Newsletter of the District of Asia

 Jan - June 2003

St Pius X :
“The Saint and the Guide for today’s men!”

(Pope Pius XII, 1954)

By Fr. Daniel Couture


 
St. Pius X

"By his person and by his work, God has willed to prepare the Church to the new and hard duties a troubled future was preparing. To timely prepare a Church united in its doctrine, firm in discipline, efficient in its pastors, generous laymen, an instructed people,a youth sanctified in its first years, a well-formed conscience in relation to the social problems.

If nowadays the Church of God, far from backing up in the face of the forces destructive of every spiritual value, suffers, fights, and by the divine power progresses and continue to redeem, that is thanks to the foreseeing action and sanctity of Pius X.

It appears manifest today that his whole Pontificate was supernaturally directed according to a loving and redeeming plan to prepare souls to face our own struggles and to ensure our victories and the victories of future generations." Pius XII, sermon for the Beatification of Pius X, June 3, 1951

"As apostle of the interior life, he is given, in this age of machines and technology, as the Saint and Guide of today’s men." Pius XII, sermon for the Canonization of Blessed Pius X, May 29, 1954

The following parallel between the writings of St. Pius X and some of the Conciliar Church’s texts - a parallel that would need more development - gives a striking illustration of the words of the great Pope Pius XII quoted above, "to prepare souls to face our own struggles..." We mean here the struggle to keep the Catholic Faith in this day and age when modernism, "the synthesis of all heresies", has made its way to all aspects of the Church’s life.

It is certainly providential and admirable that the name and the whole program of St Pius X is being kept well alive throughout the whole universe, on the five continents, in all the world’s main languages, thanks to a small "band of Gideon" called after the saintly Pope. It is no accident. The welfare of His Immaculate Bride, the Church, is too important for Our Lord not to provide at all times the means to preserve its deposit of faith and its channels of grace, the sacraments.


1) Christ-centered or man-centered religion?

St Pius X
Encyclical ‘E Supremi Apostolatus’
Oct. 4, 1903
To restore all things in Christ.

"We proclaim that We have no other program in the Supreme Pontificate but that "of restoring all things in Christ" (Ephes. 1, 10), so that "Christ may be all and in all" (Coloss. 3, 2)... The interests of God shall be Our interest, and for these We are resolved to spend all Our strength and Our very life. Hence, should anyone ask Us for a symbol as the expression of Our will, We will give this and no other: "To restore all things in Christ. (...)

When all this is considered there is good reason to fear lest this great perversity may be as it were a foretaste, and perhaps the beginning of those evils which are reserved for the last days; and that there may be already in the world the "Son of Perdition" of whom the Apostle speaks (II Thess. 2, 3). Such, in truth, is the audacity and the wrath employed everywhere in persecuting religion, in combating the dogmas of the faith, in brazen effort to uproot and destroy all relations between man and the Divinity! While, on the other hand, and this according to the same apostle is the distinguishing mark of Antichrist, man has with infinite temerity put himself in the place of God, raising himself above all that is called God; in such wise that although he cannot utterly extinguish in himself all knowledge of God, he has condemned God’s majesty and, as it were, made of the universe a temple wherein he himself is to be adored. ‘He sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself as if he were God" (II Thess. 2, 2). (...)

But, Venerable Brethren, we shall never, however much we exert ourselves, succeed in calling men back to the majesty and empire of God, except by means of Jesus Christ. ‘No one,’ the Apostle admonishes us, ‘can lay other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ.’ (I Cor., 3, II.) It is Christ alone ‘whom the Father sanctified and sent into this world’ (Is. 10, 36), ‘the splendor of the Father and the image of His substance’ (Hebr. 1, 3), true God and true man: without whom nobody can know God with the knowledge for salvation, ‘neither doth anyone know the Father but the Son, and he to whom it shall please the Son to reveal Him.’ (Matth. 11, 27.) Hence it follows that to restore all things in Christ and to lead men back to submission to God is one and the same aim. To this, then, it behoves Us to devote Our care - to lead back mankind under the dominion of Christ; this done, We shall have brought it back to God. When We say to God We do not mean to that inert being heedless of all things human which the dream of materialists has imagined, but to the true and living God, one in nature, triple in person, Creator of the world, most wise Ordainer of all things, Lawgiver most just, who punishes the wicked and has reward in store for virtue."

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The Conciliar Church
Vatican II
Closing Discourse of Paul VI, Dec. 7 1965

"Yes, the Church of the Council has been concerned, not just with herself and with her relationship of union with God, but with man - man as he really is today: living man, man all wrapped up in himself, man who makes himself not only the center of his every interest but dares to claim that he is the principle and explanation of all reality. Every perceptible element in man, every one of the countless guises in which he appears, has, in a sense, been displayed in full view of the Council Fathers. (...)

Secular humanism, revealing itself in its horrible anticlerical reality has, in a certain sense, defied the Council. The religion of the God who became man has met the religion (for such it is) of man who makes himself God. And what happened? Was there a clash, a battle, a condemnation? There could have been, but there was none. The old story of the Samaritan has been the model of the spirituality of the Council. A feeling of boundless sympathy has permeated the whole of it. The attention of our Council has been absorbed by the discovery of human needs (and these needs grow in proportion to the greatness which the son of the earth claims for himself). But we call upon those who term themselves modern humanists, and who have renounced the transcendent value of the highest realities, to give the Council credit at least for one quality and to recognize our own new type of humanism: we, too, in fact, we more than any others, honor man. (...)  But one must realize that this Council, which exposed itself to human judgment, insisted very much more upon this pleasant side of man, rather than on his unpleasant one. Its attitude was very much and deliberately optimistic. A wave of affection and admiration flowed from the Council over the modern world of humanity. Errors were condemned, indeed, because charity demanded this no less than did truth, but for the persons themselves there was only warming, respect and love. Instead of depressing diagnoses, encouraging remedies; instead of direful prognostics, messages of trust issued from the Council to the present-day world. The modern world’s values were not only respected but honored, its efforts approved, its aspirations purified and blessed. (...)

Another point we must stress is this: all this rich teaching is channeled in one direction, the service of man, of every condition, in every weakness and need. The Church has, so to say, declared herself the servant of humanity, at the very time when her teaching role and her pastoral government have, by reason of the Council’s solemnity, assumed greater splendor and vigor: the idea of service has been central. It might be said that all this and everything else we might say about the human values of the Council have diverted the attention of the Church in Council to the trend of modern culture, centered on humanity. We would say not diverted but rather directed. (...)

Hence no one should ever say that a religion like the Catholic religion is without use, seeing that when it has its greatest self awareness and effectiveness, as it has in the Council, it declares itself entirely on the side of man and in his service. In this way the Catholic religion and human life reaffirm their alliance with one another, the fact that they converge on one single human reality: the Catholic religion is for man. In a certain sense it is the life of man. (...)

Our humanism becomes Christianity, our Christianity becomes centered on God; in such sort that we may say, to put it differently: a knowledge of man is a prerequisite for a knowledge of God."

John Paul II

The 25th anniversary of the election of Pope John Paul II will be celebrated next Oct. 15-18, 2003. To prepare the commemoration "of this Pontificate at the service of man and to put its historical value in service" a colloquy has been held in the Vatican last May 8 –10, 2003.

Another congress was held at the Lateran University at the same time on the theme: "The Church at the service of man".

John Paul II has expressed his satisfaction to the organizers of this congress for having chosen this theme. "During all the periods of my university life and of my pastoral ministry, he stated, one of the essential points of reference has been for me the attention to the person, put at the center of all philosophical or theological research." (DICI, May 17, 2003)

 


2) The Sacred Liturgy : for God or for Man?

St Pius X
Motu Proprio ‘Tra Le Sollicitudine’
Nov. 22, 1903
On Sacred Music, and the respect in
churches

"Among the cares of the pastoral office, not only of this Supreme Chair, which We, though unworthy, occupy through the inscrutable dispositions of Providence, but of every local church, a leading one is without question that of maintaining and promoting the decorum of the House of God in which the august mysteries of religion are celebrated, and where the Christian people assemble to receive the grace of the Sacraments, to assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar, to adore the most august Sacrament of the Lord’s Body and to unite in the common prayer of the Church in the public and solemn liturgical offices. Nothing should have place, therefore, in the temple calculated to disturb or even merely to diminish the piety and devotion of the faithful, nothing that may give reasonable cause for disgust or scandal, nothing, above all, which directly offends the decorum and sanctity of the sacred functions and is thus unworthy of the House of Prayer and of the Majesty of God.

Sacred Music

Today Our attention is directed to one of the most common of them, one of the most difficult to eradicate, and the existence of which is sometimes to be deplored in places where everything else is deserving of the highest praise - the beauty and sumptuousness of the temple, the splendor and the accurate performance of the ceremonies, the attendance of the clergy, the gravity and piety of the officiating ministers. Such is the abuse affecting sacred chant and music. And indeed,whether it is owing to the very nature of this art, fluctuating and variable as it is in itself, or to the succeeding changes in tastes and habits with the course of time, or to the fatal influence exercised on sacred art by profane and theatrical art, or to the pleasure that music directly produces, and that is not always easily contained within the right limits, or finally to the many prejudices on the matter, so lightly introduced and so tenaciously maintained even among responsible and pious persons, the fact remains that there is a general tendency to deviate from the right rule, prescribed by the end for which art is admitted to the service of public worship and which is set forth very clearly in the ecclesiastical Canons, in the Ordinances of the General and Provincial Councils, in the prescriptions which have at various times emanated from the Sacred Roman Congregations, and from Our Predecessors the Sovereign Pontiffs." We do therefore publish, motu proprio and with certain knowledge, Our present Instruction to which, as to a juridical code of sacred music (quasi a codice giuridice della musica sacra), We will with the fullness of Our Apostolic Authority that the force of law be given, and We do by Our present handwriting impose its scrupulous observance on all. (...)

Sacred music should consequently possess, in the highest degree, the qualities proper to the liturgy, and in particular sanctity and goodness of form, which will spontaneously produce the final quality of universality. It must be holy, and must, therefore, exclude all profanity not only in itself, but in the manner in which it is presented by those who execute it. It must be true art, for otherwise it will be impossible for it to exercise on the minds of those who listen to it that efficacy which the Church aims t obtaining in admitting into her liturgy the art of musical sounds.

But it must, at the same time, be universal in the sense that while every nation is permitted to admit into its ecclesiastical compositions those special forms which may be said to constitute its native music, still these forms must be subordinated in such a manner to the general characteristics of sacred music that nobody of any nation may receive an impression other than good on hearing them."

 

The Conciliar Church
Vatican II
Constitution ‘Sacrosanctum Concilium’
Dec. 4, 1963

Latin & Vernacular

"36. (1) The use of the Latin language, with due respect to particular law, is to be preserved in the Latin rites. (2) But since the use of the vernacular, whether in the Mass, the administration of the sacraments, or in other parts of the liturgy, may frequently be of great advantage to the people, a wider use may be made of it, especially in readings, directives and in some prayers and chants. Regulations governing this will be given separately in subsequent chapters. (3) These norms being observed, it is for the competent territorial ecclesiastical authority mentioned in Article 22:2, to decide whether, and to what extent, the vernacular language is to be used.

Norms for adapting the Liturgy to the temperament and traditions of peoples

37. Even in the liturgy the Church does not wish to impose a rigid uniformity in matters which do not involve the faith or the good of the whole community. Rather does she respect and foster the qualities and talents of the various races and nations. Anything in these people’s way of life which is not indissolubly bound up with superstition and error she studies with sympathy, and, if possible, preserves intact. She sometimes even admits such things into the liturgy itself, provided they harmonize with its true and authentic spirit.

38. Provided that the substantial unity of the Roman rite is preserved, provision shall be made, when revising the liturgical books, for legitimate variations and adaptations to different groups, regions and peoples, especially in mission countries. This should be borne in mind when drawing up the rite and determining rubrics.

39. Within the limits set by the typical editions of the liturgical books it shall be for the competent territorial ecclesiastical authority mentioned in Article 22:2, to specify adaptations, as regards the administration of the sacraments, sacramentals, processions, liturgical language, sacred music and the arts, according, however, to the fundamental norms laid down in this Constitution.

40. In some places and circumstances, however, an even more radical adaptation of the liturgy is needed, and this entails greater difficulties. For this reason: (1) The competent territorial ecclesiastical authority mentioned in Article 22:2, must in this matter, carefully and prudently consider which elements from the traditions and cultures of individual peoples might appropriately be admitted into divine worship. Adaptations which are considered useful or necessary should then be submitted to the Holy See, by whose consent they may be introduced. (2) To ensure that adaptations may be made with all the necessary, the Apostolic See will grant power to this same ecclesiastical authority to permit and direct, as the case requires, the necessary preliminary experiments over a determined period of time among certain groups suitable for the purpose. (3) Because liturgical laws usually involve special difficulties with respect to adaptation, especially in mission lands, men who are experts in the matters in question must be employed to formulate them."

Comments: Liturgical inculturation has destroyed the four marks of Sacred Liturgy: Universality or Catholicity: the liturgy has become a local - sometimes not even national - ‘product’, un-exportable, unusable outside its immediate circumstances; Unity is gone with the vernacular and the promotion of liturgical creativity - which is not an abuse as can be read in the text above (n.38); Apostolicity, that is the link with apostolic and multi-secular rites and prayers - gone at the profit of the spur-of-the-moment rites, rites even borrowed occasionally from non-Christian religions...(see n.37) Sanctity: perhaps the most striking and significant absentee in this reform.


3) Holy Communion

St Pius X
Decree ‘Sacra Tridentina Synodus’
Dec. 20, 1905
On the dispositions for frequent
communion

“ 1.Frequent and daily communion being greatly desired by Our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Catholic Church, must be made accessible to all faithful of whatever class and condition they be, in such a way that, none if he be in the state of grace and approach the Holy Table with a right intention, may not be denied.

2. The right intention consists in approaching the Holy Table, not by habit or vanity, or for human reasons, but to satisfy the Will of God, to be more united to Him by charity, and thanks to this divine remedy, to combat his defects and infirmities.

3. Although it is highly desirable that they who receive frequent and daily communion be free from affection to venial sins, at least fully deliberated, it is enough that they be without mortal sin with the firm resolution not to sin in the future. With this firm purpose, it is not possible that those who do communicate daily do not also overcome venial sins and the affection to these sins.”

Decree ‘Quam Singulari’ Aug. 8, 1910

On the age of First Holy Communion

“This practice of preventing the faithful from receiving on the plea of safeguarding the august Sacrament has been the cause of many evils. It happened that children in their innocence were forced away from the

embrace of Christ and deprived of the food of their interior life; and from this it also happened that in their youth, destitute of this strong help, surrounded by so many temptations, they lost their innocence and fell into vicious habits even before tasting of the Sacred Mysteries. And even if a thorough instruction and a careful Sacramental Confession should precede Holy Communion, which does not everywhere occur, still the loss of first innocence is always to be deplored and might have been avoided by reception of the Eucharist in more tender years. No less worthy of condemnation is that practice which prevails in many places prohibiting from Sacramental Confession children who have not yet made their First Holy Communion, or of not giving them absolution. Thus it happens that they, perhaps having fallen into serious sin, remain in that very dangerous state for a longtime. (...)

The age of discretion for receiving Holy Communion is that at which the child knows the difference between the Eucharistic Bread and ordinary, material bread, and can therefore approach the altar with proper devotion. Perfect knowledge of the things of faith, therefore, is not required, for an elementary knowledge suffices-some knowledge (aliquacognitio); similarly full use of reason is not required, for a certain beginning of the use of reason, that is, some use of reason (aliqualis usus rationis) suffices. To postpone Communion, therefore, until later and to insist on a more mature age for its reception must be absolutely discouraged, and indeed such practice was condemned more than once by the Holy See."

 

The Conciliar Church
Code of Canon Law (1983)

Proper dispositions

“Can. 916 Anyone who is conscious of grave sin may not celebrate Mass or receive the Body of the Lord without previously having been to sacramental confession, unless there is a grave reason and there is no opportunity to confess; in this case the person is to remember the obligation to make an act of perfect contrition, which includes the resolve to go to confession as soon as possible.”

Comment: The case of the priest in the state of sin who has to offer the Holy Mass is different - as the common good is involved - from that of the faithful. The practice of simply making an act of contrition rather than going to confession has been frequently recommended to the faithful, especially in the case of penitential ceremonies with general absolution. This leads to a very Protestant attitude of confessing directly to God.

“An interior disposition of devotion is necessary for the reception of the Eucharist.” Archbishop Nicolas Chia of Singapore, ‘Catholic News’, June 22 & 29, 2003, p. 1.

Comments: What remains of the other requirements: of being Catholic, in the state of grace, fasting, modestly dressed, etc..?

Frequency
“Can. 917 One who has received the
blessed Eucharist may receive it again on the same day only within a eucharistic celebration in which that person participates, without prejudice to the provision of can. 921 §2."

Children

"Can. 913 §1 For holy communion to be administered to children, it is required that they have sufficient knowledge and be accurately prepared, so that according to their capacity they understand what the mystery of Christ means, and are able to receive the Body of the Lord with faith and devotion.

Can. 989 All the faithful who have reached the age of discretion are bound faithfully to confess their grave sins at least once a year."

Comments: In spite of this, the age of holy Communion is being delayed in many places (as in Ireland in the 1990s when it went from 7 to 8 years old; in Malaysia it is 8 or 9 years old). In many places, the first confession is after the First Holy Communion. Canon 989 does not mention the need of confession before the first communion:



4)
The Priest, a man of God or a man of the world?

St Pius X
Exhortation 'Haerent Animo'
Aug. 4, 1908

To encourage priestly sanctity

"Therefore, beloved sons, we will begin this exhortation by stimulating you to that sanctity of life which the dignity of your office demands. Anyone who exercises the priestly ministry exercises it not for himself alone, but for others. For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in the things that pertain to God. (Heb. 5,1) Christ himself taught that lesson when he compared the priest to salt and to light, in order to show the nature of the priestly ministry. The priest then is the light of the world and the salt of the earth. Everyone knows that he fulfills this function chiefly by the teaching of Christian truth; and who can be unaware that this ministry of teaching is practically useless if the priest fails to confirm by the example of his life the truths which he teaches? Those who hear him might say, insultingly it is true, but not without justification: They profess that they know God but in their works they deny him (Tit. 1,16) they will refuse to accept his teaching and will derive no benefit from the light of the priest. Christ himself, the model of priests, taught first by the example of his deeds and then by his words: Jesus began to do and then to teach. (Acts 1,1) Likewise, a priest who neglects his own sanctification can never be the salt of the earth; what is corrupt and contaminated is utterly incapable of preserving from corruption; where sanctity is lacking, there corruption will inevitably find its way. Hence Christ, continuing this comparison, calls such priests salt that has lost its savor, which is good for nothing any more, but to be cast out and to be trodden on by men. (...)

Priestly Associations

Another suggestion which we warmly recommend is that priests, as befits brothers, should form a closer union among themselves, with the approval and under the direction of the bishop. It is strongly to be recommended that they should form an association in order to help one another in adversity, to defend the honor of their name and office against attack, and for other similar objects. But it is even more important that they should form an association with a view to the cultivation of sacred learning, particularly in order to apply themselves with greater solicitude to the object of their vocation and to promote the welfare of souls by concerting their ideas and their efforts. The annals of the Church show that at times when priests generally lived in a form of common life, this association produced many good results. Why might not one re-establish in our own day something of the kind, with due attention to differences of country and priestly duties? Might not one justifiably hope, and the Church would rejoice at it, that such an institution would yield the same good results as formerly? There are, indeed, associations of this kind which enjoy episcopal approval; and the advantages they confer are all the greater if one becomes a member early in life, in the very first years of the priesthood."

Comments: The SSPX therefore corresponds exactly to this warm desire of the Saintly Pope!

 

The Conciliar Church

Pope John Paul II has written many times on the issue of the priesthood, urging priests to live up to their noble calling. However, since the doors of the aggiornamento — updating of the Church to the world — have been opened with Vatican II, without strict and strong disciplinary action on the part of the Vatican, written documents have remain dead letters.

"How many of the reforms of Vatican II reflect Luther's own conclusions? The abandonment of clerical and religious dress, widespread marriages of the religious sanctioned even by the Holy See, the suppression of distinctions between priest and lay man. This egalitarianism is further manifested in the sharing of liturgical functions formerly reserved to the Priesthood.

The abolition of the minor orders and the sub-diaconate, and the creation of a married diaconate, have also contributed to the purely administrative conception of the priest, to the detriment of his essentially priestly character, Thus one is ordained primarily to serve the community and no longer for the purpose of offering Christ's Sacrifice which alone is the justification for the Catholic concept of the Priesthood.

Worker-priests, priests in labor unions, or in positions remunerated by the State similarly contribute to the blurring of distinctions between Priesthood and laity. In fact, the innovations go much further than those of Luther." (Archbishop Lefebvre, 'Luther's Mass', 1975)

"In our countries there are no more vocations because the priest has lost his sense of identity", Archbishop Bernardin of Cincinnati speaking for English-speaking countries of the world at the Synod of Bishops in Rome.

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5) Social Kingship or Separation of Church and State?

St Pius X

Encyclical 'Vehementer' Feb. 11, 1906
Encyclical 'Une fois encore', Jan. 6, 1907
Encyclical 'Iamdudum in Lusitania'
May 24, 1911
Against the separation of
Church and State

"That the State must be separated from the Church is a thesis absolutely false, a most pernicious error. Based, as it is, on the principle that the State must not recognize any religious cult, it is in the first place guilty of a great injustice to God; for the Creator of man is also the Founder of human societies, and preserves their existence as He preserves our own. We owe Him, therefore, not only a private cult, but a public and social worship to honor Him. Besides, this thesis is an obvious negation of the supernatural order. (...)

Hence the Roman Pontiffs have never ceased, as circumstances required, to refute and condemn the doctrine of the separation of Church and State. Our illustrious predecessor, Leo XIII, especially, has frequently and magnificently expounded Catholic teaching on the relations which should subsist between the two societies. 'Between them,' he says, 'there must necessarily be a suitable union, which may not improperly be compared with that existing between body and soul.' He proceeds: 'Human societies cannot, without becoming criminal, act as if God did not exist or refuse to concern themselves with religion, as though it were something foreign to them, or of no purpose to them.' (...)

Hence, mindful of Our Apostolic charge and conscious of the imperious duty incumbent upon Us of defending and preserving against all assaults the full and absolute integrity of the sacred and inviolable rights of the Church, We do, by virtue of the supreme authority which God has confided to Us, and on the grounds above set forth, reprove and condemn the kw voted in France for the separation of Church and State, as deeply unjust to God whom it denies, and as laying down the principle that the Republic recognizes no cult. We reprove and condemn it as violating the natural law, the law of nations, and fidelity to treaties; as contrary to the Divine constitution of the Church, to her essential rights and to her liberty; as destroying justice and trampling underfoot the rights of property which the Church has acquired by many titles and, in addition, by virtue of the Concordat. We reprove and condemn it as gravely offensive to the dignity of this Apostolic See, to Our own person, to the Episcopacy, and to the clergy and all the Catholics of France. Therefore, We protest solemnly and with all Our strength against the introduction, the voting and the promulgation of this law, declaring that it can never be alleged against the imprescriptible rights of the Church." ('Vehementer', nn. 3,13)

"Accordingly, under the admonition of the duty of Our Apostolic office that, in the face of such audacity on the part of the enemies of God, We should most vigilantly protect the dignity and honor of religion and preserve the sacred rights of the Catholic Church, We by our Apostolic authority denounce, condemn, and reject the Law for the Separation of Church and State in the Portuguese Republic. This law despises God and repudiates the Catholic faith; it annuls the treaties solemnly made between Portugal and the Apostolic See, and violates the law of nature and of her property; it oppresses the liberty of the Church, and assails her divine Constitution; it injures and insults the majesty of the Roman Pontificate, the order of Bishops, the Portuguese clergy and people, and so the Catholics of the world. And whilst We strenuously complain that such a law should have been made, sanctioned, and published, We utter a solemn protest against those who have had a part in it as authors or helpers, and, at the same time, We proclaim and denounce as null and void, and to be so regarded, all that the law has enacted against the inviolable rights of the Church." ('Jamdudum', n.9)

 

The Conciliar Church
Declaration Dignitatis Humanae'
On Religious liberty

"2. This Vatican Council declares that the human person has a right to religious freedom. This freedom means that all men are to be immune from coercion on the part of individuals or of social groups and of any human power, in such wise that no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly, whether alone or in association with others within due limits. The Council further declares that the right to religious freedom has its foundation in the very dignity of the human person as this dignity is known through the revealed word of God and by reason itself. This right of the human person to religious freedom is to be recognized in the constitutional law whereby society is governed and thus it is to become a civil right. (...)

6. (...) Government is to see to it that equality of citizens before the law, which is itself an element of the common good, is never violated, whether openly or covertly, for religious reasons. Nor is there to be discrimination among citizens. It follows that a wrong is done when government imposes upon its people, by force or fear or other means, the profession or repudiation of any religion, or when it hinders men from joining or leaving a religious community. All the more is it a violation of the will of God and of the sacred rights of the person and the family of nations when force is brought to bear in any way in order to destroy or repress religion, either in the whole of mankind or in a particular country or in a definite community."

Paul VI
Closing Speech of Vatican II, Dec. 7,1965
To the Rulers

"And what does this Church ask of you after close to 2,000 years of experiences of all kinds in her relations with you, the powers of the earth? What does the Church ask of you today? She tells you in one of the major documents of this council. She asks of you only liberty, the liberty to believe and to preach her faith, the freedom to love her God and serve Him, the freedom to live and to bring to men her message of life. Do not fear her. She is made after the image of her Master, whose mysterious action does not interfere with your prerogatives but heals everything human of its fatal weakness, transfigures it and fills it with hope, truth and beauty."

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