by
Thomas A. Droleskey
As those who serve as members of the United States Senate have a limited amount of time on their hands, I will make this article especially brief for the sake of United States Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina).
Senator Graham, a Southern Baptist, serves on the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. That committee, which is chaired by United States Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), a pro-abortion Catholic in "good standing" in the conciliar structures, and on which serves another pro-abortion Catholic, Richard Durbin (D-Illinois), who is the Majority Whip of the United States Senate, approved President Barack Hussein Obama's nomination of the Solicitor General of the United States of America, Elena Kagan, to serve as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America to replace the now retired pro-abortion Associate Justice David H. Souter by a vote of thirteen to six.
One of those thirteen votes was cost by Senator Graham, who questioned Kagan closely about surgical-baby killing during her confirmation hearings. Senator Graham's remarks, which will be posted in full once they are available, were summarized in the following report found on the Politico website:
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) announced Tuesday that he will support the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, making him the first senator to cross party lines in favor of or against the nominee.
During a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting, Graham explained his vote in favor of Kagan as a product of his view that senators ought to defer to the president’s prerogative to pick judges except in extraordinary circumstances.
“There’s plenty of reasons for conservatives to vote no, plenty of good reasons, but I also think there’s a good reason for conservatives to vote yes and that’s provided in the Constitution,” Graham said. “I understood we lost; President Obama won. And I’ve got a lot of opportunity to disagree with him. But the Constitution, in my view, puts a responsibility on me a senator not to replace my judgment for his.”
Graham suggested that some of his colleagues were more focused on upcoming elections for their seats than on the voters’ choice of Obama in 2008. “I’m going to vote for her because I believe the last election had consequences,” Graham said. "I could give you 100 reasons I could vote no--if I based my vote on how she disagrees with me."
“How do you stay within keeping your job and honoring the fact that the people have spoken?" Graham asked. Kagan, he said, "would not have been someone I would have chosen, but the person who did choose, President Obama, I think chose wisely.”
While many of Graham's GOP colleagues have argued passionately that Kagan showed disrespect to the military when she locked recruiters out of the Harvard Career Services office because of the ban on openly gay servicemembers, the longtime Navy lawyer said he wasn't troubled.
“In 2005, more Harvard graduates entered the military than at any time in history….At the end of the day it didn’t affect it, it actually helped,” Graham said. “If I believe she had animosity in her heart about those who wear the uniform I would easily vote no. I don’t believe that.”
Graham said he was more impressed with her forceful advocacy for the Obama Administration's position in national security cases. "I thought she's done a good job representing our nation in war-on-terror issues, which are very important to me….I think that she understands we’re at war," Graham said. "I believe that she is a loyal American, very patriotic and loves the military as much as anyone else." (Graham is Kagan's first GOP vote for court.)
Here is a memo to United States Senator Lindsey Graham.
Dear Senator Graham:
It matter not whether the Solicitor General of the United States of America, Elena Kagan, whose nomination to serve as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America you voted to approve as a member of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, agrees with you on anything or everything. What matters is that Solicitor General Kagan believes that he civil law can permit licitly the slaughter, both by chemical and surgical means, of innocent human beings whose only crime is having been conceived as the natural fruit of procreative powers that God has given to zenith of His creative handiwork, man. No such person who supports even one direct, intentional attack on any innocent human being at any stage of life from the moment of fertilization until natural deal is "qualified" to hold any position of public trust, whether appointed or elected.
Solicitor General Elena Kagan "disagrees" with God Himself, Who has expressly forbidden the direct killing of the innocent, which is part of the Natural Law itself, in His Fifth Commandment. Solicitor General Elena Kagan is unfit to hold any public office no matter her "qualifications" for doing so in the eyes of the world. Support for even one direct abortion, whether by chemical or surgical means, disqualifies one from being a fit instrument of the public weal, which must be exercised at all times to help advance man's Last End: the possession of the glory of the Beatific Vision of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost for all eternity as a member of His one true Church, the Catholic Church, that He founded upon the Rock of Peter, the Pope, and outside of which there is no salvation and without which there can be no true social order (see appendix below).
Social order is contingent upon order within the souls of men, something that even some of the Greek and Roman writers of antiquity, who had recourse to reason alone without being enlightened by the light of Divine Revelation, understood. It is impossible to produce social order when the souls of men, who are, after all contingent beings who did not create themselves and whose bodies are destined one day for the corruption of the grave until the General Judgment of the Living and the Dead on the Last Day, are in such states of disorder as to reduce to the status of a "disagreement" positions taken in support of the very social evils that cry out to Heaven for vengeance and upon which no true social order can ever be established and maintained.
Writing in the Sixteenth Century, Silvio "Cardinal" Antoniano, wrote the following words that are just as relevant now as when he wrote them because they express eternal truths that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has entrusted to His Catholic Church for their eternal safekeeping and infallible explication:
The more closely the temporal power of a nation aligns itself with the spiritual, and the more it fosters and promotes the latter, by so much the more it contributes to the conservation of the commonwealth. For it is the aim of the ecclesiastical authority by the use of spiritual means, to form good Christians in accordance with its own particular end and object; and in doing this it helps at the same time to form good citizens, and prepares them to meet their obligations as members of a civil society. This follows of necessity because in the City of God, the Holy Roman Catholic Church, a good citizen and an upright man are absolutely one and the same thing. How grave therefore is the error of those who separate things so closely united, and who think that they can produce good citizens by ways and methods other than those which make for the formation of good Christians. For, let human prudence say what it likes and reason as it pleases, it is impossible to produce true temporal peace and tranquillity by things repugnant or opposed to the peace and happiness of eternity. (Silvio Cardinal Antoniano, quoted by Pope Pius XI in Divini Illius Magistri, December 31, 1929.)
It matters not whether Elena Kagan disagrees with you or with me about anything. It matters that she is displeasing God by her support for one of the gravest social evils imaginable. And while, Senator Graham, you are correct in stating that elections have consequences, you are grievously incorrect in concluding that this means you must support a "qualified" nominee of the man, Barack Hussein Obama, whose election on November 4, 2008, you opposed vigorously. The election of pro-abortion statist should mean that those in public office who have at least some understanding of the evils of our day are emboldened to oppose those evils as they manifest themselves in such an administration as the current one.
Would you, Senator Graham, vote to confirm a nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States of America who was an active member of an organization, the Ku Klux Klan, that was once quite influential in the politics and governance of your own home state of South Carolina? If not, why do you believe that a nominee who believes in a graver evil than the unquestionably heinous evils promoted by the Ku Klux Klan under cover of the civil law is qualified to serve during "good behavior" (effectively a lifetime appointment) on the highest judicial tribunal in this country? How are you advancing "true temporal peace and tranquility" by supporting a nominee who promotes things that are "repugnant or opposed to the peace and happiness of eternity"?
The "people" are not the sovereign of any nation, including our own. The "people" must choose to act in accord with the binding precepts of the Divine Positive Law and the Natural Law as these have been entrusted to the Catholic Church for their explication without any deviation whatsoever. If they fail to do by electing men such as Barack Hussein Obama, then it is the obligation of those in public life committed, at least ostensibly, to right principles to resist the "people" by remember these stirring words written by Pope Leo XIII in Sapientiae Christianae, January 10, 1890:
Now, if the natural law enjoins us to love devotedly and to defend the country in which we had 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 quickened by like feelings toward the Church. For the Church is the holy City of the living God, born of God Himself, and by Him built up and established. Upon this earth, indeed, she accomplishes her pilgrimage, but by instructing and guiding men she summons them to eternal happiness. We are bound, then, 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. For fitting it is to prefer the good of the soul to the well-being of the body, inasmuch as duties toward God are of a far more hallowed character than those toward men.
Moreover, if we would judge aright, the supernatural love for the Church and the natural love of our own country proceed from the same eternal principle, since God Himself is their Author and originating Cause. Consequently, it follows that between the duties they respectively enjoin, neither can come into collision with the other. We can, certainly, and should love ourselves, bear ourselves kindly toward our fellow men, nourish affection for the State and the governing powers; but at the same time we can and must cherish toward the Church a feeling of filial piety, and love God with the deepest love of which we are capable. The order of precedence of these duties is, however, at times, either under stress of public calamities, or through the perverse will of men, inverted. For, instances occur where the State seems to require from men as subjects one thing, and religion, from men as Christians, quite another; and this in reality without any other ground, than that the rulers of the State either hold the sacred power of the Church of no account, or endeavor to subject it to their own will. Hence arises a conflict, and an occasion, through such conflict, of virtue being put to the proof. The two powers are confronted and urge their behests in a contrary sense; to obey both is wholly impossible. No man can serve two masters, for to please the one amounts to contemning the other.
As to which should be preferred no one ought to balance for an instant. It is a high crime indeed to withdraw allegiance from God in order to please men, an act of consummate wickedness to break the laws of Jesus Christ, in order to yield obedience to earthly rulers, or, under pretext of keeping the civil law, to ignore the rights of the Church; "we ought to obey God rather than men." This answer, which of old Peter and the other Apostles were used to give the civil authorities who enjoined unrighteous things, we must, in like circumstances, give always and without hesitation. No better citizen is there, whether in time of peace or war, than the Christian who is mindful of his duty; but such a one should be ready to suffer all things, even death itself, rather than abandon the cause of God or of the Church. (Pope Leo XIII, Sapientiae Christianae, January 10, 1890.)
Although you are not a member of the Catholic Church, Senator Graham, to whose maternal bosom we pray that you are joined before you die, you are bound by these words as the authority of Holy Mother Church extends to all men and to all nations on the face of this earth without any exception or qualification whatsoever, something that even the men who appear to be the "leaders" of the Catholic Church on earth (but who are in fact defectors from the Catholic Faith themselves) do not understand or accept. You have a solemn duty to oppose evil and to oppose the appointment of those who promote evil under cover of the civil law. Christ the King is sovereign of men and their nations, not "the people" or their elected officials--and the appointees named thereby--in the civil government.
There are consequences for the choices that we make in this passing, mortal vale of tears. Pope Pius XI explained the eternally fatal consequences of those who dare to support the slaughter of the innocent preborn"
"Those who hold the reins of government should not forget that it is the duty of public authority by appropriate laws and sanctions to defend the lives of the innocent, and this all the more so since those whose lives are endangered and assailed cannot defend themselves. Among whom we must mention in the first place infants hidden in the mother's womb. And if the public magistrates not only do not defend them, but by their laws and ordinances betray them to death at the hands of doctors or of others, let them remember that God is the Judge and Avenger of innocent blood which cried from earth to Heaven." (Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii, December 31, 1930.)
Barack Hussein Obama and Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., and Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, whose nomination last year to serve on the Supreme Court also received your support, and Solicitor General Elena Kagan, to say nothing of the countless other fully pro-abortion figures in public life, including each member of the majority party who serve on the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, will face this judgment at the time of their deaths.
Although Solicitor General Elena Kagan is assured of confirmation by a vote of the full membership of the United States Senate as that body is control of the Democratic Party, you are solely responsible before Christ the King for your own support of Elena Kagan. Rather than being concerned with showing deference to "the people," Senator Graham, you ought to be concerned for your own soul's sake for for the "results" of elections but for the results of your own moral choices and for the consequences of your own words that have communicated to us that a woman who supports chemical and surgical baby-killing is "qualified" to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States of America. She is not so qualified, Senator Graham.
May the very Mother of God, she who is the patroness of the United States of America under the title of her Immaculate Conception, pray for you to convert to the true Faith and to know truly how to serve her Divine Son, Christ the King, as you rely upon her maternal intercession, especially through her Most Holy Rosary.
Sincerely yours in Christ the King and Mary our Immaculate Queen,
Thomas A. Droleskey, Ph.D.
Publisher-Editor
www.Christorchaos.com
(The writer was the nominee of the New York State Right to Life Party for lieutenant governor of the State of New York in 1986 and taught political science at various colleges and universities from January of 1974 to January of 2007.)
I have this to say to those who might object to the above memorandum as being "too Catholic:" Shut up! Although a terrible sinner, I am a Catholic from the top of my balding head to the tip of my toes, which are now more visible to me because of my continuing weight loss (down a total of 63.4 pounds since Ash Wednesday, February 4, 2010--with forty more to go). I will write and speak as a Catholic to one and to all until the day I die, however soon or far in the future that might be within the Providence of God to occur. Do you think that I care about losing more human respect and financial contributions than I have already. It is far, far too late in my life for that, thank you very much.
How else is Senator Graham going to hear Catholic truth before he dies except if those who live Christ the King and Mary our Immaculate Queen attempt to explain it to him, who has an immortal soul for which Our King shed every single drop of His Most Precious Blood to redeem?
As readers of this site know, it is impossible to pursue temporal justice while protecting heinous sins under cover of the civil law, crimes that are also promoted in every aspect of popular culture.
Sin is what caused Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to suffer once in time in His Sacred Humanity during His Passion and Death. Sin is what caused His Most Blessed Mother's Immaculate Heart to be pierced through and through with Seven Swords of Sorrow. Sin is what wounds His Mystical Body, the Church Militant, here on earth in this passing, mortal value of tears. No one who is an agent in the promotion of grievous sin, no less sins that cry out to Heaven for vengeance, is a fit holder of the public weal. While such a person is an object of our prayers and while his actions must prompt us to make much reparation to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, he is not deserving of anyone's "support" or "approval."
All the more reason, good readers, for us to make many acts of reparation to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, especially by continuing Bishop Robert Fidelis McKenna's Rosary Crusade,
As I have noted on this site very consistently, unlike so many in the world and even so many who are in "good standing" in the counterfeit church of conciliarism, we can never accept evil with urbanity and indifference. Indeed, speaking as a sinner who has so very much for which to make reparation, we must be conscious at all times of our need to pray and to fast and to make many, many sacrifices to more perfectly conformed to the mercies of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary. We must always remember that our sins have contributed mightily to the worsening of the state of the Church Militant on earth and the state of the world, which is why we need to pray many Rosaries of reparation for our own sins as well as those of the whole world.
The final victory belongs to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. May it be our privilege to plant a few seeds for this great triumph and the ushering in of the Reign of Mary and the restoration of the Social Reign of Christ the King.
Vivat Christus Rex! Viva Cristo Rey!
Isn't it time to pray a Rosary now?
Immaculate Heart of Mary, triumph soon!
Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death.
Saint Joseph, pray for us.
Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.
Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.
Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.
Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.
Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us, especially on your feast day today!
Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.
Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.
Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.
Saint Jerome Emilian, pray for us.
Saint Praxedes, pray for us.
See also: A Litany of Saints
Appendix A
From Pope Leo XIII's Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus, November 1, 1900\
We are indeed now very far removed in time from the first beginnings of Redemption; but what difference does this make when the benefits thereof are perennial and immortal? He who once hath restored human nature ruined by sin the same preserveth and will preserve it for ever. "He gave Himself a redemption for all" (1 Timothy ii., 6)."In Christ all shall be made alive" (1 Corinthians xv., 22). "And of His Kingdom there shall be no end" (Luke i., 33). Hence by God's eternal decree the salvation of all men, both severally and collectively, depends upon Jesus Christ. Those who abandon Him become guilty by the very fact, in their blindness and folly, of their own ruin; whilst at the same time they do all that in them lies to bring about a violent reaction of mankind in the direction of that mass of evils and miseries from which the Redeemer in His mercy had freed them.
Those who go astray from the road wander far from the goal they aim at. Similarly, if the pure and true light of truth be rejected, men's minds must necessarily be darkened and their souls deceived by deplorably false ideas. What hope of salvation can they have who abandon the very principle and fountain of life? Christ alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John xiv., 6). If He be abandoned the three necessary conditions of salvation are removed.
It is surely unnecessary to prove, what experience constantly shows and what each individual feels in himself, even in the very midst of all temporal prosperity-that in God alone can the human will find absolute and perfect peace. God is the only end of man. All our life on earth is the truthful and exact image of a pilgrimage. Now Christ is the "Way," for we can never reach God, the supreme and ultimate good, by this toilsome and doubtful road of mortal life, except with Christ as our leader and guide. How so? Firstly and chiefly by His grace; but this would remain "void" in man if the precepts of His law were neglected. For, as was necessarily the case after Jesus Christ had won our salvation, He left behind Him His Law for the protection and welfare of the human race, under the guidance of which men, converted from evil life, might safely tend towards God. "Going, teach ye all nations . . . teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you" (Matthew xxviii., 19-20). "Keep my commandments" john xiv., 15). Hence it will be understood that in the Christian religion the first and most necessary condition is docility to the precepts of Jesus Christ, absolute loyalty of will towards Him as Lord and King. A serious duty, and one which oftentimes calls for strenuous labour, earnest endeavour, and perseverance! For although by Our Redeemer's grace human nature hath been regenerated, still there remains in each individual a certain debility and tendency to evil. Various natural appetites attract man on one side and the other; the allurements of the material world impel his soul to follow after what is pleasant rather than the law of Christ. Still we must strive our best and resist our natural inclinations with all our strength "unto the obedience of Christ." For unless they obey reason they become our masters, and carrying the whole man away from Christ, make him their slave. "Men of corrupt mind, who have made shipwreck of the faith, cannot help being slaves. . . They are slaves to a threefold concupiscence: of will, of pride, or of outward show" (St. Augustine, De Vera Religione, 37). In this contest every man must be prepared to undergo hard ships and troubles for Christ's sake. It is difficult to reject what so powerfully entices and delights. It is hard and painful to despise the supposed goods of the senses and of fortune for the will and precepts of Christ our Lord. But the Christian is absolutely obliged to be firm, and patient in suffering, if he wish to lead a Christian life. Have we forgotten of what Body and of what Head we are the members? "Having joy set before Him, He endured the Cross," and He bade us deny ourselves. The very dignity of human nature depends upon this disposition of mind. For, as even the ancient Pagan philosophy perceived, to be master of oneself and to make the lower part of the soul, obey the superior part, is so far from being a weakness of will that it is really a noble power, in consonance with right reason and most worthy of a man. Moreover, to bear and to suffer is the ordinary condition of man. Man can no more create for himself a life free from suffering and filled with all happiness that he can abrogate the decrees of his Divine Maker, who has willed that the consequences of original sin should be perpetual. It is reasonable, therefore, not to expect an end to troubles in this world, but rather to steel one's soul to bear troubles, by which we are taught to look forward with certainty to supreme happiness. Christ has not promised eternal bliss in heaven to riches, nor to a life of ease, to honours or to power, but to longsuffering and to tears, to the love of justice and to cleanness of heart.
From this it may clearly be seen what consequences are to be expected from that false pride which, rejecting our Saviour's Kingship, places man at the summit of all things and declares that human nature must rule supreme. And yet, this supreme rule can neither be attained nor even defined. The rule of Jesus Christ derives its form and its power from Divine Love: a holy and orderly charity is both its foundation and its crown. Its necessary consequences are the strict fulfilment of duty, respect of mutual rights, the estimation of the things of heaven above those of earth, the preference of the love of God to all things. But this supremacy of man, which openly rejects Christ, or at least ignores Him, is entirely founded upon selfishness, knowing neither charity nor selfdevotion. Man may indeed be king, through Jesus Christ: but only on condition that he first of all obey God, and diligently seek his rule of life in God's law. By the law of Christ we mean not only the natural precepts of morality and the Ancient Law, all of which Jesus Christ has perfected and crowned by His declaration, explanation and sanction; but also the rest of His doctrine and His own peculiar institutions. Of these the chief is His Church. Indeed whatsoever things Christ has instituted are most fully contained in His Church. Moreover, He willed to perpetuate the office assigned to Him by His Father by means of the ministry of the Church so gloriously founded by Himself. On the one hand He confided to her all the means of men's salvation, on the other He most solemnly commanded men to be subject to her and to obey her diligently, and to follow her even as Himself: "He that heareth you, heareth Me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth Me" (Luke x, 16). Wherefore the law of Christ must be sought in the Church. Christ is man's "Way"; the Church also is his "Way"-Christ of Himself and by His very nature, the Church by His commission and the communication of His power. Hence all who would find salvation apart from the Church, are led astray and strive in vain.
As with individuals, so with nations. These, too, must necessarily tend to ruin if they go astray from "The Way." The Son of God, the Creator and Redeemer of mankind, is King and Lord of the earth, and holds supreme dominion over men, both individually and collectively. "And He gave Him power, and glory, and a kingdom: and all peoples, tribes, and tongues shall serve Him" (Daniel vii., 14). "I am appointed King by Him . . . I will give Thee the Gentiles for Thy inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession" (Psalm ii., 6, 8). Therefore the law of Christ ought to prevail in human society and be the guide and teacher of public as well as of private life. Since this is so by divine decree, and no man may with impunity contravene it, it is an evil thing for the common weal wherever Christianity does not hold the place that belongs to it. When Jesus Christ is absent, human reason fails, being bereft of its chief protection and light, and the very end is lost sight of, for which, under God's providence, human society has been built up. This end is the obtaining by the members of society of natural good through the aid of civil unity, though always in harmony with the perfect and eternal good which is above nature. But when men's minds are clouded, both rulers and ruled go astray, for they have no safe line to follow nor end to aim at. . . .
This generative and conservative power of the virtues that make for salvation is therefore lost, whenever morality is dissociated from divine faith. A system of morality based exclusively on human reason robs man of his highest dignity and lowers him from the supernatural to the merely natural life. Not but that man is able by the right use of reason to know and to obey certain principles of the natural law. But though he should know them all and keep them inviolate through life-and even this is impossible without the aid of the grace of our Redeemer-still it is vain for anyone without faith to promise himself eternal salvation. "If anyone abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up and cast him into the fire, and he burneth" john xv., 6). "He that believeth not shall be condemned" (Mark xvi., 16). We have but too much evidence of the value and result of a morality divorced from divine faith. How is it that, in spite of all the zeal for the welfare of the masses, nations are in such straits and even distress, and that the evil is daily on the increase? We are told that society is quite able to help itself; that it can flourish without the assistance of Christianity, and attain its end by its own unaided efforts. Public administrators prefer a purely secular system of government. All traces of the religion of our forefathers are daily disappearing from political life and administration. What blindness! Once the idea of the authority of God as the Judge of right and wrong is forgotten, law must necessarily lose its primary authority and justice must perish: and these are the two most powerful and most necessary bonds of society. Similarly, once the hope and expectation of eternal happiness is taken away, temporal goods will be greedily sought after. Every man will strive to secure the largest share for himself. Hence arise envy, jealousy, hatred. The consequences are conspiracy, anarchy, nihilism. There is neither peace abroad nor security at home. Public life is stained with crime.
Appendix B
From Pope Saint Pius X's Notre Charge Apostolique, August 15, 1910
Here we have, founded by Catholics, an inter-denominational association that is to work for the reform of civilization, an undertaking which is above all religious in character; for there is no true civilization without a moral civilization, and no true moral civilization without the true religion: it is a proven truth, a historical fact.
Appendix C
From Pope Pius XI's Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 23, 1922
There exists an institution able to safeguard the sanctity of the law of nations. This institution is a part of every nation; at the same time it is above all nations. She enjoys, too, the highest authority, the fullness of the teaching power of the Apostles. Such an institution is the Church of Christ. She alone is adapted to do this great work, for she is not only divinely commissioned to lead mankind, but moreover, because of her very make-up and the constitution which she possesses, by reason of her age-old traditions and her great prestige, which has not been lessened but has been greatly increased since the close of the War, cannot but succeed in such a venture where others assuredly will fail.
It is apparent from these considerations that true peace, the peace of Christ, is impossible unless we are willing and ready to accept the fundamental principles of Christianity, unless we are willing to observe the teachings and obey the law of Christ, both in public and private life. If this were done, then society being placed at last on a sound foundation, the Church would be able, in the exercise of its divinely given ministry and by means of the teaching authority which results therefrom, to protect all the rights of God over men and nations.
It is possible to sum up all We have said in one word, "the Kingdom of Christ." For Jesus Christ reigns over the minds of individuals by His teachings, in their hearts by His love, in each one's life by the living according to His law and the imitating of His example. Jesus reigns over the family when it, modeled after the holy ideals of the sacrament of matrimony instituted by Christ, maintains unspotted its true character of sanctuary. In such a sanctuary of love, parental authority is fashioned after the authority of God, the Father, from Whom, as a matter of fact, it originates and after which even it is named. (Ephesians iii, 15) The obedience of the children imitates that of the Divine Child of Nazareth, and the whole family life is inspired by the sacred ideals of the Holy Family. Finally, Jesus Christ reigns over society when men recognize and reverence the sovereignty of Christ, when they accept the divine origin and control over all social forces, a recognition which is the basis of the right to command for those in authority and of the duty to obey for those who are subjects, a duty which cannot but ennoble all who live up to its demands. Christ reigns where the position in society which He Himself has assigned to His Church is recognized, for He bestowed on the Church the status and the constitution of a society which, by reason of the perfect ends which it is called upon to attain, must be held to be supreme in its own sphere; He also made her the depository and interpreter of His divine teachings, and, by consequence, the teacher and guide of every other society whatsoever, not of course in the sense that she should abstract in the least from their authority, each in its own sphere supreme, but that she should really perfect their authority, just as divine grace perfects human nature, and should give to them the assistance necessary for men to attain their true final end, eternal happiness, and by that very fact make them the more deserving and certain promoters of their happiness here below.
It is, therefore, a fact which cannot be questioned that the true peace of Christ can only exist in the Kingdom of Christ -- "the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ." It is no less unquestionable that, in doing all we can to bring about the re-establishment of Christ's kingdom, we will be working most effectively toward a lasting world peace.
Appendix D
From Pope Pius XI's Quas Primas, December 11, 1925
Thus the empire of our Redeemer embraces all men. To use the words of Our immortal predecessor, Pope Leo XIII: "His empire includes not only Catholic nations, not only baptized persons who, though of right belonging to the Church, have been led astray by error, or have been cut off from her by schism, but also all those who are outside the Christian faith; so that truly the whole of mankind is subject to the power of Jesus Christ." Nor is there any difference in this matter between the individual and the family or the State; for all men, whether collectively or individually, are under the dominion of Christ. In him is the salvation of the individual, in him is the salvation of society. "Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given to men whereby we must be saved." He is the author of happiness and true prosperity for every man and for every nation. "For a nation is happy when its citizens are happy. What else is a nation but a number of men living in concord?" If, therefore, the rulers of nations wish to preserve their authority, to promote and increase the prosperity of their countries, they will not neglect the public duty of reverence and obedience to the rule of Christ. What We said at the beginning of Our Pontificate concerning the decline of public authority, and the lack of respect for the same, is equally true at the present day. "With God and Jesus Christ," we said, "excluded from political life, with authority derived not from God but from man, the very basis of that authority has been taken away, because the chief reason of the distinction between ruler and subject has been eliminated. The result is that human society is tottering to its fall, because it has no longer a secure and solid foundation."
Appendix E
From Pope Pius IX's Quanta Cura, December 8, 1864
But, although we have not omitted often to proscribe and reprobate the chief errors of this kind, yet the cause of the Catholic Church, and the salvation of souls entrusted to us by God, and the welfare of human society itself, altogether demand that we again stir up your pastoral solicitude to exterminate other evil opinions, which spring forth from the said errors as from a fountain. Which false and perverse opinions are on that ground the more to be detested, because they chiefly tend to this, that that salutary influence be impeded and (even) removed, which the Catholic Church, according to the institution and command of her Divine Author, should freely exercise even to the end of the world -- not only over private individuals, but over nations, peoples, and their sovereign princes; and (tend also) to take away that mutual fellowship and concord of counsels between Church and State which has ever proved itself propitious and salutary, both for religious and civil interests.
For you well know, venerable brethren, that at this time men are found not a few who, applying to civil society the impious and absurd principle of "naturalism," as they call it, dare to teach that "the best constitution of public society and (also) civil progress altogether require that human society be conducted and governed without regard being had to religion any more than if it did not exist; or, at least, without any distinction being made between the true religion and false ones." And, against the doctrine of Scripture, of the Church, and of the Holy Fathers, they do not hesitate to assert that "that is the best condition of civil society, in which no duty is recognized, as attached to the civil power, of restraining by enacted penalties, offenders against the Catholic religion, except so far as public peace may require." From which totally false idea of social government they do not fear to foster that erroneous opinion, most fatal in its effects on the Catholic Church and the salvation of souls, called by Our Predecessor, Gregory XVI, an "insanity," viz., that "liberty of conscience and worship is each man's personal right, which ought to be legally proclaimed and asserted in every rightly constituted society; and that a right resides in the citizens to an absolute liberty, which should be restrained by no authority whether ecclesiastical or civil, whereby they may be able openly and publicly to manifest and declare any of their ideas whatever, either by word of mouth, by the press, or in any other way." But, while they rashly affirm this, they do not think and consider that they are preaching "liberty of perdition;" and that "if human arguments are always allowed free room for discussion, there will never be wanting men who will dare to resist truth, and to trust in the flowing speech of human wisdom; whereas we know, from the very teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, how carefully Christian faith and wisdom should avoid this most injurious babbling."
And, since where religion has been removed from civil society, and the doctrine and authority of divine revelation repudiated, the genuine notion itself of justice and human right is darkened and lost, and the place of true justice and legitimate right is supplied by material force, thence it appears why it is that some, utterly neglecting and disregarding the surest principles of sound reason, dare to proclaim that "the people's will, manifested by what is called public opinion or in some other way, constitutes a supreme law, free from all divine and human control; and that in the political order accomplished facts, from the very circumstance that they are accomplished, have the force of right." But who, does not see and clearly perceive that human society, when set loose from the bonds of religion and true justice, can have, in truth, no other end than the purpose of obtaining and amassing wealth, and that (society under such circumstances) follows no other law in its actions, except the unchastened desire of ministering to its own pleasure and interests?
