had better point out, in order to avoid the wrath of any goldfish lovers, that I have never experimented to discover whether the method actually works. I can look any goldfish in the eye without the least tremor of conscience! The method is as follows: heat up the water in which the goldfish is disporting himself very, very slowly, degree by degree---over a period of days---if possible. The goldfish will continue on his merry way, evincing not the least sign of discomfort and then, almost imperceptibly, he will be floating upside down---dead, stone dead.

Many Catholics today, most Catholics perhaps, are like goldfish swimming in a bowl in which the temperature is now reaching a very high level. Spiritually, to all intents and purposes, many are now floating on their backs. The Catholic Faith which once meant so much to them has died completely, they exist as so many spiritual zombies, proclaiming themselves to be Catholics but professing, in fact, what Cardinal Newman condemned as the "religion of the world." Some of those here tonight will be like goldfish whose bowls have had their temperature raised to a fairly high level, and it will not be easy for me to get through to them. Like a goldfish, they will not realize that anything is wrong. In fact, they may well be convinced that everything is better than it ever has been. These are the Catholics who actually believe that we are witnessing a renewal. If they believe that, then they have passed the stage where they can be helped by anything short of a dramatic Divine intervention. But there may be others swimming in water which is only tepid; if so, it may be possible for me to help them to "wake up to the danger" while there is still time. It will be my task to convince them that there really is a danger to which they should wake up, not soon, but immediately; and to suggest some appropriate reactions to this danger.

DEFINITION OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Before discussing the Church since Vatican II we need to be clear as to exactly what we mean by the Catholic Church. As Christians we believe ourselves to have an eternal destiny. Other creatures on our planet live, then die, and are no more. But we have been brought into being by an omnipotent Creator to know Him, love Him and serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him in the next. We cannot love someone we do not know, and we cannot serve Him unless we know His Will for us. The Christian religion is unique in claiming that God Himself became man, that God the Son, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, was incarnate of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. We believe that on the altar of the Cross, as Priest and Victim, He offered Himself in atonement for our sins: that He rose again from the dead, and, with the body which had been placed in the tomb, He ascended into Heaven to prepare a place for those who follow Him. All Christians believe this, but as Catholic Christians we believe something more. We believe that the Incarnation did not end when Our Lord ascended into Heaven, but that it has been continued in the Catholic Church---which is the Mystical Body of Christ. The Catholic Church, in its most profound reality, is an extension of the Incarnation throughout the nations and the centuries. The Catholic Church today is Jesus Christ among us fulfilling the mandate entrusted to Him by His Father---a mandate which He in turn entrusted to His Church. This mandate is to save the whole human race without distinction of time and place.

It is because the Church is Christ in the world that we are bound to say that there is no salvation outside the Church, because there is no salvation outside Christ. It is because the Church is Christ in the world that we are bound to say that it is without spot or wrinkle. However, in using the Mystical Body to continue His work of salvation Our Lord knew that the effectiveness with which it would perform this task would depend upon the zeal and sanctity of its human members. All Catholics are truly members of the Mystical Body, united with Jesus, its Divine Head, and with each other. But because we are human we are imperfect, and this imperfection can affect even those members in the highest positions, not excluding the Pope himself.

DECLINE AND RENEWAL

Those who are familiar with the history of the Church will know how often its mission has been hampered by the weakness of its human members, and, alas, this weakness has usually been more apparent among the clergy than the laity. Where the laity are lax and decadent it will almost invariably be found that they are being ministered to by a decadent clergy. Hilaire Belloc considered that the greatest proof of the Divine nature of the Catholic Church is its survival despite those who have so often governed it. Time and again in the history of the Church we witness declines which would have destroyed a merely human organization, but then a great Pope or a great saint will arise and initiate a process of renewal. For something like a century and a half, from 904 to 1049, the Church suffered a period of abysmal decadence, a period which can be traced back even before the election of the unscrupulous, immoral and truly terrible Pope Sergius III in 904. But in 1049, a Saint was elected to the papacy, St. Leo IX, who was wholeheartedly behind the radical reform movement in the Church inspired initially by the monks of Cluny. St. Leo had a clear policy in mind: he saw that the Church must be reformed from the top. Nothing could be done unless the episcopate was purified. But, under his predecessors, unworthy bishops had proliferated throughout the Church, and, had it not been for her Divine constitution, they must inevitably have destroyed her.

In the fourth century, Pope Liberius showed lamentable weakness in the face of the Arian heresy. He signed an ambiguous semi-Arian formula and excommunicated St. Athanasius, defender of Our Lord's divinity. Once again we can only attribute the survival of the Church to Divine protection. For a time it seemed that Arianism had indeed triumphed. Most of the bishops apostatized, or at least temporized. Cardinal Newman pointed out that the Faith was preserved in that period primarily by the laity, many of whom remained true to the Faith which they had received from the bishops, but which the bishops themselves had abandoned or lacked the courage to proclaim. These faithful Catholics and a few valiant priests had to worship outside the churches in their dioceses, and do so in secret to avoid persecution by their own bishops. St. Athanasius went in secret from diocese to diocese, offering Mass, preaching, consoling, exhorting Catholics to keep the Faith that had been handed down to them, and even ordaining priests so that a true Catholic priesthood would continue. Thus the Faith was kept alive. Liberius was the first Roman Pontiff not to be canonized whereas St. Athanasius was raised to the honors of the altar.
 
In the reign of King Henry VIII, the entire English hierarchy, with one exception, was willing to accept that their adulterous monarch was "the only supreme head in earth of the Church of England." This single exception was, of course, Bishop John Fisher of Rochester, now a Saint. "The fort is betrayed even of them that should have defended it," said St. John Fisher of his apostate colleagues. St. Thomas More referred sadly to the English clergy as "lacking in grace."

In chapter XXVI, verse 35, of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, we find the Apostles affirming that they would die rather than deny Our Lord. In verse 56 of the same chapter we read that when Our Lord was arrested they all left Him and fled. I have heard this referred to as the first collegial decision made by the Catholic hierarchy. Later, as we know, the first pope personally denied Our Lord three times.

I have mentioned these sad facts from Catholic history to stress the point I made earlier, that although the Catholic Church is indeed the Mystical Body of Christ in the world, its mission has often been hampered by the failings of its human members. But however widespread the extent of human weakness within the Church, it can never fail as a whole in its Divine mission. It cannot fail because Our Lord has promised to be with it until the end of the world. The Church will continue as a visible, hierarchically governed body until Our Lord comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead. But this guarantee does not apply to the Church in every country. Whole nations have been lost to the Church and the faith has never returned on any significant scale. At the beginning of the fifth century there was no more Catholic area than North Africa, home of St. Augustine of Hippo. It is now almost entirely Muslim. The Scandinavian countries were once entirely Catholic; now the Church has only a vestigial presence there, and is composed mostly of migrant workers.

CITIZENS OF HEAVEN

The greatest problem facing the Catholic is that he must be in the world, but not of the world. He is a citizen of Heaven, no more than a sojourner upon earth. Whenever we say the "Hail Holy Queen," we refer to the fact that we are all "poor banished children of Eve," living here in exile. But I wonder how many of us really mean it? Even the greatest Saint finds it hard to pass through this world unscathed and for the majority of us who are not Saints the question is not whether we are influenced by the world, but the extent to which we have been influenced by it. I am not thinking here primarily of such evident influences as the temptations of materialism, of lust, or of gluttony. The pressure to succumb to such temptations has never been greater than in the present era due to the proliferation and sophistication of the mass media. Television advertising in particular convinces us that we have needs we could never even have dreamt of otherwise, and that our well-being and social status demand that these needs be satisfied without delay, irrespective of cost. I am thinking primarily of intellectual temptations---temptations which weaken our faith or even contradict our faith. These too, of course, are closely bound up with the mass media and take the form generally of a desire to conform to the spirit of the age. There is nothing new about this. In his Popular History of the Catholic Church, Monsignor Philip Hughes notes that already by the end of the third century: "We are seeing the appearance of types that will never cease to reappear throughout two thousand years: Catholics who propose to explain Catholicism by synthesis with the intellectual life of the time."

THE DIVINIZATION OF MAN

This problem has been particularly acute since the renaissance. This word is French and means "rebirth." It refers to the rebirth of interest in classical studies which began in Italy in the fourteenth century. Those engaged upon these studies became known as humanists, as their researches were concerned with purely human topics, whereas in Europe until that time, God had been the focus of almost every aspect of scholarship and art. Music, architecture, literature, painting, drama, philosophy, cosmology, and above all, theology---the queen of sciences---were centered upon the Creator. The Creator-creature relationship was axiomatic to every aspect of human thought. God is our Creator, and as His creatures we are inferior to Him, dependent upon Him, and bound to submit to His laws as interpreted to us by His Church. Above all, acceptance of the Creator-creature relationship involves acceptance of the fact that God is perfect while we are imperfect.

Initially there was no conflict between humanism and the Church. Many humanists were also ecclesiastics. But as time passed it became clear that the movement was tending to relegate religion to a level where it had no bearing on the way man thought. This tendency was implicit rather than explicit. It taught that while faith is true in its own domain, the reason is concerned only with what is scientifically demonstrable. The Creator-creature relationship was not formally denied, but attention tended to be focussed upon man rather than God. Man was seen as an autonomous being, the focus of truth in the world of which he was the master, and which he had the ability to subdue and perfect, a being capable of building an earthly paradise by his own efforts, a utopia. In practical terms this led to the divinization of man; the more God's influence was restricted to the sacristy, and the more God was diminished, the more man exalted himself and became his own god. In his book Christian Humanism, Professor Thomas Molnar provides us with the following definition: "Humanism was a doctrine, or network of doctrines, putting man in place of God, and endowing him with virtues he was inevitably to abuse."

RATIONALISM

This examination of renaissance humanism has, of necessity, been oversimplified. Its true implications were eventually made explicit by the nineteenth-century rationalists and in the Marxist religion. (It is more accurate to describe Marxism as a religion rather than a political or economic system.) Rationalism is the inevitable outcome of humanism. A Catholic submits his beliefs to the judgment of the Church's infallible Teaching Authority---the Magisterium. This word is derived from magister ,the Latin word for teacher. A Catholic will submit to the Magisterium even when, if left to his own judgment, he would choose otherwise. Very often difficult personal circumstances, the pressures of society, and popular opinion may tempt a particular Catholic to follow a course of action condemned by the Magisterium---contraception, abortion, divorce---but a true Catholic will submit to the Magisterium no matter how difficult this may be. A rationalist will not submit to any authority external to ills own reason---the word rationalist is derived from the Latin ratio, reason. A rationalist makes his own reason the arbiter of what he will or will not believe, for how he will or will not behave: There is no room for God, no room for a Creator-creature relationship in the scheme of things.

PROTESTANTISM

Protestantism provides a direct link between renaissance humanism and nineteenth-century rationalism. The sixteenth-century Protestants and their successors today are, in the final analysis, rationalists. They would deny this on the basis that they do submit themselves to an external authority, the Bible. But if pressed they would have to admit that what they mean by this is the Bible interpreted by their own reason. Luther substituted his personal interpretation of the Bible for that of the Magisterium, but he was furious when other Protestants had the temerity to differ from his own theories. He saw nothing incongruous in expecting others to treat his opinion as infallible when he repudiated the infallible authority of the Church. The history of Protestantism has been one of fragmentation from its very inception. Within decades some leaders of the constantly dividing sects felt more animosity towards each other than they did toward the Pope. Every Protestant is the ultimate arbiter for himself of what the Bible does or does not mean. Every Protestant is, in other words, his own pope. The sixteenth-century Protestants rejected much Catholic teaching on the Sacraments and the nature of the Church, but they upheld belief in such fundamental dogmas as the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Virgin Birth and the Resurrection. There is virtually no dogma which was not questioned by the nineteenth-century heirs of the Reformation, the so-called higher critics in Germany. Let us examine just one example. Science, they assured us, proves that men do not rise from the dead---therefore, the Man Jesus could not have done so. The story of the Resurrection is therefore symbolic. Jesus had such an influence on His followers that this influence lived on after His death; it was just as if He were still there with them. This is the true meaning of the Resurrection, and it was symbolized in the story of the empty tomb.

MODERNISM

As I said earlier, Catholics living in a pluralistic society cannot remain uninfluenced by the predominating trends witltin that society, and this is particularly true of academics. The last thing an academic enjoys is to be thought of by his peers as a second class scholar, a man who does not enjoy true freedom of research. At the end of the nineteenth century some Catholic scholars had become convinced that if the Church was to retain its credibility in the twentieth century, it must accept at least some of the findings of the higher criticism. They believed, probably in all sincerity, that they were the men with their fingers on the pulse of the age; they were the men who would save the Church from the folly of its obscurantist leaders, and they alone were the men who guaranteed the Church a future. These men were the Modernists, described by St. Pius X as the most pernicious enemies of the Church, putting into operation their plans for her undoing not from without but from within.

A SAINT INTERVENES

St. Pius X realized that his first duty as Pope was to guard the Deposit of Faith, no matter what the consequence. He dealt with the Modernists first by attempting persuasion, then placing their books on the Index, then by condemning their errors in his Syllabus, Lamentabili, and the Encyclical Pascendi, both published in 1907. Those Modernists who would not submit were excommunicated, and to keep those who had not made their opinions public from teaching in Catholic institutions, he instituted the Anti-Modernist Oath in 1910. This brought the fury of so-called modern civilization down upon him, but he succeeded in purging the Church of the public expression of Modernism for three decades.

THE ENCYCLICAL HUMANI GENERIS

Sadly, Modernism had not been totally eradicated from the Church. It had resurfaced again by the nineteen-fifties to such an extent that, in 1950, Pope Pius XII felt it necessary to issue an Encyclical, Humani Generis, warning the bishops of the world of certain false trends which threatened to sap the foundation of Catholic teaching. This Encyclical is still in print and is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand what is happening in the field of religious education today. In 1950 the opinions condemned by the Encyclical were circulating in a semi-clandestine manner among theologians. Today, they provide the basis for the religious instruction given to our very youngest children! Doubt, Pope Pius warned, was being cast upon the existence of Angels, the teaching of the Council of Trent on Original Sin, and, indeed, sin in general considered as an offense against God. It was being suggested, he complained, that the doctrine of transubstantiation should be revised in such a manner which would make the presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist a symbol and no more; it was even suggested that the Mystical Body of Christ and the Catholic Church were not synonymous. Those subscribing to these errors, the Pope explained, were motivated by an attitude of false ecumenism, "a burning desire to break down all the barriers by which men of good will are now separated from one another." Some had "too ready an ear for novelties" and were "afraid of seeming ill informed about the progress which science has made in our day. At any rate, they are eager to emancipate themselves from Authority; and the danger is that they will lose touch, by insensible degrees, with the truth divinely revealed to us, leading others besides themselves into error."

MARXISM

Thus, on the eve of the Second Vatican Council, Modernism was a very potent force among Catholic academics, particularly in continental Europe, though much less so in the English-speaking world. Another powerful movement which inevitably affected the thinking of some Catholic intellectuals was that of Marxism, which, whether we like it or not, is undoubtedly the most influential movement of our century. It is an explicit manifestation of what was implicit in renaissance humanism. It is, in fact, the ultimate stage in man's self-glorification. Renaissance humanists had theorized about constructing a Utopia, a paradise on earth. Marxists have undertaken the task as a practical proposition. Universal happiness, they say, will oe brought about by creating an economic system which caters for every possible material need of every citizen, and when this has happened, religion will wither away. Under previous economic systems, the Marxists argue, the mass of the people had no hope of happiness on earth and so they projected their needs and desires into an illusory life to come. Religion was an opium fed to the people by those who wished to keep them in a state of subservience and deprivation. The fundamental axiom of Marxism's theory of dialectical materialism is that nothing exists beyond matter. Marxism is based on atheism, the repudiation of God.

DEMOCRACY

Most Catholics today are unaware of the fact that what many people mean by democracy today is as incompatible with Catholicism as Marxism. There is certainly no concept which has influenced the thinking of the non-communist world during this century more than that of democracy, and few Catholics living in the world can have remained free from its influence. I can well imagine that some of you will be asking what on earth there is to criticize in the notion of democracy. Well, it depends on which notion of democracy you are considering, and there is one in particular which the popes have condemned unceasingly as the most pernicious of all evils. Before explaining what this notion is, I will explain what it is not. The Church is prepared to accept any form of government which respects the law of God. It will thus work equally well with an absolute  monarchy or governments elected on the British model by
a popular vote in a free and fair election. This is probably what most British or Irish Catholics mean when they use the term "democracy." But it is not democracy in this sense that popes have condemned. They are not concerned with how a government is chosen, but in whose name it governs. They condemn absolutely the notion that a government acts in the name of the people, and that our legislators are delegates of the people. Not so, say the popes. All authority is derived from God, including that of rulers. They derive their authority from God and govern in His Name, even if chosen to do so by an election based on universal suffrage. Thus, no rulers have the right to enact laws which conflict with the universal law of God, not even if a majority of the people---even an overwhelming majority of the people---supports such a law. Rulers who legalize divorce, contraception, abortion, or unnatural vice, are abusing their authority.

The false notion of democracy condemned by the Popes was also implicit in the ideas of some renaissance humanists. If reason is the ultimate arbiter of conduct, then clearly the conclusions of the majority provide the norms by which society should be regulated. This pernicious theory was made explicit in the Declaration of the Rights of Man, enacted by the victorious revolutionaries in France. There is no place in them for the rights of God. The Creator-creature relationship has been consigned to oblivion. Man is truly autonomous at last. This Declaration constitutes a calculated repudiation of the Catholic position, although some individual articles do not conflict with Church teaching. The revolutionaries had cast God down from His throne and replaced Him with man. They even went to the extent of installing a courtesan as goddess of reason in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, and there is no doubt some particular significance in their choice of a member of this profession to fill the role. There is now no authority higher than majority opinion among the people in most of the so-called free world. There are no moral absolutes. If a majority of voters concludes that murdering unborn babies is wrong then this action is indeed murder and must be punished; but if a majority decided that the act is no more than an exercise of "a woman's right to choose," then abortion ceases to be murder. Unfortunately the concept of democracy makes no provision for the unborn to register a vote.

Democracy, in the sense condemned by the Popes, is now taken for granted almost everywhere in the free world. Its fruits are apparent in the moral decadence of the western democracies today.

OCCULT FORCES

Another factor in the gradual undermining of Christianity which preceded the Council is the influence of occult forces conspiring directly to destroy the Church. Some Catholics see the hand of freemasonry in every adverse event and trend, others scoff at the idea that an organized conspiracy exists. It is known from Masonic documents that they intended to infiltrate the Church and destroy her from within; it is also known that they intended to use moral corruption as a means of undermining Christian society. But because Masonry is an occult organization, a secret society, it is impossible to decide or to prove the extent to which present events are a direct result of its machinations. What cannot be denied is that what Masons said would happen is happening, but conclusive proof that it has happened as a direct result of the Masonic conspiracy is hard to come by. Masons, however, played a key role in the French and most other revolutions.

It should be added that, as the Popes have always taken great pains to point out, not all Masons are engaged in a conspiracy against the Church. In English-speaking countries most Masons, especially those in the lower degrees, are members for business and social reasons; they think of Masonry as being no more than a philanthropic mutual benefit society. Such men are often practising Protestants, including---many clerics, and they insist on the essentially religious nature of Masonry. But Masonry is syncretic; it will not postulate one faith as having greater validity than another, which is equivalent to a denial of truth in any religion. Its Great Architect is no more than a symbol for the common consciousness of mankind working inexorably towards a condition of universal brotherhood under masonic control.
In his Encyclical Humanum Genus, condemning Freemasonry, Pope Leo XIII condemned its fundamental tenet as that of naturalism, and naturalism in this sense brings together all the facets of rationalism set in motion by the renaissance which I have described so far. Pope Leo wrote:
 
The fundamental doctrine of the Naturalists is that human nature and human reason must be in all things mistress and guide. This decided, they either ignore man's duties towards God or pervert them by vague and erroneous opinions. For they deny that anything has been revealed by God; they do not admit any religious dogma or truth that cannot be understood by the human intelligence; they deny the existence of any teacher who ought to be believed by reason of the authority of his office. Since, however, it is the special and exclusive function of the Catholic Church to preserve from any trace of corruption and to set forth in their integrity the truths divinely entrusted to her keeping, including her own authority to teach them to the world, and the other heavenly aids to salvation, it is against the Church that the rage of the enemies of the supernatural and their most ferocious attacks are principally directed.

The key phrase in this passage is that "they deny the existence of any teacher who ought to be believed by reason .of the authority of his office." This anti-authoritarian attitude received considerable impetus as a result of the Second World War and the expansion of totalitarian communism. The very concept of authority came to be looked upon with disfavor, which is not really surprising in view of the repellent nature of the fascist and communist dictatorships. There has been a marked aversion for authority among young people in many countries from the fifties onwards, an attitude which is a reflection of the same trend among the liberal thinkers who exercise such influence in the media. The Second World War has also led, again not surprisingly, to a widespread desire for unity and brotherhood---particularly among the European countries which had suffered so much during the War and which were to be so influential during the Second Vatican Council, notably France, Holland and Germany. Anything which caused division was looked upon with disfavor. Thus the concept of ecumenism was the order of the day. Doctrines which divided Christians should be minimized or discarded; it was what united the different communions that mattered. Christ said that He had come to bring truth into world; but for ecumenists, if truth causes division then it, too, is expendable. This universal good will was reflected in large scale efforts to relieve material want in what had become known as the Third World. The Catholic Church has been second to none in its concern for the corporal works of mercy carried out in the name of Our Lord. But this was a new phenomenon, a desire to relieve material want totally unrelated to evangelization; in other words, pure philanthrophy. Evidently, there was a great deal of Christian compassion in the support given by Catholics to organizations dedicated to eliminating material poverty, but there was a disquieting trend in that material deprivation was seen as the ultimate---if not the only---evil. There were even those who felt that material aid was not the ideal solution to the problems of the Third World, it could even be a hindrance. The solution to material deprivation was a change in the system of government. Christians could best help the world's poor by changing unjust political systems and, in practical terms, this could only mean in a socialist, i.e., a Marxist direction.


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