October 16, 2012

For many today those two words, just government, are a contradiction of terms. It’s certainly understandable why many, if not most, would draw this conclusion. We live in an age when there exist so few good and honest civil leaders. In other words, how many honest politicians do you know? To be sure, there have many persons who were honest when they entered the political arena, but soon were corrupted through various agents of Satan. Yes, Satan is the corruptor of all true morality!

By extension, those corrupt individuals form the nucleus of a government that no longer has in mind the central purpose of government as it was meant to be. Many today will necessarily be required to ask what the purpose is. This, in itself, is an indication of the sad, but objective state of affairs in the world today.

The central purpose (object) of government (the State) is to secure and promote the temporal well-being or the common good of it members. It is, like the Church, a perfect or supreme society in the sense that it is sovereign in its own sphere and does not depend in any way upon a superstate or any other higher power except God alone, although it has (or should have) relations of inter-dependence with the Church and with other states. – from The Framework of a Christian State

The terms common good are of great concern here. In the past, most individuals would have an elementary understanding of the common good. Today, one is not so sure. The dumbing-down of the school systems has put us in a situation where some of the most basic ideas remain unknown because they were never taught in the classroom.

Another cause would be the growth of the welfare state or just simply laziness of the able-bodied adult. Quite typically, but not necessarily absolutely, this group thinks that whatever more the state is willing to give them, this is something (whether right or wrong) which is good. The end result quite often is the person or family which never seeks gainful work. Their sloth and arrogant attitude are passed on to their children and grandchildren.

There are two main principles which the state must constantly work at to accomplish: peace and public prosperity.
Peace means security from violent interference with one’s rights. This can usually be assured only by the aid of the strong arm of public authority. For this aid each and every member of the community has an indefeasible claim upon the State. To secure peace to all is in fact the State’s most important duty. This duty includes the essential function of defending the State, and all interests and groups within it against unjust aggression from within or from without, and usually requires the maintaining of an army adequate for national defense, as well as a police force to secure internal order and tranquility. – from The Framework of a Christian State

Public prosperity, in general, means a sufficient supply of the means that the individual requires for his natural welfare and happiness. It includes such goods as bodily health, food, clothing, shelter, personal freedom, private property, good reputation, mental culture suited to one’s station, and good moral and religious training. It is the individual’s own duty to strive after and secure all these things by personal effort, helped by the family and Church. As far as they are thus attainable, they are called Private Prosperity. Since the legitimate function of the State is secondary, and comes in only where private or family cooperation fails or is inadequate, the providing of Private Prosperity is not the State’s direct or immediate duty. – from The Framework of a Christian State

Please note the initial statement when defining peace. Peace means security from violent interference with one’s rights .Depending upon how one defines the word violent, a case could easily be made that it is, indeed, the government which is presently the source of the violence in this country over a period of several years and multiple administrations.

When bills (and executive orders) are signed into law which are obvious intrusions into basic freedoms, this nation indeed has crossed over the line into some form of socialism. What is truly sad is that many among the citizenry are willing to give up their freedoms for the sake of a fictitious security. Just ask those who go through airport security regularly!

How often do we find civil leaders who truly are looking out for the common good of the citizen instead of seeking to please a lobbyist, whether a person or a corporation? In other cases it is all about pleasing a group of constituents for the sake of votes. The end result of these examples is a selfishness which has no place for such an officeholder. Thus, an unjust governing is allowed to exist.

As this immoral practice is allowed to continue among a growing number of politicians, the system itself becomes corrupted. A thoroughly corrupt government, regardless whether it is on a federal or state level, not only neglects its basic duties (which by this time are of no concern), but becomes an overwhelming yoke around the neck of the citizen. One wonders how many persons are unaware they have been yoked like never before in the country over a period of several administrations, and live as though we simply need to change the party affiliation of the officeholder. I suppose ignorance is truly bliss!

The federal government of the United States has for many years and administrations pursued or allowed immoral laws which are an affront to objective civil justice. The Catholic in this country is able to compose a long list of such laws. Abortion, homosexuality, divorce, pornography, various forms of nudity, high taxation and usury are just a short list of laws which are allowed to exist under the Masonic ideology of “freedoms.”

The typical citizen of this nation has been so propagandized over decades about this elusive freedom which they desire, they have no true concept of an objective, true freedom.

Far too many are more concerned with bread, circus and sex and are thus tangled in a web of spiritual slavery. These problems are at the heart of one’s frustration in attempting to educate, not the masses, but a handful of sincere individuals.

The discussions and differences between party loyalists before presidential and mid-term elections are no longer comical, but horribly tragic and sad beyond description. So very few have a basic understanding of the underlying problems in government today. Therefore, little, if anything, is accomplished which assists the common good.

Besides what has already been stated above, there have been numerous pieces of legislation which have been signed into law that undermine basic human freedoms. The misnamed Patriot Act, signed by George W. Bush in 2001 and renewed in 2005 and the National Defense Authorization Act signed by Barack Obama on Dec. 31, 2011 are the two worst laws this country has seen in many years, and perhaps in its history. Their traitorous intentions are spelled out in the laws. A person only needs to read the laws to understand who they really are.

Fr. Denis Fahey, C.S.Sp., in his book The Kingship of Christ and Organized Naturalism provides us with a explanation of the attitude which ought to be our guide in understanding how to solve the problems of the State in our time. Although some of his remarks are dated, they are timeless in their objectivity of what constitutes a just government.

“We can thus easily see that the entrance of Christianity into the world has meant two things. Primarily and principally, it has meant the constitution of a supernatural society, the Mystical Body of Christ, absolutely transcending every natural development of culture and civilization. Secondly, it has had as a result that this supernatural society, the Catholic Church, began to exercise a profound influence upon culture and civilization and modified in a far-reaching way the existing temporal or natural social order. The indirect power of the Church over temporal affairs, whenever the interests of the Divine Life of souls are involved, presupposes, of course, a clear distinction of nature between the ecclesiastical authority, charged with the care of divine things, and the civil authority, whose mission is concerned with purely temporal matters. In proportion as the Mystical Body of Christ was accepted by mankind, political and economic thought and action began to respect the jurisdiction and guidance of the Catholic Church, endowed, as she is, with the right of intervention in temporal affairs whenever necessary, because of her participation in the Spiritual Kingship of Christ. Thus the natural and temporal Common Good of States came to be sought in a manner calculated to favor the development of true personality, in and through the Mystical Body of Christ, and social life came more and more under the influence of the supreme end of man, the vision of God in Three Divine Persons.”

“Accordingly, the Divine Plan for Order in our fallen and redeemed world comprises, primarily, the supernatural social organism of the Catholic Church, and then, secondarily, the temporal or natural social order resulting from the influence of Catholic doctrine on politics and economics and from the embodiment of that influence in social institutions. From the birth of the Catholic Church on Calvary and the solemn promulgation of her mission at the first Pentecost, the Kingdom of God in its essence has been present in the world. As a result of the gradual acceptance of the role of the Church by the Temporal Representatives of Christ the King, the social institutions of States and Nations became deeply permeated with the influence of the Supernatural Life of Christ. Then, and only then, could the Kingdom of God in its integrity or the rule of Christ the King in its integrity, be said to exist. The Kingdom of God or the rule of Christ the King is present in its integrity only in so far as the whole social life of States, political and economic, is permeated with the influence of the Church. To put it in other terms, Christ fully reigns only when the Program for which He died is accepted as the one true way to peace and order in the world, and social institutions in harmony with it are evolved.”

“The Kingdom of God in its essence is always with us, but the influence of the Church on politics and economics, in other words, the extension of the Kingdom of God in its integrity, has varied with the centuries. Broadly speaking, the thirteenth century has been, so far, the high water mark of that influence. Since then, until recently, there has been steady decay. No particular temporal social order, of course, will ever realize all that the Church is capable of giving to the world. Each of them will be defective for several reasons.”

“First of all, the action of the Church, welcomed by some Catholics, will be opposed by the ignorance, incapacity and perversity of others.”
“Secondly, even if all Catholics did accept fully, they could only reflect some of the beauty of the Gospel, as the saints reflected some of the infinitely imitable holiness of Christ.”

“Thirdly, there would still remain the vast number of non-Catholics to be won for Christ and have their social life organized under His rule. It is towards this latter goal that every generation of Catholics is called upon to work. The aim is not, needless to say, to bring back the Middle Ages, for the river of time does not turn back in its course, but the aim is to impregnate a new epoch with the divine principles of order so firmly grasped in the thirteenth century. The result of the so-called Reformation and the French Revolution has been to obscure the Rights of God proclaimed by Our Lord Jesus Christ and to diffuse Naturalism.”
“Naturalism consists in the negation of the possibility of the elevation of our nature to the Supernatural Life and order, or more radically still, in the negation of the very existence of that Life and order. In our day (1943), owing to the progress of the anti-Christian revolt, the more radical meaning has become common. Naturalism may be defined, therefore, as the attitude of mind which denies the reality of the Divine Life of Christ and of our Fall therefrom by Original Sin. It rejects our consequent liability to revolt against the order of the Divine Life, when this Life has been restored to us by our membership of Christ, and maintains that all social life should be organized on the basis of that denial. We must combat that mentality and proclaim the Rights of God. ‘About the ‘rights of man’ as they are called,’ wrote Pope Leo XIII, ‘the people have heard enough: it is time they should hear of the Rights of God.’”
“‘The claim to withdraw the public life of States and Nations from subjection to God and His law,’ wrote Cardinal Pie, ‘is the dominant error and the capital crime of this (19th) century.’”

“Cardinal Mercier in the 20th century proclaimed that the terrible war of 1914-1918 was the punishment of this error and this crime. ‘In the name of the Gospel,’ he wrote, ‘and in the light of the Encyclicals of the last four Popes, Gregory XVI, Pius IX, Leo XIII and Pius X, I do not hesitate to affirm that this indifference to religion, which puts on the same level the religion of divine origin and the religions invented by men, in order to include them in the same skepticism, is the blasphemy which, far more than the sins of individuals and families, calls down God’s chastisements on society.”

It should be noted that what Pope Leo XIII, Cardinal Mercier and Cardinal Pie said concerning the 19th and 20th centuries is of greater importance (if that is possible) now in the 21st century. Those errors of naturalism of which Fr. Fahey spoke have now, in the 21st century, been so imbedded in the life of most persons, regardless of location, culture or creed, they fail to recognize the errors themselves. In fact, far too many have ‘drank the kool-aid’ and openly accept these errors as though they were something of which to be proud.

There truly is only one way to correct an unjust government. It is as Fr. Fahey stated above. It is the recognition of the Blessed Trinity, accepting the proper role of the Catholic Church in society and making use of the supernatural life of grace.

Anything less than the ideals as mentioned by Fr. Denis Fahey, C.S.Sp., will end up in folly. If you have ever wondered why the politicians of today seem to ‘spin their wheels’ and make buffoons of themselves, you now have the answer.

May God bless you,
Fr. Joseph, OFM