THE PROGRAMME OF CHRIST

and

THE PLANS OF SATAN

Our Lord’s Programme for Order may be outlined as follows:

Satan’s Plans for Disorder may be outlined as follows:

Our Lord’s Mystical Body the Catholic Church, supernatural and supranational, which all states and nations are called upon to acknowledge, has been established by God as the one Way for the ordered return of human beings to Him. Into it all men of all nations are called to enter as His members. “Men living together in society are under the power of God no less than individuals are, and society, not less than individuals, owes gratitude to God, who gave it being and maintains it, and whose ever-bounteous goodness enriches it with countless blessings. Since, then, no one is allowed to be remiss in the service due to God . . . we are bound absolutely to worship God in that way which He has shown to be His will . . . It cannot be difficult to find out which is the true religion, if only it be sought with an earnest and unbiased mind; for proofs are abundant and striking . . . From all these [proofs] it is evident that the only true religion is the one established by Jesus Christ Himself, and which He committed to His Church to protect and propagate” (Leo XIII Encyclical Letter, Immortale Dei, On the Christian Constitution of States.).

“Justice therefore forbids, and reason itself forbids, the state to be godless; or to adopt a line of action which would end in godlessness - namely, to treat the various religions (as they call them) alike, and to bestow upon them promiscuously equal rights and privileges. Since, then, the profession of one religion is necessary in the state, that religion must be professed which alone is true, and which can be recognized without difficulty, especially in Catholic States, because the marks of truth are, as it were, engraven upon it” (Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter, Libertas, On Human Liberty).

“By degrees the religion of Christ was put on the same level with false religions and placed ignominiously in the same category with them” (Pius XI, Encyclical Letter, Quas Primas, On the Kingship of Christ).

Pope Pius XI condemned separation of Church and state more than once. In the Encyclical On Christian Marriage, he praised the Italian Matrimonial Law and the solemn Convention entered into between the Holy See and the Kingdom of Italy and then added. “This might well be a striking example to all of how, even in this our own day (in which sad to say, the absolute separation of the civil power from the Church, and indeed from every religion, is so often taught), the one supreme authority can be united and associated with the other without detriment to the rights and supreme power of either, thus protecting Christian parents from pernicious evils and menacing ruin.”

Again the same Pontiff writes as follows: “It is assuredly with no small grief We learn that the legislators have openly declared that the State has no religion, and that they have accordingly confirmed and ratified what the Constitution of the Spanish Government has already unjustly laid down, namely, the separation of Civil Society from the Church. To avoid dwelling too long on this matter, We do not wish to point out at too great length what a grievous error they commit who hold that such a separation is licit and worthy of approval, especially since it is a question of a nation almost all of whose citizens glory in the name of Catholic. Indeed, if the matter is examined closely, this iniquitous separation, as we have more than once indicated, is the necessary consequence of the theories of the Laicists” (Encyclical Letter, On the Persecution of the Church in Spain).

Pope Leo XIII stressed the same divine principle. “The main factor in bringing things to this happy state were the ordinances and decrees of your synods, especially of those which in more recent times were convened and confirmed by the authority of the Apostolic See. But, moreover (a fact which it gives pleasure to acknowledge), thanks are due to the equity of the laws which obtain in America and to the customs of your well ordered Republic. For the Church amongst you, unopposed by the Constitution and government of your nation, fettered by no hostile legislation, protected against violence by the common laws and the impartiality of the tribunals, is free to live and act without hindrance. Yet, though all this is true, it would be very erroneous to draw the conclusion that in America is to be sought the type of the most desirable status of the Church, or that it would be universally lawful or expedient for State and Church to be, as in America separated and divorced.” (Encyclical Letter, Longinque Oceani, On Catholicity in the United States).

Satan aims at preventing the acknowledgement by States and Nations of the Catholic Church as the One Way established by God for ordered return to Him. When this acknowledgement has been brought about in spite of his efforts and those of his satellites, he strives to get it undone and to induce the State to persecute the Catholic Church. The first step towards this is to get all religions, including the Jewish religion, put on the same level as the Catholic Church. The granting of full citizenship to the Jews, who as a nation are engaged in preparing for the Natural Messiah, tends in the same direction. This putting of all religious on the same level is usually called in the newspapers separation of Church and State. (Cf. Accounts of Revolutions from the French Revolution of 1789 to the Spanish Revolution of 1931).

Satan spreads perplexity and disorder in minds by confusing the false tolerance of Liberalism, by which equal rights are granted to truth and error, with the true tolerance of the Catholic Church. “As to tolerance,” writes Leo XIII (Encyclical Letter, Libertas, On Human Liberty), “it is surprising how far removed from the equity and prudence of the Church are those who profess what is called Liberalism. For, in allowing that boundless licence of which we have spoken, they exceed all limits and end at last by making no apparent distinction between truth and error, honesty and dishonesty . . . it is contrary to reason that error and truth should have equal rights . . . For right is a moral power which it is absurd to suppose that nature has accorded indifferently to truth and falsehood, justice and injustice.”

“The Church,” writes the same learned Pontiff (Encyclical Letter, Immortale Dei, On the Christian Constitution of States), “deems it unlawful to place the various forms of divine worship on the same footing as the true religion, but does not on that account, condemn those rulers who for the sake of securing some great good or of hindering some great evil, patiently allow custom or usage to be a kind of sanction for each kind of religion having its place in the State. And, in fact, the Church is wont to take earnest heed that no one shall be forced to embrace the Catholic Faith against his will.”

Satan also spreads perplexity and disorder in minds by introducing confusion between Anti-Semitism, which is the detestable hatred of the Jews as a race, and the duty incumbent upon Catholics of combating valiantly for the integral rights of Christ the King and opposing Jewish Naturalism. We see this clearly in the following quotation from the Jewish writer Bernard Lazare: “The Jew is the living testimony of the disappearance of the State based on theological principles, that state which the Anti-Semites hope to restore. From the day a Jew first occupied a public position, the Christian State was in danger. That is perfectly accurate and the Anti-Semites who say that the Jews have destroyed the correct idea of the State could more justly assert that the entrance of the Jews into Christian Society has symbolized the destruction of the State, I mean, of course, the Christian State” (L’Antisémitisme, p. 361).

Satan wants us to forget that there is one True Religion, the Supernatural Religion established by Our Lord Jesus Christ, True God and True Man. He wants us also to lose sight of the fact that there are organized forces working for the advent of the Natural Messias.

“By the fact that the indiscriminate freedom of all forms of worship is proclaimed, truth is confused with error, and the Holy and Immaculate Spouse of Christ is placed on the same level as heretical sects and even as Jewish perfidy” (Pius VII, Letter, Post tam diuturnas).

Satan has not left us in doubt about his enthusiasm for the Declaration of the “rights of man” and the principles of the French Revolution of 1789. “Long live Liberty, Equality, Fraternity! That is the favourable time for us” are amongst the expressions used by the possessed children of Illfurt, Alsace. (Cf. The Devil, his words and actions in the possessed children of Illfurt, from the official documents).

As a consequence, states and nations are called upon to acknowledge the right of the Catholic Church by the voice of the Pope and bishops to decide what favours or hinders our most real life, namely, our life as members of Christ. This right of the Catholic Church is known as the Indirect Power. It belongs to the Catholic Church as the sole divinely-appointed Guardian of the whole Moral Law, natural and revealed.

“The Church of Christ is the true and sole teacher of virtue and guardian of morals” (Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter, Immortale Dei, On the Christian Constitution of States).

“The Lord Jesus reigns in civil society . . . when the Church holds that position of dignity which was allotted to her by her Divine Author, that of a perfect society, mistress and guide of all other societies” (Pope Pius XI, Encyclical Letter, Ubi Arcano, On the Peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ).

“If the natural law enjoins upon us to love devotedly and to defend the country that gave us birth, and in which we were brought up, so that every good citizen hesitates not to face death for his native land, very much more is it the urgent duty of Christians to be ever animated by like sentiments towards the Church. For the Church is the Holy City of the Living God, born of God Himself, and by Him built up and established. Therefore we are bound to love dearly the country whence we have received the means of enjoyment this mortal life affords, but we have a much more urgent obligation to love, with ardent love, the Church to which we owe the life of the soul, a life that will endure forever” (Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter, Sapientiæ Christianiæ, On the Chief Duties of Christians as Citizens). “Christ instituted in the Church a living, authoritative and permanent Teaching Authority, which He strengthened by His own power, taught by the Spirit of Truth, and confirmed by miracles. He willed and ordered, under the gravest penalties, that its teachings should be received as if they were His own ” (Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter, Satis Cognitum, On the Unity of the Church.)

“In defining the limits of the obedience owed to the pastors of souls,” writes Pope Leo XIII, “but most of all to the authority of the Roman Pontiff, it must not be supposed that it is only to be yielded in relation to dogmas of which the obstinate denial cannot be disjoined from the crime of heresy. Nay further, it is not enough sincerely and firmly to assent to doctrines which, though not defined by any solemn pronouncement of the Church, are by her proposed to belief, as divinely revealed in her common and universal teaching and which the Vatican Council declared are to be believed with Catholic and divine faith.

“But this likewise must be reckoned amongst the duties of Christians, that they allow themselves to be ruled and directed by the authority and leadership of bishops, and above all of the Apostolic See . . . Wherefore it belongs to the Pope to judge authoritatively what things the sacred oracles contain, as well as what doctrines are in harmony, and what in disagreement, with them; and also for the same reason to show forth what things are to be accepted as right, and what to be rejected as worthless; what it is necessary to do and what to avoid doing, in order to attain eternal salvation. For otherwise, there would be no sure interpreter of the commands of God, nor would there be any safe guide showing man the way he should live . . . From God has the duty been assigned to the Church not only to interpose resistance, if at times the State rule should run counter to religion, but, further, to make a strong endeavour that the power of the Gospel may pervade the law and institutions of the nations. And inasmuch as the destiny of the State depends mainly on the disposition of those who are at the head of affairs, it follows that the Church cannot give countenance or favour to those whom she knows to be imbued with a spirit of hostility to her, who refuse openly to respect her rights; who make it their aim and purpose to tear asunder the alliance that should, by the very nature of things, connect the interests of religion with those of the State. On the contrary, she is (as she is bound to be) the upholder of those who are themselves imbued with the right way of thinking as to the relations between Church and State, and who strive to make them work in perfect accord for the common good. These precepts contain the abiding principle by which every Catholic should shape his conduct in regard to public life” (Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter, Sapientiæ Christianiæ, On the Chief Duties of Christians as Citizens).

Satan aims at getting states and nations to treat with contempt the indirect power of the Catholic Church and at setting up the state or the race as the authority to decide all moral questions. He knows that this means the abrogation of the moral law and that it leads to chaos.

“To create this atmosphere of lasting peace, neither peace treaties nor the most solemn pacts, nor international meetings or conferences, nor even the noblest and most disinterested efforts of any statesman will be enough, unless in the first place are recognised the sacred rights of natural and divine law. No leader in public economy, no power of organisation will ever be able to bring social conditions to a peaceful solution, unless the moral law based on God and conscience first triumphs in the field of economics itself. This is the underlying value of every value in the political life as well as in the economic life of nations” (Pius XI, Encyclical Letter, Caritate Christi Compulsi, On the Troubles of Our Times).

“He who takes the race, or the people, or the state, or the form of government, the bearers of the power of the state or other fundamental elements of human society—which in the temporal order of things have an essential and honourable place—out of the system of their earthly valuation and makes them the ultimate norm of all, even of religious values, and deifies them with an idolatrous worship, perverts and falsifies the order of things created and commanded by God” (Pius XI, The Persecution of the Church in Germany).

Lured on by Satan, men talk of restoring order in the world in defiance of or without the help of Christ and His Church. This will only lead to greater chaos: “No human institution exists which can impose upon the nations an international code, adapted to the present time, similar to the one which in the Middle Ages, ruled that society of nations which was known as Christendom . . . But there is a divine institution, which can guarantee the sanctity of the law of nations, an institution which embracing all nations and transcending them, is endowed with supreme authority and evokes veneration through its plenary powers of rule-the Church of Christ” (Plus XI, Encyclical Letter, Ubi Arcano, On the Peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ).

Satan tries to persuade young people that the Church is opposed to the form of civil government they prefer. This is not true. “Of the various governments, the Church does not reject any that are fitted to procure the welfare of the subject; she wishes only-and this nature itself requires-that they should be constituted without involving wrong to anyone and especially without violating the rights of the Church” (Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter, Libertas, On Human Liberty).

He tries to persuade them also that the Catholic Church is opposed to all efforts for a country’s independence. This also is false. “Neither does the Church condemn those who, if it can be done without violation of justice, wish to make their country independent of any foreign or despotic power. Nor does she blame those who wish to secure to the State the power of self-government, and to its citizens the greatest possible measure of prosperity” (Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter, Libertas, On Human Liberty).

The Church of course, condemns all secret societies which are Satan’s happy hunting grounds. “As Our Predecessors have many times repeated, let no man think that he may for any reason whatsoever join the Masonic sect, if he values his Catholic name and his eternal salvation as he ought to value them. Let no one be deceived by a pretence of honesty. It may seem to some that Freemasons demand nothing that is openly contrary to religion and morality; but, as the whole principle and object of the sect lies in what is vicious and criminal, to join with these men or in any way to help them cannot be lawful” (Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter, Humanum Genus, On Freemasonry).  

The unity and indissolubility of Christian marriage symbolize the union of Christ and His Mystical Body. This is the foundation of the Christian family. Our Lord wants His members to cultivate purity and honour virginity, under the guidance of His Immaculate Mother.

“If we wish with all reverence to inquire into the intimate reason of the divine decree [of the indissolubility of marriage], we shall easily see it in the mystical significance of Christian marriage . . . For, as the Apostle says in his Epistle to the Ephesians (V. 32), the marriage of Christians recalls that most perfect union which exists between Christ and the Church, which union, as long as Christ shall live and the Church through Him, can never be dissolved by any separation.

“God wishes men to be born not only that they may live and fill the earth, but much more that they may be worshippers of God, that they may know Him and love Him, and finally enjoy Him for ever in heaven; and this end, since man is raised by God in a marvellous way to the supernatural order, surpasses all that eye hath seen, and ear heard, and all that hath entered into the heart of man. From which it is easily seen how great a gift of divine goodness and how remarkable a fruit of marriage are children born by the omnipotent power of God through the co-operation of those bound in wedlock.

“But Christian parents must also understand that they are destined not only to propagate and preserve the human race on earth, indeed not only to educate any kind of worshippers of the true God, but children who are to become members of the Church of Christ, to raise up fellow-citizens of the Saints, and members of God’s household that the worshippers of God and Our Saviour may daily increase . . . It is theirs to offer their offspring to the Church in order that by this most fruitful Mother of the children of God they may be regenerated through the laver of Baptism unto supernatural justice and finally be made living members of Christ, partakers of immortal life, and heirs of that eternal glory to which we all aspire from our inmost heart . . .

“All these things, however, Venerable Brethren, depend in large measure on the due preparation, remote and proximate, of the parties for marriage. For it cannot be denied that the basis of a happy wedlock, and the ruin of an unhappy one, is prepared and set in the souls of boys and girls during the period of childhood and adolescence. There is danger that those who before marriage sought in all things what is theirs, who indulged even their impure desires, will be in the married state what they were before, that they will reap that which they have sown; indeed within the home there will be sadness, lamentation, mutual contempt, strifes, estrangements, weariness of common life and, worst of all, such parties will find themselves left alone with their own unconquered passions. Let, then, those who are about to enter on married life approach that state well disposed and well prepared, so that they will be able as far as they can to help each other in sustaining the vicissitudes of life, and yet more in attending to their eternal salvation and in forming the inner man unto the fullness of the age of Christ . . . The religious character of marriage, its sublime signification of grace and the union between Christ and the Church, evidently requires that those about to marry should show a holy reverence towards it, and zealously endeavour to make their marriage approach as nearly as possible to the archetype of Christ and the Church. They, therefore, who rashly and heedlessly contract mixed marriages, from which the maternal love and providence of the Church dissuades her children for very sound reasons, fail conspicuously in this respect, sometimes with danger to their eternal salvation” (Pius XI, Encyclical Letter, Casti Connubii, On Christian Marriage).

Satan aims at undermining Christian family life, directly by the introduction of divorce and indirectly by the propagation of immorality. The attack on the moral law may be launched under the pretext of the interests of the race. Satan hates the pure, especially the Immaculate Queen of Heaven.

“Oh! if only your country [the United States] had come to know from the experiences of others rather than from examples at home, of the accumulation of ills which derive from the plague of divorce! . . . The consequences of this evil have been thus described by Pope Leo XIII in words whose truth cannot be gainsaid: ‘Because of divorce the nuptial contract becomes subject to fickle whim; affection is weakened; pernicious incentives are given to conjugal infidelity; the care and education of offspring are harmed; the seeds of discord are sown among families, the dignity of woman is lessened and brought down, and she runs the risk of being deserted after she has served her husband as an instrument of pleasure. And since it is true that for the ruin of the family and the undermining of the state, nothing is so powerful as the corruption of morals, it is easy to see that divorce is most injurious to the prosperity of families and of states’ (Encyclical Letter, Arcanum) . . . Marriages, in which one or the other party does not accept the Catholic teaching or has not been baptised, as is clear to you from wide experience, are rarely happy and usually occasion grave loss to the Catholic Church” (Pius XII, Encyclical Letter to the American Hierarchy, 1939).

“The Naturalists and Freemasons having no faith in those things which we have learned by the revelation of God, deny that our first parents sinned, and consequently think that free will is not at all weakened and inclined to evil . . . Wherefore we see that men are publicly tempted by the many allurements of pleasure; that there are journals and pamphlets with neither moderation nor shame; that stage-plays are remarkable for licence; that designs for works of art are shamelessly sought in the laws of so-called realism; that the contrivances for a soft and delicate life are most carefully devised; and that all the allurements of pleasure by which virtue may be lured to sleep are diligently brought into play” (Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter, Humanum Genus, On Freemasonry).

Satan rejoices at efforts to encourage illegitimacy, on the plea of the needs of the race, and at efforts to corrupt the young. “Every use of the faculty given by God for the procreation of new life is the right and the privilege of the marriage state alone, by the law of God and of nature, and must be confined absolutely within the sacred limits of that state . . . For now, alas, not secretly nor under cover, but openly, with all sense of shame put aside, now by word, again by writings, by theatrical productions of every kind, by romantic fiction, by amorous and frivolous novels, by cinematographs portraying in vivid scene, in addresses broadcast on the radio, in short, by all the inventions of modem science, the sanctity of marriage is trampled upon and derided; divorce, adultery, all the basest vices either are extolled or at least are depicted in such colours as to appear to be free of all reproach and infamy. Books are not lacking which . . . to the number of antiquated opinions relegate the traditional doctrine of Christian marriage. These thoughts are instilled into men of every class, rich and poor, masters and workers, lettered and unlettered, married and single, the godly and the godless, old and young, but for these last, as easiest prey, the worst snares are laid” (Pius XI, Encyclical Letter, Casti Connubii, On Christian Marriage).

Our Lord wants children educated as Members of His Mystical Body, so that they may be able to look at everything, nationality included, from that standpoint, and observe the order following therefrom in relation to God, themselves and others. Thus is true personality developed.

“For the mere fact that a school gives some religious instruction (often extremely stinted), does not bring it into accord with the rights of the Church and of the Christian family, or make it a fit place for Catholic students. To be this, it is necessary that all the teaching and the whole organisation of the school and its teachers, syllabus and text-books in every branch, be regulated by the Christian spirit, under the direction and maternal supervision of the Church; so that religion may be in very truth the foundation and crown of the youth’s entire training; and this in every grade of school, not only the elementary, but the intermediate and higher institutions of learning as well. To use the words of Leo XIII: ‘It is necessary not only that religious instruction be given to the young at fixed times, but also that every other subject taught, be permeated with Christian piety. If this is wanting, if this sacred atmosphere does not pervade and warm the hearts of masters and scholars alike, little good can be expected from any kind of learning, and considerable harm will often be the consequence (Encyclical Letter, Militantis Ecclesiæ, Aug. 1, 1897)” (Pope Pius XI, Encyclical Letter, Divini illius Magistri, On the Christian Education of Youth). “When one thinks of the havoc wrought in the souls of youth and of childhood, of the loss of innocence so often suffered in the motion picture theatres, there comes to mind the terrible condemnation pronounced by our Lord upon the corrupters of little ones: ‘Whosoever shall scandalize one of these little ones who believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone be hanged about his neck and that he be drowned in the depths of the sea’ (St. Matth. XVIII, 6) . . . From time to time, the Bishops will do well to remind the motion picture industry that, amid the cares of their pastoral ministry, they are under obligation to interest themselves in every form of decent and healthy recreation, because they are responsible before God for the moral welfare of their people even during their time of leisure . . . Above all, all pastors of souls will undertake to obtain each year from their people a pledge similar to the one already alluded to, which is given by their American brothers and in which they promise to stay away from motion pictures which are offensive to truth and to Christian morality. The most efficacious manner of obtaining these pledges or promises is through the parish church or school” (Pius XI, Encyclical Letter, Vigilanti Cura, On the Motion Pictures).

“The proper and immediate end of Christian education is to co-operate with divine grace in forming the true and perfect Christian that is to form Christ Himself in those regenerated by Baptism . . . For the true Christian must live a super-natural life in Christ . . . and display it in all his actions . . . Hence the true Christian, product of Christian education, is the supernatural man who thinks, judges and acts constantly and consistently in accordance with right reason illuminated by the supernatural light of the example and teaching of Christ; in other words, to use the current term, the true and finished man of character. For, it is not every kind of consistency and firmness of conduct based on subjective principles, that makes true character, but only constancy in following the eternal principles of justice..” (Pius XI, Encyclical Letter, Divini Illius Magistri, On the Christian Education of Youth).

Satan aims at impeding, or if possible preventing altogether, the education of young people of both sexes as members of Christ. He will favour the Lutheran sectioning off of the Christian from the citizen (or national) and will endeavour to get educators to strive for success in examinations or in games, irrespective of the ordered formation of Christ’s members. He will endeavour to get Catholics thus badly educated into secret societies such as Freemasonry, in order to give them a naturalistic formation and induce them to turn against the religious Orders of the Catholic Church and against Catholic education generally.

Satan uses every effort to lower the ideals of future priests and educators and to corrupt the future mothers of families: “Let us spread vice broadcast among the multitude. Let them breathe it through their five senses, let them drink it in and become saturated with it . . . Make men’s hearts corrupt and vicious and you will have no more Catholics. Draw away priests from their work, from the altar and from the practice of virtue. Strive skilfully to fill their minds and occupy their time with other matters . . . Recently one of our friends, laughing at our projects, said to us: ‘To overcome the Catholic Church, you must begin by suppressing the female sex.’ There is a certain sense in which the words are true ; but since we cannot suppress woman, let us corrupt her along with the Church . . . The best poniard with which to wound the Church mortally is corruption” (Instructions of the Italian Masonic Alta Vendita in L’Eglise Romaine en face de la Révolution, by Crétineau-Joly, VOI. II, pp. 128-I29).

“Everyone knows what damage is done to the soul by bad motion pictures. They are occasions of sin, they seduce young people along the ways of evil by glorifying the passions; they show life under a false light; they cloud ideals; they destroy pure love, respect for marriage, affection for the family . . . The power of the motion picture consists in this, that it speaks by means of vivid and concrete imagery which the mind takes in with enjoyment and without fatigue . . . This power is still greater in the talking picture for the reason that interpretation becomes even easier and the charm of music is added to the action of the drama . . . It is therefore one of the supreme necessities of our times to watch and to labour to the end that the motion picture be no longer a school of corruption but that it be transformed into an effectual instrument for the education and the elevation of mankind . . . This is an obligation which binds not only the Bishops but also the faithful and all decent men who are solicitous for the well-being and moral health of the family, of the nation, and of human society in general” (Pius XI, Encyclical Letter, Vigilanti Cura, On the Motion Pictures).

“And repeatedly, as occasion offered, the Supreme Pontiff has disapproved of and most strongly condemned the immodest fashions in dress which have become customary in our times, even among Catholic women and girls. These fashions are not only gravely opposed to womanly dignity and adornment but tend most unhappily both to the temporal disgrace of such women, and what is worse, to their eternal ruin and that of others as well” (Instruction on Modesty in Women’s Dress, issued by the Sacred Congregation of the Council, 12th Jan., 1903).

“Do not think that any precaution can be great enough in keeping the young from masters and schools whence the pestilent breath of the Masonic Society is to be feared. Under your guidance, let parents, religious instructors, and priests having the care of souls, use every opportunity, in their Christian teaching, of warning their children and pupils of the infamous nature of these societies” (Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter, Humanum Genus, On Freemasonry).

The Divine Plan for order calls for wide diffusion of ownership of property, in order to facilitate families in procuring the sufficiency of material goods required for the virtuous life of their members as human persons, and for Unions of owners and workers in Guilds or Corporations reflecting the solidarity of the Mystical Body in economic organization.

“The law therefore should favour ownership, and its policy should be to induce as many as possible to become owners” (Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter, Rerum Novarum, On the Condition of the Working Classes).

“As in the conflict of interests and most of all in the struggle against unjust forces, a man’s virtue does not always suffice to assure him his daily bread, and as the social machinery ought to be so organized as by its natural action to paralyse the efforts of the wicked, and to render accessible to every man of goodwill his legitimate share of temporal happiness, We earnestly desire that you should take an active share in organizing society for that purpose . . . The Church has no need to disown her past; it is enough for her, with the co-operation of the real workmen of social organization, to take up again the organizations shattered by the Revolution [the Guilds] and in the same Christian spirit which inspired them, to adapt them to the new environment created by the material evolution of contemporary society, for the true friends of the people are neither revolutionaries, nor innovators, but men of tradition” (Pius X, Letter, On the Subject of the Sillon).

“Agriculture is the first and most important of all arts; so it is also the first and true riches of States . . . To render onerous the conditions of the tiller of the soil tends to restrict his activities and-to cripple rural industry” (Pius VII, Motu Proprio, Sept. 15, 1802).

“Because sociability is one of man’s natural requirements and since it is legitimate to promote, by common effort, decent livelihood, it is not possible without injustice, to deny or to limit either to the producers or to the labouring and farming classes the free faculty of uniting in associations, by means of which they may defend their proper rights and secure the betterment of the goods of soul and body, as well as the honest comforts of life. But to unions of this kind, which in past centuries have procured immortal glory for Christianity and for the professions an untarnishable splendour, one cannot everywhere impose an identical discipline and structure, which therefore can be varied to meet the different temperament of the people and the diverse circumstances of time. But let the unions in question draw their vital force from principles of wholesome liberty, let them take their form from the lofty rules of justice and of honesty and conforming themselves to those norms let them act in such a manner that in their care for the interests of their class they violate no one’s rights, let them continue to strive for harmony and respect the common weal of civil society” (Pius XII, Letter to the American Hierarchy, Nov. 1, 1939).

“If private resources do not suffice, it is the duty of the public authority to supply for the insufficient forces of individual effort, particularly in a matter which is of such importance to the common weal, namely, the maintenance of the family and married people. If families, particularly those in which there are many children have not suitable dwellings; if the husband cannot find employment and means of livelihood; if the necessities of life cannot be purchased except at exorbitant prices; if even the mother of the family, to the great harm of the home, is compelled to go forth and seek a living by her own labour; if she, too, in the ordinary or even extraordinary labours of childbirth is deprived of proper food, medicine, and the assistance of a skilled physician, it is patent to all to what an extent married people may lose heart, and how home life and the observance of God’s commands are rendered difficult for them; indeed, it is obvious how great a peril can arise to the public security and to the welfare and very life of civil society itself when such men are reduced to that condition of desperation that, having nothing which they fear to lose, they are emboldened to hope for chance advantage from the upheaval of the State and of established order” (Pope Pius XI, Encyclical Letter, Casti Connubii, On Christian Marriage).  

Satan aims at the concentration of property in the hands of a few, either nominally in those of the State, that is, in those of the party in power, or in those of the money-manipulators. He knows that, given fallen human nature, this will lead to the subordination of men to production of material goods and to the treatment of all those not in power as mere individuals, not as persons. For this he favoured Liberalism or Individualism and now favours the reaction against Individualism - Collectivism and Communism.

Satan saw with pleasure the ruin of souls resulting from unbridled Individualism. “Even on Sundays and Holydays, labour shifts were given no time to attend to their essential religious duties. No one thought of building churches within convenient distances of factories or of facilitating the work of the priest. On the contrary, laicism was actively and persistently promoted, with the result that we are now reaping the fruits of the errors so often denounced by Our Predecessors and by Ourselves. It can surprise no one that the Communistic fallacy should be spreading in a world already to a large extent estranged from Christianity” (Pius XI, Encyclical Letter, Divini Redemptoris, On Atheistic Communism).

“Very many employers treated their workmen as mere tools, without any concern for the welfare of their souls, indeed without the slightest thought of higher interests. The mind shudders if we consider the frightful perils to which the morals of workers (of boys and young men particularly), the virtue of girls and women, are exposed in modem factories; if we recall how the present economic régime and, above all, the disagreeable housing conditions prove obstacles to the family tie and family life; if we remember the insuperable difficulties placed in the way of a proper observance of Holydays . . . Dead matter leaves the factory ennobled and transformed, while human beings are corrupted and degraded” (Pius XI, Encyclical Letter, Quadragesimo Anno, On the Social Order).

On the other hand, Satan fans the flames of the Communist reaction and urges on the revolt against God, Our Loving Father. “In the beginning Communism showed itself for what it was in all its perversity: but very soon it realised that it was thus alienating the people. It has therefore changed its tactics, and strives to entice the multitudes by trickery of various forms . . . Thus, aware of the universal desire for peace, the leaders of Communism pretend to be the most zealous promoters and propagandists of the movement for world amity. Yet at the same time they stir up a class warfare which causes rivers of blood to flow, and realising that their system offers no internal guarantee of peace, they have recourse to unlimited armaments . . . They try perfidiously to worm their way even into professedly Catholic and religious organizations . . . See to it, Venerable Brethren, that the Faithful do not allow themselves to be deceived! Communism is intrinsically wrong, and no one who would save Christian civilisation may give it assistance in any undertaking whatsoever” (Pius XI, Encyclical Letter, Divini Redemptoris, On Atheistic Communism).

“They [the Communists], carry out the diabolical programme of wresting from the hearts of all, even of children, all religious sentiment . . . Thus we see to-day, what was never before seen in history, the satanical banners of war against God and against religion brazenly unfurled to the winds in the midst of all peoples and in all parts of the earth” (Pius XI, Caritate Christi Compulsi, On the Troubles of Our Time).

The Divine Plan for order calls for a monetary system so arranged as to facilitate the production and exchange of material goods in view of the virtuous life of the Members of Christ in contented families.

“The ancient workingmen’s guilds were abolished in the last [18^th] century, and no other organisation took their place. Public institutions and the laws themselves have set aside the ancestral religion. Hence by degrees it has come to pass that workingmen have been surrendered, all isolated and helpless, to the hard-heartedness of employers and the greed of unbridled competition. The evil has been increased by rapacious usury, which, although more than once condemned by the Church, is nevertheless under a different guise but with the like injustice, still practised by covetous and grasping men. To this must be added the uprise of powerful monopolies, controlling enterprises worked by contract and all branches of commerce; so that a very small number of very rich men have been able to lay upon the teeming masses of the proletariat a yoke little better than that of slavery itself” (Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter, Rerum Novarum, On the Condition of the Working Classes).

“It is patent that in our days not alone is wealth accumulated, but immense power and despotic economic domination are concentrated in the hands of a few . . . This domination is most powerfully exercised by those who, because they hold and control money, also govern credit and determine its allotment, for that reason supplying, so to speak, the life-blood to the entire economic body and grasping in their hands, as it were, the very soul of production, so that no one dare breathe against their will . . . At the time when the new social order was beginning, the doctrines of rationalism had already taken firm hold of large numbers, and an economic science alien to the true moral law had quickly arisen, whence it followed that free rein was given to human avarice” (Pius XI, Encyclical Letter, Quadragesimo Anno, On the Social Order).

The Catholic Church condemns the sin of birth-prevention: “Within these sacred precincts [of the Christian family], children are considered not heavy burdens but sweet pledges of love: no reprehensible motive of convenience, no seeking after sterile pleasure bring about the frustration of the gift of life, nor cause to fall into disuse the sweet names of brother and sister” (Pius XII, Letter to the American Hierarchy, Nov. 1, 1939).

But the Catholic Church insists also that social organization must aid married people to fulfil their sacred obligations. “Since it is no rare thing to find that the perfect observance of God’s commands and conjugal integrity encounter difficulties by reason of the fact that the husband and wife are in straitened circumstances, their necessities must be relieved as far as possible. And as, in the first place, every effort must be made to bring about that which Our predecessor, Leo XIII of happy memory, has already insisted upon, namely, that in the state such economic and social methods should be adopted as will enable every head of a family, to earn as much as, according to his station in life, is necessary for himself, his wife, and for the rearing of his children, for the labourer is worthy of his hire (St. Luke, X, 7). To deny this or to make light of what is equitable is a grave injustice and is placed among the greatest sins by Holy Writ (Deut. XXIV, 14, 15); nor is it lawful to fix such a scanty wage as will be insufficient for the upkeep of the family in the circumstances in which it is placed.

“Care, however, must be taken that the parties themselves for a considerable time before entering upon the married life should strive to dispose of or at least to diminish the material obstacles in their way . . . Provision must be made also, in the case of those who are not self-supporting, for joint aid by private or public guilds” (Pius XI, Encyclical Letter, Casti Connubii, On Christian Marriage)

Satan aims at a monetary system, by which human persons will be subordinated to the production of material goods and the production, distribution and exchange of material goods will be subordinated to the making of money and the growth of power in the hands of the financiers. He is pleased that money is employed as an instrument for the elimination of the Divine Plan and for the installation of Naturalism.

Satan favours birth-prevention. “And now, Venerable Brethren, we shall explain in detail the evils opposed to each of the benefits of matrimony. First consideration is due to the offspring, which many have the boldness to call the disagreeable burden of matrimony, and which, they say, is to be carefully avoided by married people, not through virtuous continence (which Christian law permits in matrimony when both parties consent), but by frustrating the marriage act. Some justify this criminal abuse on the ground that they are weary of children and wish to gratify their desires without the consequent burden.

“Others say that they cannot on the one hand remain continent nor on the other can they have children because of the difficulties on the part of the mother or on the part of family circumstances. But 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 shameful and intrinsically vicious . . .

“Since, therefore, openly departing from the uninterrupted Christian tradition, some recently have judged it possible to declare solemnly another doctrine regarding the question, the Catholic Church, to whom God has entrusted the defence of the integrity and purity of morals . . . raises her voice in token of her divine ambassadorship and through our mouth proclaims anew: any use whatsoever of matrimony exercised in such a way that the act is deliberately frustrated in its natural power to generate life is an offence against the law of God and of nature, and those who indulge in such are branded with the guilt of a grave sin . . . No difficulty can arise that justifies putting aside the law of God which forbids all acts intrinsically evil” (Pius X, Encyclical Letter, Casti Connubii, On Christian Marriage).

“The poorer section of the population have outrun the demand for manual labour . . . they must learn to regulate the expansion of their families as the middle and upper classes have long been doing” (Letter to the London Times quoted by Jeffrey Mark, in The Modern Idolatry, p. 35).

“Houses for slum dwellers in England cannot be built because the working classes do not have enough money to pay the interest and redemption charges on the loans which are needed to build them. Recent proposals for building such houses at £330 each would involve a rental of something between six and seven shillings a week to pay the interest and provide for repayment of the loan. If the cost were more, the rent could not be paid; if it were less, the houses would probably collapse on the occupants . . . The houses will be guaranteed not to collapse on the occupants for at least as long as the period required for the redemption of the loan” (The Modern Idolatry, by Jeffrey Mark, p. 39, published in 1934).

“We are sorry to note that not infrequently nowadays it happens that through a certain inversion of the true order of things, ready and bountiful assistance is provided for the unmarried mother and her illegitimate offspring (who, of course, must be helped in order to avoid a greater evil), which is denied to legitimate mothers or given sparingly or almost grudgingly.

“It is the concern of the public authority to make proper provision for matrimony and the family, not only in regard to temporal goods but also in other things which concern the good of souls. Just laws must be made for the protection of chastity . . . The prosperity of the State and the temporal happiness of its citizens cannot remain safe and sound where the foundation on which they are established, which is the moral order, is weakened and where the very fountain-head from which the State draws its life, namely, wedlock and the family, is obstructed by the vices of its citizens” (Pope Pius XI, Encyclical Letter, Casti Connubii, On Christian Marriage)

Our Lord ever seeks to unite men in love of His Father.

Satan wants to confuse and bewilder human beings, so that they may give up the idea that there is an order laid down by God, which they are bound to find out, if they do not know it already, and observe. On account of his relentless hatred of the supernatural life he detests above all the central act of submission to the Blessed Trinity, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. He strives to eliminate it wherever he can, and, where he cannot do so he endeavours to have it treated as a mere formality not intended to influence life. He tries to get the young and inexperienced to accept that they are on the road to happiness, when they neglect the Mass and its significance for life, cast off moral restraint and reject the claims of duty.

Satan ever seeks to separate men from Christ and lead them on to the hatred of God, Our Father.

“If our age in its pride laughs at and rejects Our Lady’s Rosary, a countless legion of the most saintly men of every age and of every condition have not only held it most dear and have most piously recited it but have also used it at all times as a most powerful weapon to overcome the devil, to preserve the purity of their lives, to acquire virtue more zealously, in a word, to promote peace among men” (Pius XI, Encyclical Letter, Ingravescentibus Malis, On the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary).