A Modern Plague
Glenn Frank,
president of Wisconsin University,
says:
“What ails modern society
is the separation of the spiritual from the
material.”
Pope Pius XI
calls this separation
“a modern plague,”
or to speak more plainly “a pest.”
This separation of the spiritual from the
material
is what we call “secularism.”
Everything has been secularized,
everything has been divorced from religion.
We have divorced religion from education,
we have divorced religion from politics,
we have divorced religion from business.
Secularism
When religion has nothing to do with
education,
education is only information,
plenty of facts
and no understanding.
When religion has nothing to do with
politics,
politics is only factionalism–
“Let’s turn the rascals out
so our good friends can get in.”
When religion has nothing to do with
business
business is only commercialism.
And when religion has nothing to do with
either education, politics or business,
you have the religion of business taking the
place of the business of religion.
Spiritualizing
Our modern educators,
our modern politicians,
our modern business men
have taken religion from everything
and have put commercia1ism into everything.
And now we have to take commercialism out
of everything
and to put religion into everything.
The way to take commercialism out of
everything
and to put religion into everything
is not through political action.
The way to take commercialism out of
everything
and to put religion into everything
is through Catholic Action.
Business-Like
Catholic Action is action by Catholics
for Catholics and non-Catholics.
Catholic Action is action by Catholic laymen
in co-operation with the clergy.
Catholic laymen and women have told
the clergy,
“Mind your own business
and don’t butt into our business.”
So Catholic clergymen
have ceased to mind the layman’s business
and the laymen have made a mess
of their own business.
And Catholic clergymen have tried to mind
their business
with a business-like technique
borrowed from business-minded people.
The Forgotten Man
The forgotten man has been forgotten
because clergymen have forgotten
to rub shoulders with the forgotten man.
And clergymen have forgotten
to rub shoulders with the forgotten man
because clergymen have forgotten
to use logic to find what is practical.
And because clergymen have forgotten
to use logic to find what is practical
they have failed to give us a sociology
that has something to do with theology.
If there was a sociology
that had something to do with theology
it was the sociology of St. Francis of Assisi,
St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Thomas More.
But the sociology of St. Francis of Assisi.
St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Thomas More.
was an Utopian sociology,
and clergymen are not interested in Utopias,
not even Christian Utopias.
Rome or Moscow
And because clergymen are not interested
in the sociology of St. Francis of Assisi,
St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Thomas More,
the forgotten man is becoming interested
in the sociology of Karl Marx, Lenin
and Stalin.
And because clergymen are not interested
in a technique of leadership
the forgotten man is becoming interested
in a technique of dictatorship.
And because clergymen are not interested
in Dynamic Catholic Action
the forgotten man is becoming interested
in Dynamic Bolshevik Action.