Tradition, Family and Property (Magazine) 1993

May - June, 190?

l-'fi;

c

/

f Stj

The American Society tor the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property - TFP

"He has written his own

history and written it in red on his enemy's breast..."

(ExccrpLs from a speech of General MacArthur at West Point)

"And what sort of soldiers are those you are to lead? Are they reliable, are they brave, are they capable of victory? Their story is known to all of you; it is the story of the American man-at-arms. My estimate of him was formed on the battlefield many years ago, and has never changed. 1 regarded him then as 1 regard him now — as one of the world's noblest figures, not only as one of the finest military characters, but also as one of the most stainless. His name and

fame are the birthright of every American citizen. In his youth and strength, his love and loyalty, he gave all that mortality can give. He needs no eulogy from me or from any man. He has written his own history

and written it in red on his enemy's breast...

"Duty, Honor, Country... ...The code which those words perpetrate embraces the highest moral laws and will

stand the test of any ethics or philosophies ever promulgated for the uplift of mankind.

Its requirements are for the things that are

right, and its restraints are from the things that are wrong. The soldier, above all other men,is required to practice the greatest act of religious training — sacrifice. In battle and in the face of danger and death, he dis closes those divine attributes which His

Maker gave when He created man in His

own image. No physical courage and no

brute instinct can take the place of the Divine help which alone can sustain him.

However horrible the incidents of war may be the soldier who is called upon to offer and to give his life for his country is the noblest development of mankind."

Tradition,

Contents

Family and Property

May - June,1993 The Tip Of The Iceberg Duty, Honor, Country - Fading Away.

Politically Correct?

2 9

EDITOR: C. Preston Noell m

Forgotten Truths

The Combat Begun in Heaven Between Lucifer and St. Michael, Still Wages.

ASSOCIATE EDITORS:

10

Commentary The Mobile Immobility of Chaos.

Gary Isbell Eugenia Guzman Steven F. Schmieder

11

Pedophilic Priests and the Scandalous

Jack Bumham

Photography:

PUBLICITY SURROUNDING THEM.

12

JUNE - THE Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

16

Todd Kamuf Circulation:

Philip A. Moran, Jr.

Great Documents of Catholic History Consecration of Louis XVI, King of France, to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

25 YEARS Since The Sorbonne Revolution

17

Foreign Correspondents:

19

SPAIN: Fernando E. Gonzalo ROME: Juan M. Montes

International

BRAZIL: Orlando Lira

The Brazilian Plebiscite in Perspective

2G

Published in Portugal: Nobility and Analogous Elites

29

WHO IS THE MADMAN?

30

It is Scary out There Califomians Don't Like California Any More

32

Ambiences, Customs,and Civilization The Sweetness of Life in Social Relationship

33

Prophets, Martyrs, Saints and Heroes Sisters of Charity, True Heroines of the Civil War.

36

Family Series The Little Barrel.

La Macarena Presides Over Mother's Day.

11 15

TRADITION, FAMILY, PROPERTY is a publication of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP). Subscription $18.00 in the United States and Canada(US$). Rates for foreign subscriptions $25.00 List of other TFP publications available upon request. Direct all subscription requests and Inquiries to: The American TFP, P.O. Box 121, Pleasantville, N.Y 10570. Tel.:(914)241-7015,

Fax: (914} 241-7146 Copyright© 1993. Permission is granted to reproduce in whole or in part any article of this magazine with credit given to Tradition, Family, Property.

Official U.S. Marine Corps Photo

by Sgt. Thomas J. LaPointe

THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG

As seen from

WASHINGTON,D.C. by

Mario Navarro da Costa

Duty,Honor,Country

Fading Away Men,you ail know why I have called you here,"

a

the Commandant began."The order has just been handed down. Take a good look at those signatures. They want us to 'change.'"

"Sir," a lieutenant responds, his voice rising with emo tion, "In its proud history the Corps has never witnessed such a dramatic, such a destructive change as this. The

Corps will be divided, perhaps destroyed. For God's sake, for our country's, can't we do anything?"

"History must change with the tide, go with the flow," counters a captain. "Why, there will likely be a woman Commandant before there is a woman President; a female Commander in Chief."

"Women in the military, even women in combat, is one thing," a colonel joins in, "but professed homosexuals in uniform, sharing your field tent, is another." The veteran of Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, and other fields of honor,

continued;"Our code of honor will be destroyed along with the Corps. Homosexuality is not simply a 'lifestyle.' It is a

perverted assault on our way of life that will undermine the military tradition of duty, honor, country."

"Men," interjects the Commandant, seeking to reclaim control,"This is an order, an order in effect from the Com mander in Chief. As good soldiers, we must obey. I just wish old Archibald Henderson were here. He'd know what to do."

As he spoke, the portrait of the former Commandant, a hero of the Corps and of the Nation, came crashing to the floor, broken, as the spirit of so many, in face of the enemy within,

Si non e vero, e bene trovato)

"Old soldiers never die;they just fade away."This meta phor applies to mortals such as General MacArthur whose memory lives on in the minds of patriotic Americans. Re grettably, the reverse is true of the hallowed principles he dedicated his life to preserving, which, having faded away, are about to die.

What are these principles? Despite decades of liberal corrosion, the fundamentals of military character remain constant. Were they to fade into oblivion, the military char acter would die.

The inherent philosophical basis of the military code is the principle ofcontradiction, i.e.,something cannot be and not be at the same time. The principle of contradiction is integral to the existence of good and evil, right and wrong.

If there were no evil, there could be no enemy,for everyone would be right. If there were no right, there would be no moral code by which to judge any man's actions. There would be no reason to decorate a war hero, court-martial a

deserter, or hang a traitor.

The military character affirms and defends the funda mental basis of civilized society: the moral order from which arises the ideal of honor and the necessity of force at the service of good in the face of evil. It reminds civilian and soldier alike that there are noble values that are greater

than life and for which one must be prepared to sacrifice his life if duty calls. The simple dignity of the military

uniform implicitly testifies to these timeless truths.

If the spirit of contradiction has nurtured civilization,the spirit of relativism, polluting our century, has acted as a chemical defoliant stripping the cover that has protected these great truths for ages. If the military has defended these truths with their lives, the contra-military are attack-

Tradition. Family. Property

t

I

V

May-June, 1993

The Tip of The Iceberg

issue of military prepared ness, as legitimate and impor

ing these truths with their lies on the field of public opinion now leveled by moral relativ ism. Duty, Honor, Country have come under purportedly "friendly" fire. Who shall de

tant as that is. It touches the

very soul of man. It stirs the inmost tendencies that inspire him to acts of good or evil.

Every Nation seeks to de velop a human archetype that represents its ideal. An ideal

fend them? *

*

*

As most readers of this

magazine know, we are suf fering the onslaught of a cul

that stirs the inmost recesses

tural revolution. Amidst this

for its realization in every as

moral minefield, the prob

pect of his activity, con sciously and subconsciously.

This search is more profound than any political contest,

of man's soul silently striving

lems of homosexuals in the

military and women in com bat have detonated. What is at

stake is even more profound

more a matter of life and death

than the moral degradation of the military. Ultimately, it is

to the individual and the Na

tion than any physical com

the destruction of the bastion

bat. Realizing or not this ideal

of what is left of Christian

is the fundamental cause of

civilization.

victory or defeat on every hu man battlefield, including the

Despite all the problems

philosophical and doctrinal.

that beset it, America's mili

The armed forces of the tary remains a beacon of light In the soldier the civilian sees a man who takes United States contribute in an in a world whose darkening his manliness to its pinnacle. integral and irreplaceable way skies presage storms to come, to the formation of the Ameri an anchor of security amidst can human archetype.

The psychology of the soldier, the the stormy seas of revolutionary change. For the world to be led into the pit of an earthly hell—the anarchist end of depth of his courage, the force of his energy, and the per sistence of his pugnacity profoundly influence his civilian history—the emasculation of the United States is an abso confrere. Inasmuch as the civilian of today may be the sol lute necessity. For America to fall, its military must fall. dier of tomorrow, it is fitting that he find in the military the History, however, has proven that it is impossible to de stroy America's fighting spirit from without the military. Not exemplification of the virtues that he may be called to prac-

that it hasn't been tried and

tice and to defend on the

tried repeatedly. But, Deo gratias, our armed forces have weathered every

field of honor.

storm, from the Commu

nists of Hanoi to the poli ticians

of

Washington.

Every Nation seeks to develop a human archetype that represents its ideal.

Neither the peaceniks of the '60s, the anti-nukes of

the '70s, the liberation theologians of the '80s, nor the selfdeclared deviates of the '90s have broken their ranks.

The fact is that the spirit of America's fighting men can only be destroyed from within. This is precisely what the cultural revolution and its contra-military proponents have in mind.

How does the cultural revolution apply to the proposed incursions of homosexuals into the military and women

into combat? The answer lies far deeper than the practical

In the soldier the ci vilian sees a man who takes his manliness to its

pinnacle. This unspoken reality permeates soci ety so pervasively that the style of its alterca tions,from neighborly spats about barkingdogs to intellec tual disputations on philosophical questions, reflect its militarymilieu.

Since homosexuality is an unnatural perversion of man liness, to admit homosexuals into the armed forces violates the Nation's ideal of manhood. Since women are created

with a sacred calling that differs from that of men,to admit and, in time, compel women into combat violates the Na tion's respect for womanhood.

Tradition. Family. Property

Duty, Honor, Country — Fading away

At the same time, since the critical factor in war is ulti

mately the moral force of one adversary against the other, a country that admits homosexuals into its military has sur rendered its respect for the virtues of manliness and combativity and, potentially, its capacity for survival.

A similarly deleterious effect accompanies the admis sion of women into combat. The acceptance of an an drogynous soldier promotes the deception that the mili tary spirit is gender neutral, i.e., equally inherent to men

The maternal spirit of tenderness, affection and love essen tial to family life dissipate when women usurp the duties

of men,including their role as soldiers.

The result of this revolutionary role reversal is the feminization of the masculine and the masculinization of

the feminine, the complete perversion of the natural order and the healthy human archetypes of any sound society. * * *

and women. In the natural

Amidst the pervasive moral relativism engulfing our society, we must be ex plicit in our condemnation

order, God's order, the ex

of the moral evil of homo

act opposite is true. War, however "politically incor rect," is something proper

sexuality. As Christian mo rality affirms, this unnatu ral vice is a deadly sin that

to men.

cries out to heaven for

. -A:-'

Surely some may object

vengeance.

Sterile by definition, the

that Saint Joan of Arc was a

homosexual relationship in herently eradicates the fam ily. As ordained by its Crea

woman warrior. Indeed, she

was an admirable example of the warrior spirit. How ever, as the Church pro

tor, the natural end of the

claims, her vocation was

sexual act is procreation, in

exceptional, corresponding to the unique design of

tegral to the fecundity of the family and to the survival of

Providence. The Maid of

the human race. God's com

Orleans was a virgin as few

Her life was a glorifica tion of her virginity, which

mand is to multiply and fill the earth. That precept is to be fulfilled only through the sexual intimacy of marriage, hence its proper name, the

was so immaculate as to be

marital act. For homosexu

stow on her a strength that, without violating her nature

als, ofeither sex,there can be

others and a warrior like none other.

as a woman, enabled her to

no marriage in any authentic sense of that dignified and

answer God's call as a war

sacred state. A liaison con

rior. Hers was a supernatu

trary to the order of nature is a mockery of marriage what ever legal status its militant practitioners may demand.

Accordingly, over the ages, homosexuality has been the object of legiti

ral vocation,a gift of Divine grace, something utterly su perior, transcending the common rule which pru dence dictates in such mat ters.

Saint Joan of Arc. (Monument in Manhattan, New York)

mate social, as well as

Women in combat en-

dangernot only the military spirit but the stability of family life in whose absence any society is moribund. A woman that has been for a time a soldier will impoverish the am plitude of her inherently feminine nature. The rigors of military life demand a personality forged to such a degree of combativity and endurance that it enhances a man and ill suits a woman. In sum, the military spirit is masculine.

May-June, 1993

moral, aversion. This is the natural reaction of any healthy society, since all living things reject that which seeks to destroy it. In accordance with man's innate desire for self-

preservation and with the demands of Christian ethics,civ

ilized societies condemn the practice and the promotion of homosexual degeneracy. *

*

*

5

The Tip of The Iceberg

Please fasten your seatbelt, for, as customary, we must advance our journey to the eye of the hurricane at warp speed.

Why hasn't anyone bothered to ask how we arrived in this sorry situation in the first place? Could it be we are afraid to acknowledge the revolutionary process affecting every sector of American life? Do we fear the demands such an acknow

The Washington Post underscores the "moderate" con tradiction:

Aspin's plan seems to have been received with far less rancor than the President's proposal on homosexuals. The relative lack of dissent appears to reflect surveys showing that most Americans support an expanded combat role for women.^

ledgment could impose on our consciences?

As we approach the precipice, should we not, at least, avail ourselves of what may be one of our last opportunities to determine just how the river of our Nation was so di verted from its course? If we do not take the time to un

derstand how we arrived here, we, the last remnants of

Christian civilization, shall plunge over the cliff with the lost who would lead us and with the lemmings who would follow them.

Indeed, as we draw closer to the denouement, the much

touted "end of history," it is easier to comprehend the ever

so gradual, long march of the Revolution^ that has led us to the brink of disaster.

Surely it was easier to be a "moderate" revolutionary during the Revolution's earlier stages. During the French

Public opinion seems better prepared to accept women in combat than homosexuals in the military. As the Post explains, "the expansion of women into non-traditional jobs throughout the military has happened incrementally."''

Opposition to that expansion has surrendered incremen tally, as the Post also evidences: Cmdr. Lee Williams, 43, chairman of the Naval Acad

emy's computer science department, said he would have op posed putting women in combat two years ago. But he said he now harbors a "reluctant acceptance" for the idea as long as Americans can accept "indignities that women will suffer

as prisoners of war."^

ning the risk of the guillotine, did not worry his head about

But much of the opposition to homosexuals in the mili tary is no longer based on moral principles. Take Marine Col. Fred Peck, chief spokesman for U.S. military forces in Somalia, whose testimony in favor of the ban electrified

the annihilation of civilization. He knew public opinion

a packed Senate hearing:

Revolution,for instance, an informed Girondist, while run

was not prepared to march to the frenzied pace of the Ja cobins and that, accordingly, the Terror would be short lived. He knew his children would live under a "moderate"

If[my son Scott] were to go and seriously consider join ing the military, I would have to, number one, personally counsel against it and, number two, actively fight against it,

regime, to the Left, to be sure, of the Ancien Regime, but to the Right of Babeufs Communism.

If today's "moderate" were as informed as our Giron dist, he would find no such assurance of moderation. Many

Young Scott, however, was quoted as saying that he had been prepared for a "heated discussion" with his father.

are not. Consider Commander Lin Hutton, a senior female

"Instead, I was amazed to find that he had no moral or

Navy aviator who writes in Newsweek:

religious problems with homosexuality; he was simply op

1 watched the civil-rights movement change our world. 1 learned in school about a landmark decision by the Supreme Court in 1954 called Brown v. Board ofEducation ofTopeka.

1 learned the great phrase 'separate but equal is not equal' and for the last 18 years have wondered why this is true for different races but not for men and women.^

Although Commander Hutton is ecstatic that nearly all combat jobs will be open to women, she has serious prob lems with the next step in the Cultural Revolution. In fact, she objects to lifting the ban on homosexuals serving in the military as strongly as she favors lifting the ban on women serving in combat, protesting, "They're trying to use the Government to legitimize their lifestyle. We're here to tell you this is a grave, grave error. But as Phylis Schlafly aptly observes, "Those who embrace the 'equal opportu nity' argument in the case of women in combat have for feited the high ground of military necessity that supports the gay ban." ^

because my son is a homosexual. ^

posed to lifting the ban."'0

An opposition to sanctioning the military service of ho mosexuals founded on pragmatic rationales in lieu of moral and religious reasons is not a fortress, but a house of cards on shifting sands.

The same Maginot Line defense is being deployed in the face of the feminist offensive to open combat to women.

Here, the tenuous line is being drawn on the question of allowing women to engage in "ground combat."

Pentagon officiaLs said that, setting aside questions about women's strength orsuitability lor suchjobs.they do not believe the American public

i.s ready to .send women into ground combat. ''

In a few years, of course, when public opinion has been further desensitized, this final barrier will be lifted as well.

The final goal of the Revolution in this field i.s as clear

as gla.ss. As Deborah Ellis, legal director ofthe NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, reminds us:

Tradition. Family. Property

Duty, Honor, Country — Fading Away The reluctance to send women into combat...goes back to

Senator Sam Nunn. a Georgia Democrat who heads the

society's view of women as chiefly wives and mothers....

Aspin's decision...stretches our cultural notions about what

Armed Services Committee, summarizes the policy as, "Don't ask. don't tell." It would mean that the military would

femininity is.... It turns on its head the notion that women should be home taking care of their families.

investigations meant to ferret out homosexuals.... The pro

not ask new recruits about their sexual orientation or conduct

posal...received the endorsement of the hero of the Persian

Nancy Campbell Duff, of the National Women's Law Center, concurs that breaching the male bastion of combat has profound symbolic significance: If women can do the ultimate macho male thing of going into combat and killing somebody, there is no real distinc

tions left and women have to be accepted for everything they

Gulf war. Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf."Open homosexu ality is the problem," General Schwarzkopf told a hearing of the Armed Services Committee.'^

The Pentagon has its own version of surrender: A Defense Department official said the Pentagon proposal would,"to the untutored, look like Nunn," although in practice

can do.'^

it would allow homosexuals somewhat more latititude in re

In her essay for Time, Barbara Ehrenreich interweaves the threads of homosexuals in the militar>' and women in combat into yet another "seamless garment" of the Left. In the proc

ess, she reveals part of the pattem of the human archetype of the Revolution—a hermaphroditical humanity in which there is no clear distinction between men and women:

What heterosexuals really fear is not that "they"[the ho mosexuals]—an alien subgroup with perverse tastes in bed fellows—are getting an undue share of power and attention, but that "they" might well be us...By saying that gays are a definite, distinguishable minority that can easily be ex cluded, the military may feel better about its own presump

tive heterosexuality. But can "gays" really be excluded? Do 18-year-old recruits really have a firm idea what their sexu ality is? The military could deal with its sex crisis much more

vealing their sexual orientation."Maybe it's 'Don't Ask,Don't Shout,'"said the official, who asked not to be identified.

Par for the course, the Clinton Administration and the

homosexual lobby that campaigned so diligently for its election oppose both plans. It is de rigueur for the radicals never to appear contented with the capitulations of the "moderates." While, in the end.President Clinton may de cree a phased-in policy, the gradualists will have advanced in their drive to destroy public rejection of homosexuality.

Just think of how far they have come in the past two or three decades. Once, every normal person recoiled in shame from this unnatural vice and its carriers, but today's "doyour-own-thing" tolerance covers a multitude of sins.

simply, by ceasing to be such a unisexual institution and letting women serve on an equal basis.... Perhaps it is time to acknowledge that the potential to fall in love with, or just be attracted to, a person of the same sex is widespread among

otherwise perfectly conventional people.''^

What does the future hold? How will these revolutionary advances go forward?

Senior senators from both parties are crafting a compro mise that professes to bar homosexuals who proclaim their homosexuality from serving in the armed forces, while promising to end the military's efforts at unmasking homo sexuals who keep silent:

The next step may well be homosexual marriages. As the Washington Post reports: The Hawaii Supreme Court has become the first in the country to rule that states may not be able to prohibit gays from marrying.... Last September, the Kentucky Supreme Court safeguarded privacy rights for homosexuals when it struck down an anti-sodomy law. Together, the decisions

show how new legal avenues for homosexuals have opened, at the same time when gays are winning more social accep tance and political status. "We're thrilled, and we're plan ning our wedding," said Ninia Baehr, one of the parties to the Hawaii case, who has been trying for nearly three years to marry another woman.

Lost in the Forest?

If you have read one headline, you have read them all:"Clinton to Lift Ban on Gays in Military,""Women to Serve in Combat." From the Oval Office to Senate chambers, the testimony and the talk,from shouts to whispers, marches on. The steady staccato of the teletype from news reports to op ed columns sounds like small arms fire with no cease-fire in .sight.

At times the forest seems lost in the trees. To their credit, several conservative organizations have performed a yeoman's task in sifting through the sorted and sordid details. Free Congress Foundation,The Conservative Caucus, Defense Readiness Council and Family Research Council come to mind. We urge readers who want further informa tion on this critical subject to contact them.(We'll be pleased to pass on your mail, should you lack an address.)

May-June, 1993

Thi- Tip op Tmk Iceberg

If Hawaii permits homosexual matrimony as its high court says it should, would other states be obliged to honor

marching full speed to the rear hasten to their rescue with

those vows?

a compromise that generally is accepted. On the next revo

Law and history say yes and no.... Constitutional and general legal principles require states to honor each other's laws.... But another important tenetsays states can make an exception when

the public there holds strong contrary views.... It's clear that lawyers, judges, lawmakers and the public—not to mention

which flounders in the short run. But the "moderates"

lution, when the carousel comes full circle, the radicals

grab the brass ring.

Professor Correa de Oliveira continues:

One might say that the more rapid movements are useless.

But that is not true. The explosion of these extremisms raises up a standard and creates a fixed target that fasci nates the moderates by its very radicalism. Ac cordingly, they slowly advance toward it.... The failure of the extremists is, then, only an apparent one. They collaborate indirectly, but powerfully, in the advance of the Revolution by gradually at tracting the uncountable multitudes of the "pru

[The] revolutionary process takes place at two different velocities.

One is fast and is generally destined to

dent," "moderate," and mediocre, who are led

step-by-step toward the realization of the extrem

ists' guilty and exacerbated chimeras.-"^

fail in the short term.

The other has usually been crowned with success and is much slower.

As we teeter on the brink of the precipice, it is past time for "moderates," of whatever stripe, to recognize that if they do not resist the incremental advance of the Revolution,

there soon shall not be anything left for them to "moderate."

homosexual couples eager to tie a legal love knot—will probably find themselves hiking through a legal thicket if Hawaii allows homosexual marriages... *

*

*

Once more, the question arises—how did we get into this moral muck? And is there a way out?

In his landmark book Revolution and Counter-Revolu-

tion.Professor Plinio Correa de Oliveira provides the answer:

Welcome,then, to the only common-sense position, i.e., to resist the general wave that threatens to drown our civilization. It is a hallmark of the TFP to go against this tendential tide. As Professor Plinio Correa de Oliveira recently declared, "It is not true that the general wave cannot be resisted. Against that wave we must resist."

Against that wave we shall resist. Join us in that counter revolutionary resistance and with God's grace we shall win. And that will be only the tip of the iceberg....

[The] revolutionary process takes place at two different

velocities. One is fast and is generally destined to fail in the short term. The other has usually been crowned with success and is much slower.'^

As we have seen, the radicals strive for an extreme goal, i.e., the full acceptance of homosexuals into the military.

NOTES:

1. If it isn't true, it sure is well thought up.

2.The term "Revolution" is employed in the specific sense given it by

11. Ibid., 4/29/93 12. Ibid., 4/29/93

Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira in his book Revolution and

13. Ibid., 4/29/93

Counter-Revolution: a process of moral and philosophical decadence

14. Time, 5/10/93 15. New York Times, 5/12/93

beginning at the end of the Middle Ages and continuing to present.

3. Newsweek,5/10/93 4. New York Times, 5/11/93

16. Washington Post, 5/14/93

5. Washington Times, 5/8/93

6. Washington Post, 4/29/93

18. Washington Times, 5/17/93 19. Revolution and Counter-Revolution, The Foundation for a Christian

7, Ibid., 4/29/93 8. Ibid., 4/29/93

20. Revolution and Counter-Revolution, The Foundation for a Christian

9. Ibid., 5/12/93

17. Ibid., 5/7/93

Civilization, 1980, pg. 47 Gvilization, 1980, pp. 47-48

10. Ibid., 5/12/93

8

Tradition, Family, Property

Politically Correct?

Excerpts From a Letter of St. Peter Damian (1007-1072), Doctor of the Church, to Pope St. Leo IX 66

The befouling cancer of sodomy is, in fact,

spreading so through the clergy or rather, like a savage beast, is raging with such shameless aban don through the flock of Christ, that for many of them it would be more salutary to be burdened with service in the world than, under the pretext of relig ion, to be enslaved so easily under the iron rule of Satanic tyranny. It would be better for them to perish alone as laymen than, after having changed their at tire but not their disposition,to drag others with them to destruction, as Truth Itself testifies when It says,

'But if anyone is a cause of stumbling to one ofthese little ones, it would be better for him to be drowned

in the depths of the sea with a great millstone round his neck.' Unless immediate effort be exerted by the Apostolic See, there is little doubt that, even if one

pit and makes it impossible for the victim to escape.

It opens up hell and closes the gates of paradise, changes a citizen of the Heavenly Jerusalem into an heir of infemal Babylon, and turns a Heavenly star into chaff for eternal fire; it cuts off a member of the

Church and hurls him into the depths of the devour ing flames of Hell.

"Let us also quote what the great Basil [St. Basil the Great, Father of the Church] taught about the vice we have been discussing.

"For he says, 'Any cleric or monk who seduces young men or boys, or who is apprehended in Idssing or in any shameful situation, shall be publicly flogged and shall lose his clerical tonsure. Thus shom,he shall

the momentum of its progress.

"Unquestionably, this vice, since it surpasses the enormity of all others, is impossible to compare with any other vice. Without fail it brings death to the body and destruction to the soul. It pollutes the flesh, extinguishes the light of the mind, expels the Holy Spirit from the temple of the human heart, and gives

be disgraced by spitting into his face, bound in iron chains, wasted by six months of close confinement, and for three days each week put on barley bread given him toward evening. Following this period, he shall spend a further six months living in a small segregated courtyard in the custody of a spiritual elder, kept busy with manual labor and prayer, subjected to vigils and prayers, forced to walk at all times in the company of two spiritual brothers, never again allowed to associate with young men for purposes ofimproper conversation

entrance to the devil, the stimulator of lust. It leads

or advice."

wished to curb this unbridled evil, he could not check

to error, totally removes truth from the deluded

***

mind,prepares a trap for the traveller and secures the

Excerpts From Pope St. Leo IX's (1002-1054)

Letter of Response "Lest the wantonness of this foul impurity be al lowed to spread unpunished, it must be repelled by proper repressive action of Apostolic severity.

"And thus, all those who are defiled in any way by the four types offilth which have been mentioned, are, in consideration of due censure, deposed by Our Judgement and that of the sacred canons from all ranks of the Church which is immaculate.

"We remove all hope of recovering their order from those who alone or with others for a long time, or for even a short period or with many,have defiled themselves by either of the two kinds of filthiness

which you have described, or, which is horrible to hear or to speak of, have sunk to the level of anal

intercourse. Should anyone dare to criticize or attack this decree bearing Apostolic sanction, let him be aware that he does so with the risk oflosing his rank.

(The Fathers of the Church, Mediaeval Continuation, St. Peter Damian. Letter 31, pp. 4-6, pp. 28-30, The Catholic University of America Press, 1990)

May-June, 1993

J^oraotten ^rutfis The Combat begun in Heaven Between Lucifer and St. Michael still wages" This world is represented

irremediable, infinite evils.

Ail the wicked who have de

to us under the form of a

clared war against God, from Cain to those who now lay

statue of gold, brass, iron, and clay. This mystery of iniquity, which was shown in a dream to

waste the earth, have been

Nebuchadnezzar, is but the con

seemingly great and powerful princes, famous in the world

fused assemblage of all the acts,

and worshipped of men. But their apparent splendor is a portion of the mystery; they

interior and exterior, of the chil dren of darkness.

These are again represented by the beast coming up out of the abyss from the beginning of all ages, to make war upon the inte rior and spiritual man; and this

are but the beasts which, one after another, rise from the abyss to subvert the order of God. But this order, which is

another mystery, resists them

war still continues. The monsters

succeed one another; the abyss

with men truly powerful and

swallows them and vomits them

great, who give the death blow to these monsters; and even as

forth again, while unceasingly emitting new and strange vapors.

Hell vomits forth new mon

sters, Heaven raises up new

The combat begun in Heaven

heroes to battle with them.

between Lucifer and St. Michael

Ancient history, sacred and

still wages. The heart of that

proud and envious spirit has be

profane, is but the record of

come an inexhaustible abyss of

this war. The will of God al

every kind of evil; and his only

ways triumphs.

His followers share His vic

aim since the creation of the

iniquity to replace those swallowed up in the abyss. Lucifer

tories and reap a happy eternity. But iniquity can never pro tect its followers, and the deserters from God's cause reap

is the chieftain of those who refuse obedience to the Al

eternal death.

world has ever been to raise up among men new workers of

mighty; this mystery of iniquity is but the inversion of the order of God. It is the order, or rather the disorder, of Satan,

This disorder is a mystery,for beneath a fair exterior it hides

10

From; Abandonment or, Absolute Surrender to Divine Providence

by: Rev. J. P. dc Caussade, S. J.

Tkadition, Family. Property

The Mobile

Immobility of Chaos Plinio Correa de Oliveira

IF ANYTHING is a common denominator in

terial catastrophes and ruins, contemporary man

events of public and private life in so many na tions nowadays,it is chaos. Chaotic prospects seem to come one right after the other, and,increasingly, things follow the ways of chaos to an extent hardly fathomed

crouching down laments:"Ruin is the norm in life, and everyone has to be subject to it. Everything goes to ruin,

by anyone.

The enigmatic forces of chaos produce explosions and eruptions, giving one the impression that the world

The background of this picture seems to convey the following message: "Get used to this and understand that nothing will have any reason for being anymore!

will be split asunder.

Human reason has ceased to be, and nothing will ever

The optimists, the idiots (forgive the pleonasm) be came only a little bit frightened, thinking that every thing will soon return to normal. Those who consider

happen rationally anymore! But you will not be told this explicitly. The development of world events will

themselves clear-sighted become worried, thinking that the world will turn topsy-turvy. But they, too, are fooled because, as the French would say, "plus 9a change, plus c'est la meme chose"—the more things change, the more they remain the same.

Indeed, the chaotic process all of us are witnesses to

and suffer from, moves along, so to speak, in immobi lity. Here and there arise discord and situations so tense and critical that one would say that a world war might break out somewhere at any moment. Nevertheless, in the swirl of chaos, volatile scenarios end up remaining immobile.

Now,the stable immobility of continual mobility— and of situations that neither improve nor worsen—is

and nothing has any meaning.Things do not mean any thing anymore!"

be ever more absurd and irrational, and everyone will get used to the idea that absurdity has seized the scepter of the world!"

This seems to be the current message ofevents:"Hu man reason, depart! Human thought, die out! Man, do not reflect any more,rather let yourself be carried away by events like an animal!"

But Catholics have the possibility to discern, in the

lower depths of this abyss,the deceitful flashes and the song, at once sinister, luring, soothing, and delirious, of that abject being who is tantamount to a personifi cation of illogicality, absurdity, and the preposterous and hateful revolt against the Most Wise and Almighty.

It is the Devil, the father of evil, error, and falsehood.

precisely the drama that a growing number of countries

Desperately, he moans and shudders, shouting his ev erlasting and infamous cry of rebellion: "Non

are entering into.

serviam!"—I will not serve!

This is a psycho-social AIDS of sorts, spreading throughout the world; it docs not kill, but weakens everything sound and organic in the bosom of nations.

Frightened with the multiplication of moral and ma

These are perspectives that theologians can and ought to discuss. I mean true theologians, of course; that is, the few among them who still believe that the

May-June, 1993

Devil and Hell exist.

n

Pedophilic Priests And The Scandalous Publicity Surrounding Them: An Ideal Combination at the Service of the

Self -Destruction of the Church.

To the Catholic observer, the scandals given by the combina tion of pedophilic priests and the wave of publicity surrounding them seem to form yet another step being taken in the process of self-destruc

regarding pedophilic priests in order to purify the clergy and defend Her faithful from

such camouflaged wolves, we also desire, no less in

tensely, that these scandals

tion within the Church, as defined

do not affect the Church of

by Paul VL In reality, we know not which is

God already afflicted by great suffering and dilapida "Satans smoke has made its way into

more lamentable: the indecent and

tion.

abominable

And so, just as fresh air would be a great relief for tired and impoverished lungs, so too would good articles about the brilliant im age of authentic priests be excellent therapy when administered to the

never thinking of himself, but driven purely by thirst for souls and zeal for the glory of God,his Creator

exhausted souls of countless faith

encouraged and elevated the spiri

ful.

tual horizons of his flock. All of this

The memory of many of the faith ful, already being erased by so

was more the fruit of the sanctity of his person than of his natural quali

much chaos and confusion, still

ties.

contains, deep down, the notion of the ideal priest: as it were, consti tuted of a different, superior na ture — given the Sacrament of Holy Orders which he received — and by the invitation to perfection which his vocation obliges him to

In the confessional, the penitent felt total trust and opened his soul

behavior

of

these

priests, or the media coverage that is given to the scandals they produce.

One ends up being the corollary of the other: increasing the confusion amongst the faithful and discredit ing the Mystical Body of Christ,thus favoring those who profitfrom such discredit.

These profiteers, callously insen sitive to the Catholic's primordial concern of safeguarding the integ rity of the honor of the Church and the Faith of the faithful,everywhere publish these scandals. These news articles resound as trumpets of de struction adding evil to evil, rather than as charitable denouncements

the temple of God"(Pope Paul VI *)

within which is found a safe harbor

full of discernment and tailored for

for our miseries, concerns, and tri

that particular soul who,at that mo

als. Yes! - an image of immaculate purity,of dedication without hesita

the only person in the priest's

tion, of total discretion. His manli

thoughts. And at the end, the priest

ness, directed entirely to the service

pronounced the absolution; an ab-

nurtures, in the memory of the poor nostalgist, the image of the priest of their dreams: a holy priest! A being seemingly angeli

the controversial author Rev. An

J2

without reserve, confident in the

certainty that therein he found the

cal, as with transcendent virtues,

attain. The tradition of the Church

bringing it to an end.Sadly,it didn't take long for books, without end, to be published about the subject.

(Regarding these books, there is at least one reason for applause.

Nine great dioceses of our country refused to publish advertisements

drew Greeley.)

As we earnestly desire - with what anxiety! - that effective steps be taken by the Catholic Hierarchy

and Lord. His sermons, full of fire,

perfect friend of his soul, entirely disinterested of any personal ad vantage, who would listen to him with ardent charity, yet with the authenticity of a man who repre sents Truth in its integrity. From the patient and zealous priest came words of courage as well as admon ishment. His spiritual direction was

and corrections with the intention of

in their papers of one such book by

of both customs and intentions;

ment, was made to feel as if he were

of God and of men,was a fruit of his

firmness of character and his purity

(*) L'osservntore Romano, July 13,1972. p6

Tradition, Family, Property

solution which was pronounced

by Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself through lips "loaned" to Him bv the priest. The penitent then rose and took his leave, full of peace and mar\'eled of the mystery of the sacrament of Penance.

In the Eucharist, it was from the hands of this 'consecrated of

the Lord' that the faithful awaited

to receive Holy Communion. It pleased them that it was so, be cause they were consecrated hands and for this reason more

dignified to introduce God into their hearts.

During the celebration of the Holy Mass, people became en thused with the recollection and

The sad fact is that the results

are in, the rotten fruit is being pre sented, and the mass media has

charged itself with trumpeting the news. But little or nothing is being done to balance the evil that the notion of such a reality causes in everyone's spirits.

That image of unlimited abne gation of a sacrificing religious

who is called to assist a dying per son in the middle of the night, risking his own life by travelling dangerous roads and facing storms; this image no longer fre quents the mind of the faithful to day. In its place, a very different image is projected. Proof of this...the horror of pedophilic

compenetration with which he re priests. newed, in an unbloody way, the As a consequence, first sacrifice of Calvary. comes a process of self-destruc It was enchanting to see the tion, which demolishes. Then af clergy in their cassocks,imposing terwards, without relating it to respect and carrying within this process,this most hideous re themselves a certain mystery.The Saint Pius X as a cardinal, a perfect sult of the process is presented to faithful soul who saw a priest the public. With the presentation model for the priesthood. walk by quickly took off his hat in of such a wave of scandal, it is in a gesture of reverence and if seated acquiring a business-like mentality, sinuated that the Church is losing always stood up. Because it was not with regLilar working hours and a control of her clergy and conse just anybody who was walking by, time to open and close "shop." By quently is nearing the end of her it was someone who was more than doing this they thought that they own demolition, the only way out a king; a minister of the Most High. would become more productive being for the faithful to become But with the post-conciliar age and more popular. atheists or join another religion. It is and post-modern tendencies,count More productive? What a mis as if everything conspires against less priests, in the name of a practi take! Their efficiency must come the Holy Church and her faithful. cal and efficient life, removed every from their influence with God, the If I interpret things correctly, this thing that differentiated them from lone Solver of the true problems of insinuation takes over the mind of the common man — they democra both soul and body, and not from the faithful one who did not prepare tized themselves, dressing like eve practicality of life. And this effi well for these days of confusion. He, ryone else, changing their habits ciency can only be gained through who did not make the effort to and abandoning their prerogatives the practice of virtue. deepen his convictions and certain by letting others do what only they Popular? Another great mistake! ties, vacillates. And vacillating, he should do;for example,distributing Didn't they know that true popular may end up deviating from the Holy Communion. They stripped ity is like a shadow. When a man Faith. themselves of sacrality in their be runs after his shadow, it runs away On the other hand, he does not havior. Lowering themselves, they from him; but when a man turns his see clearly the aforementioned proc became equal to all and with this back on his shadow, then it pursues ess of self-destruction which is be they set aside,amongst other things, him. In reality, by seeking popular ing perpetrated inside of the sacro the armor that defended them from ity, it ran away from them; they lost sanct walls of the Catholic Church; becoming sinners, unto the level of prestige and respect. By descending the Church founded directly by Our the common sinner and even lower. from the realm of mystery,they lost Lord Jesus Christ Himself and none "Corruptio optimi, pessima," — their power of attraction and, by other. Our dear vacillator does not the corruption of the best ends in the mingling with the world,instead of have the habit of accompanying the worst. In many cases they ended up saving it, they lost themselves.

Church through her history. If he

May-June, 1993

fied, as did Our Lady at the foot of the cross of her Divine Son —

"Stabat

Mater

Dolorosa, juxta

crucei"^ lacrimosa."

"Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church,and the gates of Hell will not prevail against her." These are the words of the Di

vine Founder concerning the great est work of history: the One, Holy, Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Verily, these are words which should bring a quick stop to any and every hesitation in our faith as we contemplate the horrors through which the Church passes today.

Realistically speaking, the days are evil and we are going through a time that is imposed and com manded by vice, corruption, chaos, and confusion. We can apply the

m

i '.S'' J^.'>».«r: ?

same words that our Redeemer

spoke to the chief priests and mag istrates on the occasion of His Pas

sion and Death, "...but this is your hour, and the power of darkness" (Luke 22: 52-53). They are bad days that can become even worse. But the

---A ^

vL^^-^

'Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church,

and the gates of Hell will not prevail against her."

had done so, he would see that be

cried out to God, "Quae utilitas in

cause she holds all Truth, her path has always been the path of persecu

sanguine meo?"- Of what use is the shedding of My blood? And on an

tions, treasons, defections, defama

other occasion he asked God, Who

tions, and battles with the crises cre

seemed to be sleeping,to rise up and

ated by her bad pastors or with apostates who were exploited by

from this life — "Toli animam

her enemies — which she has never lacked.

As an example,amongst so many which could be given, we have one of the greatest Marian saints, St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort.

He lived over 200 years ago, and at that time, in face of the devastation

that the Jansenist heresy had wrought within the Church, he

intervene. If not, then to take him

meam."These are expressions of the anguish of a great saint seeing the

faithful soul who prays and turns to the good doctrine of the Church, supported by the infallible Magisterium of her Popes,the good exam ples from the lives of her prophets, martyrs,saints, and heroes, will un derstand that the Church does not

let herself be intimidated by "the power of darkness," nor is she cor rupted by her bad priests. Thus,as a celestial lily, with her inerrant doc trine,she resists all the attacks of the

adversary, from within and with out, as well as all the processes of self-destruction and all types of publicity that try to stain her indefectibility.

There are no waves that can topple

devastation of the Church. Two

or shake her from the rock. On the

hundred years have passed and countless other persecutions have come and gone,many of which were

contrary, when she appears to be she will be victorious once again. Let

even worse than the one that this

not her detractors think that, when

great French priest and canonized saint had to go through. And yet the Church still stands...firm and digni

is a sign of vulnerability. Again, and emphatically again, quite to the con-

most vulnerable is the moment when

they sec a wound open in her side, it

Tradition. Famiix PRorLRTY

trary! It is from this wound that more light will come. Wasn't it so with the sacred side of The Crucified

when opened by a lance?

Dear reader, have complete cer tainty that from this light will one day come,in the not too distant fu ture, missionaries that are holier

than their predecessors. For thus af firms the great Marian saint we mentioned above, St. Louis Marie

Grignon de Montfort, in his pro phetic Fiery Prayer: "Such will be the missionaries that

Tliou wishest to send to Thy Church.

They shall regard their neighbor with human eyes, Thy enemies with lion eyes, themselves with ox eyes, and Thee with eagle eyes.These followers of the Apostles shall preach with a

power and an effect so great and splendid (virtute multa, virtute magna), that they will stir up all

ÂŤir

minds and hearts wheresoever they

will preach. It is to them that Thou wilt give Thy word (dabit vcrbum) and even Thy mouth and Thy wis dom (Daho vobis os et sapientiam ciii non poterunt resistere oinnes adversarii veslri), which none of Thy enemies will be able to withstand....

"Due to their abandonment to Providence and their devotion to

Mary, they shall have the silver wings of the dove (inter medios cleros pennae columbae deargentatae); that is, purity of doctrine and life; and they will have golden backs (et posteriora dorsi ejiis in pallore auri);that is to say,

fK Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort

a perfect charity toward their neigh bor to bear with their defects and a

great love for Jesus Christ to carry His Cross.

"Thou alone. King of Heaven and King of kings,wilt set these mis sionaries apart from the world like kings, in order to make them purer than the snow on top of Mount Zalmon,the mountain of God,the gen erous and fertile mountain, the

strong and rich mountain, in which God is wonderfully pleased, and in

"Blessed,

a

thousand

times

blessed, are the priests whom Thou hast chosen and predestined to dwell with Thee upon this generous and di vine mountain, there to become the

mies to defeat or convert them.... It is

kings of eternity by their contempt of

on this mountain of God that they shall be transfigured as He was on Moimt Thabor;that they will die with Him as He died on Calvary,and that they will ascend to Heaven with Him

the world and the elevation of their

minds to God;there to be made purer than snow by their union with Mary, Thy Spouse, most beautiful, most pure, most immaculate; there to be enriched with the dew of Heaven and

which He dwells and shall dwell

the fruitfulness of the earth, and with

world without end

all temporal and eternal blessings.

May-June, J993

which Mary fully possesses, "Like Moses,from the top of this moimtain they shall throw the arrows of ardent supplications at their ene

as He did from Mount Olivet."

JIUNX - T'fie Month of the SacrecCJ-Ceart ofJesus

The Sacred Heart and the French Kings ^

known the Sa-

the humiliations and outrages of His passion, the Eternal Father

I

to Saint Margaret Mary Ala-

1

coque, a nun of the order of

monarch, whom He wants to use for the execution of His wish, which is to have a building made for the exposition ofa painting of this Divine Heart in order that there It may receive the consecration and the homage of the king and the whole court.

â– V -

II

T creel Heart of Jesus appeared

^ I iC"

^ ^

'

Visitation, in Paray-le-

1

Monial, France, in the secseventeenth

.

1 I

\y,I 'Âť

Y I"

I

.Vj

{ J

it

"This Divine Heart further wants to be the Protector and

century,conveyingtoherthe

Defender of his sacred person [the king's person] against his

specific mission of spreading the devotion to His most Sa-

enemies. This is why He has chosen him, as one would a faithful friend, to entreat the Holy, Apostolic See for authoriza tion to be granted for Masses in Its honor and for the concession of the other privileges that the devotion to this Divine Heart

1 I1 II credHeart.

Toher, OurLord made four main revelations.

-

wishes to establish His dominion in the heart of our great

In the first three revela-

tions, which took place in the

J years 1673-1675, Our Lord transmits to St. Margaret,mes

calls for.

"Through this Divine Heart He wants to share with him the treasures of His graces of sanctification and salvation, blessing all his enterprises, giving his armies good success, and making

sages to the world regarding the spreading of the devotion to

him overcome the malice of his enemies."2

His Sacred Heart.

The saint indicated that the letter should be delivered by Fr. de la Chaise, the monarch's confessor.

The fourth and last revelation, which seems to be the least

known, took place many years after, in 1689, exactly one hundred years before the French Revolution. Saint Margaret Mary narrates this revelation to her superior, Mother de Saumaise,in a letter dated February 23,1689:"Ah! Happy you and

"If the goodness of God inspires this great servant of His Divine Majesty to apply for this the power He gave him, may

all those who will contribute to its [the devotion to the Sacred

a great reward.

"All this shall be very difficult because of both the great

Heart] propagation! For they will win the eternal friendship and blessings of this lovable Heart and a powerful Protector for our nation such as the present times demand for preventing the gall and the severity of God's just wrath from falling on our heads for so many crimes that are committed ."

In the second letter, written on the very Feast of the Sacred Heart, June 17, 1689, after pointing out the fruits of this devotion in her Order, she says: "It seems that He wants to enter into the palaces of princes and kings with pomp and

magnificence, in order to receive there as much honor as many were the outrages, the manifestations of contempt, and the humiliations that He suffered during His Passion; He is as much

pleased to see the potentates of the earth humbled at His feet, as He was pleased to have been abated at their feet.

he rest assured that he could do no greater action for the glory

of God or more profitable for his soul, and that he shall receive

obstacles that Satan will raise and other hindrances that God

will allow in order to display His power, with which He can do

anything that He wants, although He does not always do it so as not to make violence to the hearts of men. It is necessary to pray much and to ask that others pray for this to be obtained."^ Unfortunately, Louis XIV did not attend the Divine request, and history tells us that 100 years later, the most terrifying of events, the French Revolution, exploded with the fall of the Bastille on July 14, 1789.

Could it be that the Sacred Heart wanted to prevent such a catastrophe?

In any event, the above mentioned letters were found only

in the second half of the nineteenth century. However,one may

"These are the words that I heard from Him concerning this:

suppose that they were copies, and that the king received the

'Make it known to the first born son of My Sacred Heart that

originals. To be sure, there was always an awareness of this in the royal family as the following measures indicate: Maria Leczinska, Louis XV's wife, obtained from the French bishops

just as his temporal birth was obtained through devotion to the merits of My holy childhood, so also will he obtain his birth to

grace and life everlasting through the consecration of his person to My adorable Heart, which wants to overcome his, and by means of his, to overcome also the potentates of the earth. [My Heart] wishes to reign in his palace and be painted on his standards, thereby to grant him victory over all his enemies.'

Fearing that these letters might have been lost, the saint again wrote to her superior in August of that same year, probably on

the Feast of St, Louis, King of France. She said;

that the Feast of the Sacred Heart be established in all the

dioceses of France; her son, the Dauphin, who was Louis XVI's father, built a chapel to the Sacred Heart in the Palace of Versailles; and while Louis XVI was imprisoned in the tower of the Temple, he offered to make the consecration in the exact terms requested by the Sacred Heart, thereby bearing witness

to the tradition that had been passed down through the royal family.

"With the intention of making reparation for the bitterness and anguish that the adorable Heart of His Divine Son has

(I) Taken Trom Pc Emilc Bougaud, Vicar General of Orleans. Livraria

suffered in the palaces of the princes of the earth, in addition to

[nicrnalionai, Porto-Braga, 1879.(p. 332).(2)Ibid (p, 336),(3) Ibid (p. 337).

Tradition. Family. Property

Great Documents

of Catholic History

Consecration of

Louis XVI,King of France, to the

Sacred Heart of Jesus.

"Well dost Thou see, O my God, the great sadness that oppresses my heart, the grief that wounds it and the depth of the abyss into which I have been cast. I am assailed by countless evils from all sides. To the oppres

sion of my soul, the horrible tragedies that have befallen me and my family add up to those that cover the whole extension of the

realm. The clamoring of all the misfortunate and the moans of our oppressed religion reach my ears, and an inner voice suggests to me that perhaps Thy justice holds me ac countable for all these calamities for not hav

ing restrained, during the days of my power, their main causes, which are the people's li centiousness and the spirit of irreligion, and for having supplied heresy, now triumphant, its weapons by favoring it by laws that gave it redoubled strength and enough boldness to dare anything.

"O Jesus Christ, Divine Redeemer of all our iniquities, today I come to find relief for my soul in Thy adorable Heart. I call to my aid the tender Heart of Mary, my august pro tectress and Mother, and the assistance of St. Louis, my advocate and the most illustri ous of my ancestors.

The tower of the Temple where Louis XVI wrote the Consecration.

"Open Thyself,adorable Heart,and through the most pure hands of my powerful interces

sors, receive benignantly the atoning vows of which confidence inspires me and that I offer Thee as the frank expression ofmy sentiments.

"If, as a consequence of Divine goodness,I were to recover liberty, the crown, and royal power, I solemnly promise:

the hands ofthe priest, promising to give all my vassals an example of the worship ÂŁmd

"1. To revoke at once all the laws that will

"4. To erect and adorn within a year of my release and at my own expense,in the church that I will choose, a chapel or an altar to be dedicated to the Sacred Heart, which will stand as the lasting monument of my recog

be indicated to me by the pope or a council, or by four of the more learned and virtuous bishops ofmy realm,as contrary to the purity and integrity of the Faith, and contrary to

the discipline and the special jurisdiction of the Holy, Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Church; and especially to revoke the Civil

the devotion due that adorable Heart.

nition and limitless confidence in the infinite

merits and inexhaustible treasures ofgraces that this Divine Heart contains.

Constitution of the Clergy; "2. To take,within a year,all the necessary measures to establish, with the approval of

"5. Finally, to renew every year, wherever I might be on the Feast ofthe Sacred Heart,

the pope and of the episcopate of my realm,

point and to participate in the general pro cession that will take place right after that

and in accordance with canonical standards, a solemn feast in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to be celebrated forevermore

throughout all France on the first Friday im mediately after the eight days following the Feast of Corpus Christi and to be always fol lowed by a general procession. This feast

the act of consecration stated in the third

da5^s Mass.

"Now I cannot pronounce this pact except in secret, but I would sign it with my own blood if necessary; and the most beautiful day of my life will be when I will be able to proclaim it aloud in the Temple.

will be celebrated in reparation for the out

"O adorable Heart of my Savior, may I ne

rages and desecrations perpetrated in our holy temples by schismatics, heretics, and

glect my right hand and my own being if I

bad Christians in these times ofso great tur

promises, if I were to cease to love Thee and place all my trust and comfort in Thee!"

moil .

"3. To go in person on a Simday or a holy day within three months of the day of my

were to ignore Thy benefits and these my

Louis XVI, King of France

deliverance to the Church of Notre Dame of

Paris, or to any other principal church in the place where I will be at that time, to pro nounce a solemn act of consecration of my

person, my family, and the realm to the Sa cred Heart of Jesus next to the main altar

after the Offertory of the Mass and through

Taken from:Pe. Emile Boiigaud, Vicar General of Orleans.

Livraria Internacional, Porto-Braga, 1879.(pp.388-391)

Years Since The Sorbonne Revolution

Paris - May,1968

"V?, 1^1

t Iff

The Sorbonne Revolution in France:

The SorbonneRevolution Twenty-FIVE Years Later

Twenty-five years have elapsed since what is com monly known as the Sorbonne Revolution shook the French capital in May of 1968.

That revolutionary explosion spewed its ideologi cal shrapnel all over the world,even if rather quietly and sinuously, with most destructive consequences for Christian civilization. The ideological debris, par ticularly damaging in the moral field, did not spare our country. Our daily and weekly newspapers and magazines bear abundant witness to the continuing effects of May,1968.

Tradition, Family, Property finds this 25th anniver sary of the Sorbonne Revolution an opportune occa sion to provide its readers with a perceptive treat ment of the matter from Chapter 6 of Spain — Anesthetized Imperceptibly, Gagged Unzvillingly, Misled Unwittingly: The Work of the Spanish Socialist Workers'

Party, a book published by the Spanish TFP(Madrid: 1988).

May-June, 1993

An Ideological and Temperamental Explosion Seeking to Propel Western Mentalities toward Anarchy The Profound Tendencies That Prepared theWay A profound tendency exists in modem man toward a

chimerical type of life, wherein he can give full rein to his passions and befree from the constraints ofduty,coercion, effort,and pain. Thistendencyincreases to the degree that he separates hinaself from Cluistian civilization.

Such profound tendencies do not produce all their consequences in just one generation. They slowly modify lifestyles, ambiences, culture, laws, and the state. Each concrete transformation feeds man's deter

mination to adapt his life to the tendency.

Today there are innumerable reforms, both large and small, and sociocultural manifestations of every kind that reflect this profound illusory desire for a life of unrestrained pleasure. Everything in the contem porary world heads in the direction of liberating man

from various forms of inequalities and legitimate authorities that life in society presupposes, such as morality and positive laws.*

19

Paris - May,1968 * For more on the role of pride and sensuality in hatred for every

form of superiority or law,sec Revoluiion and Counler-Revolution, by

of logic and the true formation of the will to almost nothing"{Revo lution and Counler-Revolution, p. 69).

Prof. Plinio Correade Oliveira(New Rochclle, NY: 1980). Heshows

how these disorderly passions form the deepest stratum exploited by

The Sorbonne: Announcing the Birth of

the various revolutions that have followed one after another in the Christian West since the end of the Middle Ages. He also shows that

a New Historic Era

these successive revolutions arc, in reality, steps in the gradual de

These tendencies clearly erupted in May,1968 with the student barricades of the Sorbonne, accompanied

velopment of one single, immense Revolutionary process.

An unmistakable symptom of this is the immense influence that Freud's theories on liberating the sexual instinct have had in today's world.

A New Human Type That Rejects the Primacy of the Intelligence and the Will

by the cry of "It is forbidden to forbid!" A sort of pre view of history,it revealed to the astonished bourgeoi sie world the entire phase of anarchical utopia toward which the disorderly passions of total liberty and equality are directed.

Amid this disorder, unbridled sexual promiscuity,

At the heart of the progressive march of this tendency, simultaneously egalitarian and libertarian, is the desire

and outbreaks of violence,the Sorbonne Revolutionaries

sang in preiise of Mao Tse-Tung's Cultural Revolution.

to break not only with hi

erarchy and the laws of life in society, but even with the very internal or der

of

human

nature.

That is to say, this ten

USA - 1993

tion of reason and the will.

"The Imagination to Power"

dency feeds upon a de sire to form a type of man

in an artificial world."(Jime, Feb. 8, 1993)

tates of reason and the

imperatives of the will in order to proclaim the pri macy of the senses and the instincts. A manifes

tation of this phenome non could be seen in the

1950s

with

masses

of

teenagers hypnotized by the frenetic rhythm of rock-and-roll

"cultural"

and

its

projections.*

They preached the birth of a

"Virtual Reality. An interactive technology that creates an illusion, still crude rather than convincing, of being immersed

who abandons the dic

They proclaimed the death of the state, of organized society, and of the civiliza

"Beyond Your Wildest Dreams" and "Dream Ma chines"(Two article titles in Time special issue, Fall, 1992) "It is forbidden to forbid"

"Everything today is without limitations—Political, cul

new

wherein

historical the

era

instincts

would finally be liberated after two thousand years of slavery. The FreudianMarxist theories of Wilhehn

Reich, touched up by Her bert Marcuse, aligned the

tural, sexual. There're no restrictions, and shame is no longer in our vocabulary." {Kansas City Star, Feb. 4,1993)

social and sexual revolution

"A customer accused of violating a city ban on smoking in restaurants stabbed a waiter to death early yesterday morning

chical and monogamous family as the first source of all economic, political, cul tural, and moral repression.

after being told to put out his cigarette, police said." (San Fran cisco Chronicle, Jan. 13, 1993)

"A federaljudge ruled early yesterday that Akron's law ban

ning public nudity is unconstitutional." (Plain Dealer(Cleve land), March 18,1993)

and pointed to the hierar

Such was the ideologi cal sustenance for

this

From this came a whole

temperamental rebellion,

series of related rhythms, of music, of fashions, of ways of being and living that increasingly define and radicalize this human type,

whose exacerbations were

personified by movie and rock stars, the Beatles and hippies. All this contributed to the "sexual revolu

translated into slogans such as "Be realistic: demand the impossible";"Better a hellish end than an endless hell"; "The imagination takes power"; and the afore mentioned "It is forbidden to forbid."

tion" of the 60s on American college campuses.

the primary reactions without the control of the intelligence nor the

In turn, the leftist media around the world acted as an enormous echo chamber of the anarchist explosion, which was imitated by revolutionary students on a smaller scale throughout the West. However, in the end the French bourgeoisie demanded a return to nor mality.*

effective participation of the will. Fantasy and 'lived and fell expe riences' predominate over the methodical analysis of reality. All of this is a fruit, to a great degree, of a pedagogy that reduces the role

* While General Charles do Gaulle, then head of slate, secretly left France to secure the support of French troops stationed in Ger-

* Plinio Correa de Oliveira refers to this phenomenon in his book cited above: "The Revolutionary process in souls, which we have

thus described, has produced in the most recent generation (and es

pecially in adolescents of our days who hypnotize themselves with 'rock-and-roll') a make-up of spirit characterized by spontaneity of

20

Tradition, Family. Property

Paris - M a ,196 8

many,a huge demonstration, made up principally

^ '-ÂĽ^1

T'r

^

of the middle and lower bourgeoisie, was organ-

ized on the Avenue Champs-Elysces in Paris to

demand an immediate end to the revolutionary

%

/' ^

chaos that had paralyzed the country. However,

the half-million Frenchmen who protested there

AmH

against the insupportable effects of the anarchist revolution did not direct their indignation against

the ideological and temperamental root that was

^

its cause and that could be summed up in the slo-

\

gan "It is forbidden to forbid."

L to

^ j }I

Meanwhile, the university build- |L-u ^\' I fc ings were evacuated, duly cleaned,

jf

and restored, the barricades were removed from the streets of the cities,

-

and order was re-established.

W

What was the effect of this revolution that had seemed so dominant?

On the immediate superficial plane, it was the failure of a radicalism that

could not count on the support of French and world public opinion of

A New Human Type That Rejects the Primacy of the Intelligence and the Will

ertarian magazine Pflaster Strand: "Mr. Cohn-Bendit

that time.

sees the status of his friends[of the Green Party]as one

On a more profound plane and in medium and long-range perspectives, the Western bourgeoisie mentality experienced very significant consec^uences

political fruit of 1968.... But the most visible features of 1968 appear in people's behavior,in their habits,in their everyday lives — in education, in feminism, in

from the brutal shock. Defeated at Champs-Elysees,

culture."(New York Times,9/1/1986)

the revolutionary movement of the Sorbonne nonethe less continued to spread by means of its slogans and its ways of being and living. Like a slow oil leak, this rebellion filtered throughout a society that did not se riously reject its ideological content but only its ex

How Can the French May be Used to Guide the West Toward Self-management? Socialist Theorists Analyze the Problem

treme consequences.* Since the 1960s,socialist and Marxist theorists have

* Concerning the role of the extremist forces in the development of the revolutionary process. Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira says:

extensively analyzed the profound effects of the stu

"The explosion of these extremisms raises up a standard and creates

dent revolution of May,1968. Prominent among these

a fixed target that fascinates the moderates by its very radicalism.

Accordingly, they slowly advance toward it. Thus, socialism repu diates communism, but it also silently admires and tends toward it.

Fougeyrollas and the Austrian Andre Gorz. More re

More remotely, the same could be said of the communist Babeuf and

are the French authors Alain Touraine and Pierre

cent prominent spokesmen include Spanish socialist theorist Ignacio Sotelo and two Frenchmen, Pierre

his henchmen in the last flare-ups of the French Revolution. They were crushed. But society moves slowly along the way they wished it to follow. The failure of the extremists is, then, only an apparent

Rosanvallon and Laurent Joffrin.

one. They collaborate indirectly, but powerfully, in the advance of

The Cultural Revolution: A Radical and Profound

the Revolution by gradually attracting the uncountable multitudes of the 'prudent,' 'moderate,' and mediocre, who are led step by step

Change That Leads Mentalities to Total Revolution

toward the realization of their guilty and exacerbated chimeras."

(Revolution and Counterrevolution, p. 48)

The ideasformulated by these theorists reveal a new revolutionary global vision, which we will outline be low.*

Twenty years later, one of the most representative leaders of the Sorbonne Revolution,Daniel Cohn-Bendit, evaluated the results of this student rebellion in statements made to the New York Times from his wellestablished office in Frankfurt where he directs the lib-

May-June, 1993

* Jacques Ellul and Cornelius Castoriadis have also dealt with these ideas and Richard Gombin has summarized them didactically.

Alfonso Guerra has. to some degree, become the principal spokes man for them in Spanish socialist circles.

The so-called philosophers of Marxist revisionism — such as

Paris - May,1968 Lukacs, Korsch, Schaff. Adorno, Horkhcimcr, Bloch, Marcuse.

Fromm. Lcfebvre — linked for the most part either directly or indi

b)The rebellions of1968 exposed the sociocultural crisis of industrialized societies. More profoundly,

rectly to the Frankfurt School, provided a theoretical base for this

the youth uprising that erupted in France and in the Western world beginning in May,1968 revealed a so ciocultural crisis of unexpected magnitude that had developed in the bosom of industrialized societies.

The youth uprisings in the "Prague Spring" and in

new posi-Sorbonne socialism.

a) The new brew of revolutionary culture. A con

crete analysis of the contemporary reality undoubt edly indicates growing discredit around the world for the dogmatic routes toward communism: the Soviettype proletarian dictatorship with its state capitalism or the drastic attempts of Mao's China and the Khmer Rouge with their unprecedented totalitarian violence.

At the same time, there is decreasing interest in the revolutionary mobilization of the masses of rural workers against capitalism. The working class, con trary to the claims of the classic Marxist ideologists,

Poland during thatsame year were also evidentsymp toms of an analogous crisis in the socialist bloc.

c) A crisis of generations... We are dealing with an upheaval that did not rise up in the name of the work ing class or of a political party. Rather, it presented itself as the struggle of libertarian feeling of the youth against their elders and their whole system of values. d)...that tends toward

has largely integrated

total revolution... Un

itself into the so-called

USA - 1993

doubtedly, it is a move

"A crisis of generations..."

revolutionary content that goes beyond the dogmatism of Marxist orthodoxy. At the same time,it radically.opposes all forms of legal and moral authority and co ercion, individually as well as socially.

society of well-being.

ment

For this reason, the

the class struggle from

"Teenage suicides: The teen suicide rate has more than tripled— from3.6per 100,000 teenagers in 1960 to 11.3 per 100,000 teen-agers

the

in 1990." (Sacramento Bee, March 16, 1993J

Marxists had to unleash "dissatisfied

mi

norities," taking advan tage of discontent caused by limitations on their desires for egali tarian

and

libertarian

expansion. These limi tations were attributed

"That tends toward total revolution..."

"While the population has increased 41 percent since 1960, the violent crime rate has increased more than 500 percent, and total crimes more than 300 percent. In 1960, there were 288,460 violent crimes,or 16.1 per 10,000 people; in 1991,there were more than 1.9

millionviolentcrimes,or75.8per 10,000people." (SacramentoBee, March 16,1993)

"And departs from a radical liberation of the instincts...'

tarian discipline of the state apparatus and to the immense, oppres

"Eight high school students in the middle-class suburb of Lakewood were in custody today, accused of raping or molesting girls as young as 10 in a gang competition to accumulate 'points' for sexual conquests." {New York Times, March 20, 1993.)

societies.*

* Alfonso Gucrra acknowledged in ihc opening meeting of First Conference on the Future of Socialism, held in Geneva on September 19-21,1985, that after the hopes raised in the bosom of socialism by the Bolshevik revolution, it was impossible to deny its violent totali tarianism and economic failure: "In reality, the whole world, as well

as socialist circles, acknowledges the inhuman face of the communist revolutions. Various impressions about this subject have been dis cussed for quite some time. Initially, the revolution of October ra diated a new movementof hope about what worker revolutions could achieve. Later came the crises, dissensions, the revisionary meas

ures in the Congresses of the Soviet Communist Party,etc.; and today one can say that there is a quite generalized perception throughout the socialist movement that the inhuman face of these revolutions

has made them inadvisable. Us administrative failure is naturally added to this; and this is also something that, in the margin of some discussions, seems sufficiently clear today."(El Future del Socialismo [Madrid; 1986], p. 14)

22

authentic

e)...and departs from a radical liberation of

to the ir^^erent authori

sive edifice of industrial

with

the instincts. That is to

say,it is a revolution that proposes before all else a liberation of the instincts

in the confines of psy chiatry from an interior yoke imposed by centu

ries of civilization and culture that consecrated the do

minion of the intelligence and the will over the pas sions.

It considers complete sexual liberation as one of its principal redresses.* By its very nature, this ideologi cal-temperamental explosion,to the measure that it ex panded, would have propelled all human activities and relations into the spiral of its anti-authoritarian and anti-repressive struggle: in the family, workplace, school, business, culture, politics, and so on.** Be cause of this, the more active and alert nuclei of the

student rebellions, lacking any appropriate historical precedents, adopted Mao Tse-Tung's term "cultural revolution" to define their movement, although they did not adhere to Maoist dogmas. "The expression Tradition. Family. Property

Paris - May,1968

"For the first time in history, a rebellious movement rises up neither in the name of the working class nor presenting itself as a political party, but rather as the struggle of libertarian sensibility of the youth against their elders and their whole system of values. It is 'a revolution in the ways of feeling, of acting, and of thinking... a revolution of civilization itself.'"

cultural revnlution. "comments Pierre Fougeyrcllas, "truly means a revolution in the ways of feeling, act

Richard Gombin is no less clear: "Everything that exists is again put into doubt simultaneously. The leftists consider man to be alien ated in his sexual life because his real desires arc smothered from his

ing, and thinking, a revolution in the ways of living (collectively and individually), in short, a revolution

childhood by morality, family, and school.... Now it is a matter of liberating everyone from all teachers and all obstacles to liberty."

of civilization."

(Les Origines du Gauchisme [Paris: 1971], p. 178)

* Pierre Fougeyrcllas clearly exposes the revolutionary thinking: "What the youth are asking for is not just that their parents and teachers grant them freedom to have the sexual relations they want....

In reality, what they really want is something very distinct. It con sists of a desire for new interpersonal relationships between parents and children, teachers and students, and even among one another, departing from an expansive sexuality.... The psycho-sexual revo lution that is presently developing among the youth constitutes a decisive force for attaining total revolution." (Marx, Freud el la

Revolution Totale,[Paris: 1972], pp. 366-367)

May-June, 1993

** Herbert Marcuse, the philosopher of the rebellion of May.

1968, says about the new form of revolution:"The emphasis in this new dimension does not imply substituting politics for psychology, but the contrary.... We must reach the roots of society in its actual

individuals.... Today this qualitative change,this liberation, implies organic and biological changes of instincts as well as political and social changes.... One can rightfully speak of a cultural revolution, since the protest is directed toward the whole cultural Establishment,

including the morality of existing society.... There is one thing we can say with complete assurance: the traditional idea of revolution

and the traditional strategy of revolution have ended. Those ideas

Paris - May,1968 are old-fashioned.... Whal we must undertake is a type of diffuse

drug addicts,and others thatsomehow feel oppressed

and dispersed disintegration of the system."(La Sociedad Carmvora

or belittled in present-day society.

[Buenos Aires; 1969], passim)

Liberation movements of ethnic, nationalistic, and

regional groups that are presently integrated in cen

The New Multifaceted Proletariat

a) The diffuse influence of May 1968 throughout

the West. Although it lacked conditions for an imme

diate political projection, the whole revolution of the senses from behind the Sorbonne barricades resounded

as a token of the end of a historical era. Many aspects of

this premattore revolutionfrightened its contemporaries.

Nevertheless,it is evident that this revolt had links with

the profound tendencies of the permissive bourgeoisie.

Moreover,its influence had been gradually influencing

not only the more liberal ambiences,but also many that were scandalized by its excesses.

b) Movements, sectors, and tendencies used for

the political and sociocultural breakdown of the pre vailing system. Other factors of upheaval have ap peared with a growing force of impact,either because of the progressive spread of the tendencies and ideas of May 1968 or because of the gravity of the crisis that weighs over consumer society. Together with the stu dent rebellion,the following elements could be instru mental in hastening the end of Western capitalism: The feminist movement,which,within the context of the sexual revolution, seeks the elimination of all in

equality between the sexes and the destruction of the traditional notion of the family as the basic cell of society.

Minorities that until recently have been scorned and ostracized, including prostitutes, homosexuals.

tralized and unitary states.

The ecological movement, which exploits the ten dency to return to nature and the reaction against the complexity and enormity of today's super-urbanized and super-industrialized society.

And, in a general way, modern man's ever more

apparent aversion to state-owned and private superorganizations, as well as to any type of institutional life. This incompatibility is manifest in the tendency to remain outside these types of organization,if not to openly challenge them by choosing the most diverse communities of life, work,neighborhood, and so on.* * The tendency favoring the dismantling of the state, according to theoreticians of the socialist revolution,also seems to be incubated

in the bosom of neoliberal currents. French writer Laurent Joffrin

points out:"Certain currents of neoliberaiism put themselves on the antipode of this resurrection ofthe moral order, preaching an integral liberalism that prohibits the collectivity from interfering with any of the personal preferences of the citizens, no matter how contrary they may seem to the current morality. The libertarian movement,one of the most active factions of neoliberaiism. says, for example, that in the name ofindividual rights, the sale of drugs should be legalized....

"Leftism has been given full rein in this crisis. Today it is liber alism that has its extremists,... the anarchist-capitalists.... The lib

ertarian parly, principal organization of these hazy anarchist-capital ists, is growing in influence each year.... The libertarians no longer want the state, and, above all, they want to suppress laws and regu lations.... The libertarians even request the pure and simple suppres

sion ofjustice,of the police and the army. Complainants should find

USA - 1993

"The feminist movement..."

"eliminating all inequality between the sexes..."

'The women will participate in hand-to-hand combat training

community dining hall. You return the favor and mow their grass, using the neighborhood lawn mower."(St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Sept., 20, 1992) "Minorities that have been scorned and ostracized...."

with sticks and will practice live firing of M-16 rifles and will

"GAY BANDS OK FOR INAUGURAL.For the first time a

use hand grenades in offensive operations, patrols and ambushes.

gay and lesbian group will participate in the nation's official inaugural festivities."(Sacramento Bee, Dec. 15 J992.),

They will take part in mock wars as part of the 23-week course."

(Philadelphia Inquirer, Aug., 12, 1993)

"and the destruction of the traditional family."

"There is this notion going around that with all the changes

we are seeing—with step families, single families and co-habit

ing families— thatthe traditional family has become weaker,and this will lead to all kinds of problems." (The Sacramento Bee, Oct. 10, 1992)

"You come home from work late. No worry. Your neighbors

are keeping an eye on your children and have fed them in the

24

"Homosexual leaders see move from pariahs to part of ruling coalition."(Rocky Mountain News, Jan. 16,1993) "Clinton plans to lift ban on foreigners with HIV." (Plain Dealer, Feb. 10, 1993, Cleveland, Ohio)

"For more than a year now,officers and many gay and lesbian

residents ofthe neighborhood have gathered at the 115th Precinct station house, discussing topics like AIDS and gay households."

New York Times, A[)Ti\ 19, 1993.

Tradition. Family. Propi:rty

private arbitrators,... and citizens should have recourse to private

Even if this anarchist-socialist Utopia could be realized without

militiamen to fight criminals."(La Gauche en Voie de Disparition: Commeni Changer sans Trahir? [Paris; 1984] pp. 44,52-53)

resulting in chaos or a regression of humanity into a type of comput erized tribalism, the neo-socialist argument is not very convincing

in its capital point: It does not exclude from the panorama the hy

A New Style of Political Force to Direct the

pothesis, already raised by Bakunin, that one can establish a hidden

Neo-Revolution Toward Self-Management

dictatorship of revolutionary minorities within the self-managing network.

To the worker forces of times past,it would now be

necessary to add this new sociocultural, multiform proletariat, which has an increasingly greater role as protagonist in the renewed battles. The most avantgarde theorists of the neo-revolution maintain that the

old dogmas of Marxism are dead. From the old social ist revolution there remains the impulse toward Utopia that unites total equality with total liberty. The authentic revolutionary forces — faithful not to dead ideologies but rather to the real struggles of today —

The complexity and detailed power ofcomputer technology gives this hypothesis new dimensions and disquieting possibilities of re alization in a society whose natural mechanisms of forming opinions have been dismantled.

In addition, in this fragmented and equalized society, could not

psychological — and even parapsychological — measures be used

to govern minds? The panorama opened by sclf-managcmcnl is so full of unknowns and its horizons are so cloudy, or, better said, so tenebrous, that without concrete facts it is difficult to really know what to expect.

would be those which, far from wanting to dogmati

cally control this new proletariat, know how to politi cally stimulate, liberate, and coordinate their energy to overthrow the walls of the capitalist citadel. And

this capitalism would not be replaced with the iron framework of a totalitarian socialist state, but rather with a new democracy.*

In effect, the state and present-day society — dis mantled through the exacerbation of all these conten tious tendencies—would gradually be replaced by an

immense quilt of small, self-managed communities, more or less integrated into vague federations.

French revolutionary theorist Alain Touraine ends his book Au-dela de la Crise by pointing out:"A new cultural backdrop is in place: It is time to animate the scene, to perform a new drama."(Paris: 1976) * How will this integral democracy be increasingly organized

toward self-management? The neo-revoluiionary theorists, like the classical theorists of Marxism and their successors, do not really

confront this issue. Many of them say or insinuate that the self-man

aging democracy presupposes abandoning a society's aspirations for abundance or well-being. That, in plain words, means that it should accustom itself to being poor.

Thus, a generalized self-management — departing from what Ronsanvallon calls micro-democracies,cartilaginously linked in the confines of a national,continental,or worldwide federation — seems

viable to them in the hypothesis of a broad diffusion of computer science and information. This is so, hypothctically, because re course to directors and related technicians would allow all the mem

bers of the self-managing community to receive the same informa

tion and also to participate equally in decisions; thus, the director would process the individual decisions of all, transforming them into

a synthesis-decision, technical and impersonal, which would express the collective desire. This would at times even permit, they claim, the autonomous and efficient existence of self-managing micro-so

cieties, free from dominion and even the control of central or local nuclei of power.

Students of Sorbonne at the time of the Revolution

May-June, 1993

International

The Brazilian

Plebiscite in Perspective As our readers likely know,the republic prevailed in the Brazilian plebiscite of April 21, 1993. The plebiscite's results reflect Brazil's pervasive politikverdrossenheit, disaffection with everything po litical. In a country in which vot ing is mandatory, a record one in four voters abstained, a telling witness to the public's distaste for political affairs. On top of this, of those who did vote, 13% nullified their ballots and 11% cast blank

ones as a form of protest. Thus the republic received only 66% of the total vote, with 10% being ac corded the monarchy.In sum,one out of three Brazilian voters did not favor the continuance of the

republic in the plebiscite. Can you imagine the repercussions were one of three Americans to express

their disaffection with our repub

lican form of government in this manner?

H.I.R.H. Prince Luiz of Orleans-Braganza; Head of the Imperial House of Brazil

Even more remarkable is the

impressive progress registered by Brazil's

monarchists

who

had

been banned from political activ ity by the republic until 1988. In

little more than four years they have climbed to 13.4% of the valid

ballots castin the 1993 plebiscite to

constitute a major politicalforce in Brazil. By way of contrast, it took the Workers'Party (PT), a signifi cant player on the radical left, more than ten years to reach a similar percentage of the popular vote.

to Brazilian Monarchists Regarding the Results of the Plebiscite of April 21,1993 Esteemed and VALOROUS MONARCHIST,

With the count of the recent pleb iscite concluded, I fondly accord to the imperative of acknowledging the many Brazilians who voted in support of the Monarchical Restora tion, conveying to them some per sonal reflections of my soul in the current Brazilian conjuncture.

The following letter from Prince Dom Luiz of Orleans-Braganza to Brazilian monarchists provides in serene and lucid language an objec tive analysis of the contemporary political reality of Brazil and the profound potential for the growth

showed the distinction between the

of the monarchical ideal in the fer

numbers(44,226,433 votes for the re

tile soil of the Brazilian soul.

public vs. 6,843,159 votes for the monarchy).In so doing,it intends to

26

implant in the public mind the im pression that the republican victory was something absolute, incon testable, even definitive.

But the media errs, because it fails

to take into account the subtlety of analysis innate to the Brazilian spirit, which does not content itself with the unsophisticated language of numbers (which to us Brazilians

seems so simplistic). Rather,the Bra *

*

*

1)The media has emphasized the numerical plurality of the tally for the republican regime over the mon archical one. To this effect, it simply

zilian has an instinctive under

standing that the true meaning of facts are found more fully in the am plitude of their nuances than in the bare and insufficiently expressive appearance of their basic lines.

This is what one notes in the pre sent case.

Tradition. Family. Property

International

For the authenticity of a popular

victory customarily manifests itself, above all, in outbursts of great joy that elucidate and vivify the enthu siasm of the conquering masses.

without exception—monarchist or republican,parliamentarist or presi-

monarchy, banished from our Con tinent with the independence of the

dentialist—desire an end to the cate

United States and the fall of the

gorical cover up of this calamity.

unsuitable for American soil.

Therefore, it behooves us to ask;

Where was the exultant gaiety that illuminated and animated the zeal

of the republican majority when the official results of the plebiscite were announced? In other words, has

2. But, someone may object,

anyone ever seen a "smashing" vic tory so ashen and indifferent as the republican "triumph" of April 21?

of voters who manifested their

But could it be any different? The Republic continues today exactly as it began.

why wasn't there a greater number hopes that monarchy could be a way for the country to leave the present abyss of national calamities and in ternational loss of prestige.

Aristides Lobo,Minister of the In

We monarchists have no reason

terior of the Provisional Govern

to avoid this question, which some might see as embarrassing. The re public has dictatorially buried the monarchical ideal for 99 years under the tombstone of the tragically infa

ment imposed by arms on Novem ber 15,1889,observed regarding the installation of the republic: "The people assisted the overthrow of the monarchy dumfounded, astonished, surprised, without knowing what it signified."

mous constitutional clause that pro hibited any monarchist educational activity during that time.

This clause was imposed—with characteristic "sans-culotte" aban

don—by the same republican clique

that during the monarchy benefited

After 104 years of republican gov ernment, behold how republican ism contemplates this same spirit in its second "victory."

How could it be any different? In 1889, our Country, confounded, contemplated the empty hopes that

had beguiled the backers of the mili tary coup of Deodoro, Benjamin Constant, and their ilk. A century later, it contemplates the shocking collapse of those illusions.

Orderly, placid and affectionate by nature, the average Brazilian does not become infuriated or indig nant; much less does he revolt.

Yet those who imagine that he does not perceive this failure are

badly deluding themselves. Nor should anyone fail to realize that in the depths of our hearts, within the bounds of law and order, we all.

May-June, 1993

monarchy in Mexico and then in Brazil, had become once and for all

from a complete liberty to push their anti-monarchical propaganda.

Even weightier than this tomb stone-clause has been the virtually unanimous cooperation of the media with the republican cause during this century. Save for a few outstanding voices who, with eminent talent, lu minous culture, and even more re

So deeply was this conviction fixed that not a few of our compatri ots were surprised to note the ac complished example of the British Crown shining with success and tranquillity over the immense terri tories of Canada.

This radical disinformation could

only be remedied by a serenely elu cidating,highly dialectical,and ergo victorious effort.

3. This, however, was precisely what the monarchical ideal lacked in

the scant passage of time between the wise and just revocation of the afore mentioned clause by the Constitu tional Convention of 1988and the day of the 1993 plebiscite. That is to say, the monarchical groups which sprung up with joyous celerity in every corner of the country could count on an educational campaign of scarcely more than four years dura tion

to counteract the

relentless

propaganda of more than a century of disinformation imposed through en forced monarchical silence.

splendent courage made themselves

Even if the Monarchical Cause had

heard in republican organs, monar chical Brazil was deprived of any op portunity to be heard amidst the tor por of republican conformity, as monarchy was categorically denied public access proportionate to the grandeur of the imperial tradition of our History and the political aspira

had at its disposal the resources avail able to republicanism,the contest still would have been unequal. Admit tedly,in this campaign the media ap peared to be less closed to the con

tions of millions of Brazilian hearts.

phasizing that the imanimous re publican slant of the media created a milieu of inequality for the monar

Thus, the political subconscious of the successive generations who

cerns of Brazilian monarchists than

on previous occasions. We note this in all fairness, but not without em

passed through the lengths of the

chical cause, which we record here

decades of this creeping century was permeated with the idea that

so that it might pass from the pages of this letter to those of history.

27

International

cal resurrection through the most diverse parts of our continental ter ritory. A dawn that on this occasion did not have the time to become noon. But also a dawn that awak

4. A few years ago,if someone had said that 6,843,159 Brazilians would

vote for the monarchy, i.e., that one out of ten voters is a monarchist, he would have been considered a luna

tic, an eccentric, and a fool.

But with the most meager re sources Brazilian monarchists were able to transform a dream into a re

ality. The plebiscite revealed that at least 10.2 percent of Brazilians are

ened a widespread enthusiasm.

That enthusiasm, together with new momentum and growing re sources,can yet show Brazil that our country possesses the plenitude of means to rise again and become one of the greatest nations of the world as it reaches the grandiose zenith of its history.

For this dawn to become midday, the monarchy must not take the dustladen path of partisan brawls that

Although this attitude was nei ther equitable nor gallant, it was un deniably prudent, for flight is the strategy of those who sense no other remedy to avoid the downfall that awaits them down the road.

doned hopes and contribute to the forward march of our nation.

For sunrise to become noon, the

then, to tell us their concerns and

monarchists of our day, as Emperor

anxieties. Let them do so fraternally and unceremoniously, so fraternally and unceremoniously that if the per spective of the monarchical project is one of their concerns they might tell us candidly. As for us,it would be su perfluous to tell them the points that concern us regarding the republic be

butthe high road of the indefatigable,

fall from their branches.

awaken dormant minds,revive aban

monarchist, joined with family, friends, colleagues, and companions.

have wearied ^e public's patience,

In this regard,one should note that by constitutional amendment 139 days were even further amputated from the already short period origi nally conceded for the monarchical campaign.One could say that the re public hoped that with this trunca their ranks, i.e., fewer leaves would

chists. Let us meet across our dining tables and work desks, to exchange, in a selfless and amicable way as be fits the Brazilian spirit,ideas that shall

This invitation I extend not only to monarchists,butto so many Brazilian republicans, understandably dis couraged by the present national sce nario and "mugged by reality," as the picturesque American expression putsitso aptly.Let them approach us,

monarchists.

tion fewer voters would abandon

It is to this action that I extend an invitation to all Brazilian monar

individual action of each dedicated

Pedro n in his, must work to revive

in our compatriots a hunger for po litical reflection, fostered at family gatherings, in social ambiances, in intellectual circles. Such reflection,

far more than the media,can assure

authentic Brazil of the atmosphere to think for itself, relegating to lower regions the unending drone of par tisan politics, personal predilec tions, reciprocal defamations, and so on, which cause the indigestion that makes the people so reluctant to eat from the diet served by our pre sent republican system.

cause countless Brazilians—monar

chist and republican—share our con cerns.

True monarchists—as those be

5. It falls to me,as Head of the Im

perial House of Brazil, assisted by the fidelity, ardor, dedication, and talent of my brothers Dom Bertrand and Dom Antonio, to assume the grati fying task of inviting Brazilian mon archists to applaud the result of the plebiscite as a success—a success in deed over the republican maras mus—because everything that the monarchy gained under such ad verse conditions was taken from the

republic. It was done step by step, day by day, in a dawn of monarchi

28

ing formed across Brazil by the Monarchical Councils, the Monar chical Circles, Feminine Monarchi cal Action, the Monarchical Fronts and the Monarchical Youth—are

conscious that debates over fiigher philosophical questions, clarifying and orienting social inquiry, will lead to the social-economic solution

to our problems. This, indeed, con stitutes the path along which our country will find authentic formulas for being, working, progressing, and winning.

The hour has arrived for a grand dialogue, preceded by great reflec tion.

And, with the same frankness

that inspires each point of these lines, I add from the depth of my Catholic heart that this reflection,

should be preceded and followed by heartfelt and confident prayer.

History does not register a single definitive success of a nation that ex

cludes God from its reflections, aspi rations, and actions. The Iron Curtain

has fallen, revealing, contorted with

Tradition, Family. Prorerty

International

suffering, confusion, uncertainty,

Golgotha,proceed all the graces that

and disorder, the remains of what

made the Catholic Church and

was once the greatest atheistic edi fice of history and is today the great

Christian Civilization so great.

est ruins men have ever known.

forebears, I do not envision any

to the favor of Princes and the legiti mate protection of the Magistrates.

The Priesthood and the Empire

turn Brazil away from this terrible misfortune. And I turn my gaze with confidence to the magnificent

tion of the human race,has led faith

were united by a happy concord and by the friendly interchange of good offices. So organized, civil society gave fruits superior to all expecta tions."(Encyclical "Immortale Dei,"

ful peoples to the apex of the gran

of 11-1-1885, Boime Presse, Paris,

deur and order that we all know.

Vol. II, p. 39.)

celestial symbol that God desired to encrust in the heavens above our

Such an apex. Pope Leo XIU de scribed with the magnificent words:

country. My gaze fixed on the

"There was a time when the philoso

If to be modern is to follow the

path of ruin, I beseech God that He

Following the example of my other way on our journey except that way which, since the Redemp

Monarchists! United on this road,

and counting upon Divine protec tion, animated by the encouraging result of the plebiscite of April 21,let

Southern Cross, the Cross of Christ,

phy of the Gospel governed the

I contemplate The Crucified. I be

States.... Then the Religion insti

us continue to act "cor unum et an-

tuted by Jesus Christ, solidly estab lished in the degree of dignity due to it, flourished everywhere,thanks

ima unam"for the good of Brazil.

hold His Blessed Mother: "Stabat

Mater dolorosa, juxta crucem lacrimosa." From there, the height of

Luiz of Orleans-Braganza

Published in Portugal:

Nobility and Traditional Analogous Elites in the Allocutions ofPius XII to the Roman Patriciate and Nobility,

by Professor Plinio Correa de Oliveira.

Professor Plinio Correa de Oliveira's Nobility and Traditional Analogous

ing out, but there are prominent intellec tuals emerging almost everywhere who

ruinous effects of the so-called cultural

elites, Plinio Correa de Oliveira lays out

Elites in the Allocutions ofPiusXIlXo the

emphasize how detrimental the loss of and analyzes the rich and important doc

Roman Patriciate and Nobility has just

authentic elites, with the concomitant

been published in Portuguese by Editora

vulgarization of the human type, is to

made concerning the roles which the no

Civiliza<;ao, Portugal's second largest

culture and to the lifestyle ofcontempo

bility played in the past. That mission

publishing house. Prince Luiz of Or

rary society. This is why in many places continues, albeit, in different ways. The we now see manifested an ardent aspira nobility, together with other authentic

leans-Braganza wrote the preface to the

Portuguese edition. The book has been given prominent display space in book stores throughout the country and has al ready received letters ofpraise from sev

tion for the restoration of the influence

elites, have the obligation ofgiving good

of authentic elites over the multitudes,

example of Christian virtue and above

that the latter may once again become â&#x20AC;&#x201D; in accordance with Pius XITs teachings

all charity. While at the same time, the people should admire and respect them.

The book is scheduled to be published throughout the world with different pref

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;peoples instead ofnameless masses....

Mario Luigi Cardinal Ciappi, O.P., In this historical context, your work Theologian of the Papal Household proves to be extraordinarily timely... ("the Pope's theologian") during the since it makes an appeal to nobility and reigns ofPius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, to similar elites to work together, more J. Paul I and J. Paul II wrote congratulat than ever before, toward the common eral important figures.

ing the author for his important new spiritual and temporal good of all na work. He says: "Today, not only is the old hostility to the nobility gradually dy-

May-June, 1993

trinal considerations which Pius XII

aces by prominent individuals from sev eral nations, and most editions will also

include an appendix showing the role which elites have played in that nations

history.

tions."

Today when so much is said of the

29

o

WHO IS THE MADMAN? After questioning a man at length in his office, a psychiatrist asked: "You insist, then, that your brother is crazy?"

"Yes, doctor. And I can give you even more-'? symptoms of his condition."

And the man went on and on with his tiresome

tale as the doctor listened, somewhat skeptical and annoyed. At a certain point, the specialist interrupted him:

"Well, nothing you are saying is conclusive. Some of these facts could have quite a normal explanation.

Others are admittedly a bit strange. But they could be explained by some type of nervous tension caused per haps by the state of his business affairs. I don't believe they clearly and indisputably indicate a state of imbal ance."

The man, perplexed, retorted: "Doctor, give me five more minutes to tell you just one more incident."

And, at the physician's acquiescence, the narration continued.

Let the reader try to put himself in the place of the psychiatrist and judge the case for himself.

"My brother, doctor, lives in a poor, dilapidated house situated next to the X estate, which belongs to the richest man in the city.

"Inconsolable that he himself was not wealthy, my brother began to provoke animosities toward his pow erful neighbor. He stirred up unrest among his employ ees, and then he incited them to go on strike against their employer.

"The latter, who did not want to waste time over

such petty problems, since, after all, time is money, settled this domestic turmoil as best he could, turning his attention to my brother.

man offered to arrange credit for my brother so that he could remodel his old house and properly feed and clothe his hungry,poorly dressed children. He also pro vided funds so that my brother could efficiently culti vate his own land, which has good soil.

"The wealthy landowner thus hoped to rid himself of the problem by investing in my troublesome brother a small amount of capital repayable at low interest for an indefinite term.

"This arrangement should have satisfied my brother.

But he was by no means content! He accepted the offer of the money, which he then promptly used to further incite the unrest that was brewing on the rich man's property and to sow antipathy toward him throughout the countryside. Furthermore, to defend himself against an attack that a neighbor so kind would never think to make, he began to arm himself. At least, that's how we all interpreted the constant influx of handguns to his property, where everything â&#x20AC;&#x201D;house as well as

childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; remained as poor and unkept as ever.

"But we could hardly believe our eyes when we saw the workshop for the production of arms and small explosives that my poor brother had built with the gen erous funds from the rich man. My brother, doctor, wanted to invade the estate of the rich man, and thus

dissolve such a beneficial relationship and cut off this opulent source of credit that could have permitted him to rise from his misery â&#x20AC;&#x201D;from that very misery that was the cause of his hatred for the rich man.

"Don't you see the contradiction, doctor? My

"What do you think he did? Did he tell his attorney to threaten my brother and denounce him to the police

brother hated the rich man because he was rich while

as a subversive? Or did he initiate some other kind of

improve his situation, and, instead of profiting from

proceedings against him? On the contrary! The rich

this, my brother attacks his benefactor.

30

my brother was poor. The man gives him the means to

Tradition. Family. Property

"As you can imagine, it took no time at all for news of my brother's plan to reach the rich man. And,since he is a very sensible man, he came to the conclusion that envy and hatred were boiling in my brother's heart because the gifts already made to my brother had not been generous enough.

"Madness, as you know, has its methods. Realizing

that one day the rich man might get fed up with his threats and bullying and cease to provide all sorts of resources, my poor brother decided upon a new tactic.

He began to smile whenever the rich man would be around , but his cronies maintained a cold attitude to wards the rich man as if nothing had changed. Seem

ingly violent quarrels resulted between my brother and his associates. The rich man was favorably impressed

with my brother's apparent change of heart and imme diately concluded that it was necessary to supply him with more assistance than before in order that he not

relapse into his former aggressive position. This was the rich man's worst fear. Meanwhile, my poor brother

managed to increase his stockpile of weapons and mul tiply his intrigues and subversive plans of aggression.

Sure, it makes sense â&#x20AC;&#x201D;at least to the mind of a mad

plished scoundrel who is exploiting his simpleminded, rich neighbor. The latter is the real madman in the story. And you, my friend, are so naive for your age that I hold your own sanity suspect!

"Now, either you leave this office immediately, or I'll have you locked up for further examination, be cause it is impossible for anyone to be fully sane and that naive at the same time."

The story ends with the man making a hasty flight for the elevator. When he reached the street, he calmed

down a bit, scratched his head, and thought: "The world is full of madmen. My brother is crazy.

This doctor is not far from it. The only sane person in all this is the rich man. And,of course, myself."

Reader what is your opinion? Who is the madman?

This story came to mind when I read a news report from the Economist(April 3rd, 1993)about how the Russian Parliament has refused to ratify the Start II

agreements intended to reduce Russian and US re serves of strategic nuclear warheads from 21,000 to 3,500 each by the year 2003. Moreover,another report of Time magazine (April 5th, 1993) about how the above mentioned missiles

man.

"Would you do that, doctor, to someone who made you friendly loans to remodel your office and home, filled your closets with

clothes and your cupboards with food, and bought you a new car?

Is my brother mad or not, doc

"...the open conflict between presi dent and parliament has doomed

pointed at the US. and could de stroy the US. within an hour. Yet, in light of this, not the least bit of

START-2's ratification for the mo

evidence exists that America's fi

ment."

nancial support to Russia is going to decrease. In fact, according to the logic of post cold-war diplo macy, it should actually increase in order to buy Russian good will and straighten the chaotic Rus sian path towards "democracy".

"â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Strategic nuclear weapons gave the Soviet Union the status of super

tor?"

power," says Boris Tarasov, a leading

I ask you, reader, if you were in the doctor's position, what would your opinion be? Would you think that the poor, ill-tem pered brother was mad? In any

hard liner. "Ratification of START-2

case, neither of us is the doctor.

with the Soviet Union, but Russia still

So let us return to the story to see

what the psychiatrist's reaction

has thousands of nuclear weapons that could destroy the U.S. in less than an

was.

hour."

Disgusted and annoyed, the doctor stood up,putting an imme diate end to the consultation. As

he prepared to leave, he sternly addressed the stupefied man: "There is nothing crazy about your brother. He is an accom-

are

would mean Russia looses this status."

ECONOMIST April 3rd, 1993 "The threat once posed by the Soviet military machine has vanished along

Dear reader, similar stories

might have occurred to you as the newspapers and magazines flashed news of the recent Van

couver Summit, remorselessly announcing $1.6 billion in fresh aid for Russia

"Just as worrisome are the former So viet warheads outside Russia's control."

"Even 'more precarious' and harder to control, says Bruce Blair fi-om the Brookings Institution, are 600 nuclear

bombs stockpiled in Ukraine... Ukraine wants security guarantees and aid from

milked from

bleeding American taxpayers.Is there any connection between these news reports and the story above? If so, who is the mad man?

Stephen Beryll

the U.S. and Russia before it agrees to

give up its nucleat arsenal." tlME April5th, 1993

May^June, 1993

31

Californians DON'T Like California Any More From ihe time when Adam

sioned with California. In 1992

and Eve were expelled from the

only 30% of Californians rated their stale as the best place to live, as opposed to 73% in 1967. Across the countiy one can read in the press about the

Terrestrial Paradise for dis

obeying God's Commandment not to eat of the fruit of the tree

of the knowledge of good and evil, man has earned within his

economic woes of California,

soul yearnings for that Paradise.

Man perceives a certain empti

such as a growth in bankrupt

ness within himself that he

math of the Los Angeles riots, closures of public beaches due

seeks to fulfill. He thus con

stantly strives to foim a new paradise for himself in this land of exile.

Thus we see, during the for

cies, the tuiinoil of the after

to bacterial infections in the

water, the prospect of the big earthquake stemming from the San Andreas fault, and many

mation of the United

why this is so. She said that 'There are two reasons people are moving out of California. It's too hard to maintain a quality standard of living there: health care, housing, food, and insur ance are too costly. And the work ethic there is not very good. People work harder in the Midwest, and the focus is on the

family.'

Not surprisingly, many Cali fornians are seeking a better quality of life in other parts of the countiy and, also not sur prisingly, there is a new

States, the state of Cali-

business in California

foiTiia emerge as, above

that likes to see people leave and is taking ad vantage of what we might teiin the Califomia

all else, the land where

one could find paradi siacal joy on earth. It

It is Scary out There

was the Gold Rush of the 1800's which drew

Exodus. This business is â&#x2013;

the Gieener Pastiues In

many out West to Caliclaim and make his riches.

other disparaging news stories which show a crumbling of the

California became known as the

California Dream.

fomia where one could stake his

Golden Stale, the land of milk

stitute, a consiJting finn which helps smoolli tlie load for those leaving the stale. Foi-$60 an hour the Greener Pastures Insti

Dream. As witness thereto are

10, 1993J states that "In the

tute will offer personalized exit counseling on how to sell your house, how to find new real es tate, how to obtain a new job, etc.

Most Californians aie relocating to Oregon, Colorado, Idaho, and

the tens of millions of people who, beginning from the time of the Great Depression and con tinuing until just recently, sought to escape the difficulties of life in other parts of the coun-

1992 fiscal year, for the first

Nevada.

and honey, and established a tradition of attracting people with aspirations of obtaining the new way of life, the California

tiy.

However, the times they are changing and Californians are becoming increasingly disillu

32

For instance, an article enti

tled "California Dream Begin ning to Pall For Many / Exodus From Golden State Grows"('5L Louis Post-Dispatch, Januaiy

time in more than two decades,

more people left Califomia than migrated there, according to state statistics. Laura Herring, president of The Impact Group in Clayton, Califomia, a group

So events are changing the image of the Golden State, and it is becoming increasingly

which assists businesses in na

fomia Dream is fading for Ameri

tionwide relocation of employ ees, gives some good reasons

like California anymore.

clear that the aura of the Cali

cans and that Californians don't

Tradition, Family, Property

t

-pAmhienceSy

"if.-.(C-V Sli''.'.t-'. li

ft •fa ■ Al«|l!l fH A {"-■ --

f

I it«u

»r'i»i~.-jr««

rvs-irt

jrjM''"'4ihll'''W»nfN»(iiiiim

Customs and Civilizations

by PliNio Couu€a be Oliveiua

The Sweetness of Life in Social Relationships Old magazines are often very ation that makes so many noble char revolutions in history, the values of charming. This is true even, or

acters suffer and painfully stifles so

Christian generosity and nobility of

above all, when what comes clown to

many healthy initiatives. After evok ing the picturesque ambience of the

soul did not vanish. The following words of IVlonsieur de Belloy describe

Parisian cafes of the second quarter

one such case:

us are only loose undated pages that give us glimpses of the remote past.

L Illustration, a Paris journal of the last century, carried the article, "Ha bitues of the Cafe Valois," written by A. de Belloy, whose memory has been whisked away by time.

What is the date of these pages?

The article gives us only the vaguest elements as to the answer. It is safe to

place them somewhere in the 1 SCO's.

In any case they have the merit of evoking certain values of tiie social conduct of old, values that disap peared more and more as large cities came into being in the last century and of which not even vestiges have remained among the general public of today's Babels of concrete, steel, and asphalt. Tiiey were precious values that endowed social relationships

of the XIX century, some of which were centers of a refined social life

while others displayed a rich ideo

logical effervescence, the writer la ments that they were replaced by new cafes of banal, unstylish luxury and an atmosphere of an establishment whose customers thought only of eat ing and drinking and whose proprie tors thought only of making money.

As a counterpoise to this material ized environment, the article evokes

"Farewell, 0 good old days! Fare well, 0 affable visage of the proprietor and smiling and respectful reception of the waiters! P^arewell, 0 solemn

entries of the Cafe Valois^ dignified

habitues, which people were curious to see. Such was the case with the

Knight Commander Odoard de La Fere's arrival.

"At noon, exactly, the canon of the Palais-Royal heralded his arrival. He

What took place between the

would appear on the threshold and pause for a moment to sweep the salon with an affable and self-assured gaze, as someone eager to practice a long time custom. His right hand pressing firmly on his cane's white-and-blue

Chevalier de Lautrec and the owner

porcelain handle, he threw his old,

of the Cafe Valois during the French

the picturesque habitues of the old cafes and the deeply affable and trusting relationships that frequently developed among them.

with human warmth and that stemmed from the fact that the civili

Revolution faithfully illustrates the

faded brown cape over his siioulder with a swing of his left hand. No one

sweetness of life that the cafe ambi

ever snickered at this, since not even

zation of yesteryear was centered more around the goods of the soul than those of the body, while later materialism increasingly shaped cus

ence once had.

toms and institutions.

It should be noted that one of the

effects oflhe French Revolution, that devourer of aristocratic blood and

the most elegant mantle with golden fleur-de-lys embroideries was ever thrown back with a more distin

guished movement.

Catholicity, was to impoverish many

"In 1789... the former steward of

Here we will (jiiote extensively

of those noble families that survived

liie Prince of Coiiti ran the Cafe

from the alone mentioned article to

the Terror. However, in spite of the ravages of one of the most violent

political color and even local flavor.

stimulate reaction aaainst this situ

May-June, 1993

Valois, at that time rather devoid of

33

be an invaluable favoi' to us,

5

especially in these times.

■

But, we would not dare en-

.'i ,

cumber you to the point ol...'

y

' fl r» W

j

"'But it would rather be

doing me a service, 1 tell you!'

JB8

the Chevalier interjected.

,

V•

"Despite the fact that his

■

eyes were so full of authority, he said this with no firmness

m 45^

at all; but the worthy proprictor was indeed perceptive to

^_

appreciate this contrast, and he came close to thrusting his son into the Chevalier's arms.

"'Milord,' said the inn-

iVJ

keeper, 'you are much too generous to us. My son is

yours, as well as my whole

Among the frequenters of the place, standing out by his noble manners, stately demeanor, and wooden leg, was the Chevalier de Laiitrec, of the

second line of that family, an old

brigadier of the kings army, Knight ol Malta, ofSt. Louis, of St. Maurice,and oi St. Lazare.

"A middle-aged man, the Cheva lier de Lautrec lived a modest though very dignified life on his small pen

sion. Though he rarely appeared in society, he could be seen most often at the Palais-Royal and at the Cai^ Valois. He was a very cultured mind

place with a slight gesture of the eyes, and walked out majestically, saying nothing about the bill.

"This scene was repeated the next day, and the next, and on every day for weeks, months, and years, without

"Deprived of his pension over night, it was never known what the Chevalier de Lautrec lived on at a lime when it was so difficult to live

and so easy to die. But here we have something that sheds at least a dim

light on this mystery.

"One morning after finishing a

very modest breakfast in the Cafe Valois, as was his habit, the Chevalier de Lautrec rose from his table, chat

ted with all naturalness with the pro prietress, who stood behind a counter, bid good-day to the master of the

Eor many years thereafter the boy studied English and mathematics at

the house of the impoverished noble.

the owner of the establishment ever

"On the 7th of December, 1817, at

receiving an explanation from the Chevalier or even thinking to ask him

eleven o'clock in the morning—that is, exactly 26 years to the day and to the hour after this conversation—the

now elderly Chevalier de Lautrec en "A few days after the first of these

singular exits, as the Chevalier di rected his gaze to the good proprie tor's son, he said to the father in an

tered into the Cafe Valois, as was his custom. The former owner had died 5

years earlier and was succeeded by his son.

unpresLiming tone of voice:

and an assiduous reader of all the newspapers.

house, today, tomoiTow, and always."

"After he had dined with a good "'Well, here is a cavalier that will

learn very little now that the schools are closed. You should send him to

my house everyday between one and four o'clock in the afternoon. 1 shall

teach him elementary mathematics and English, which I speak passably. "'No doubt this would be useful to

him if he is to replace you some day;

and besides, 1 really do not have any thing to occupy my time, so these

appetite the Chevalier, for the first time in 26 years, candidly asked for the check while he paged with all naturality through the Drapeau Blanc [the monarchist daily].

"Without batting an eyelash, the proprietor exchanged a few words with his young wife. Ten minutes later the Chevalier received a check in the

amount ol 16,980 francs for 8,490 dinners at two francs each.

lessons would help to entertain me.'

"The old nobleman glanced at the "'Milord, you are really very good, a thousand limes good,' answeied the innkeeper.'What you propose would

total, opened his wallet, look out enough bills for the sum and handed them lo the waiter alomi with the

Tradition. Family. Property

check, idling him to keep the change, which was exactly 520 francs. He rose up

HHS

; <â&#x2013; ' â&#x2013; "

from ihe table, doubtless

feeling much lighter, though

his expression betrayed

j

nothing of it. He then went

j

overtothecounteraccording |

^

to his old habit and con-

^

versed with the young mis-

^

tress of the establishment for

^

il

a few moments before slowly directing his steps towards the door. Then, as the proprietor, with a napkin draped over his arm, respectfully stepped aside to allow him to

pass, the old Chevalier

k

gravely took his hand and warmly pressed it between his own.

"The silent scene we have just de scribed did not go unnoticed by the Marquis de Rivarol, who was coming

in just then after having set his watch to the famous clock of the Palais-

Royal.

"At the time of the Restoration the Chevalier de Lautrec inherited a small share of the estate of one of his

brothers, who had died in Coblentz

shortly before. Even though it was an appreciable sum, most of it was con sumed settling hefty bills that were

long overdue. But thanks to the recov ery of his pension, he was able to end his days in financial ease, always

fied the life of that good man, with no great harm to his finances. This busi nessman of ancient stock did not treat

everyone indiscriminately. He pos sessed at once a clear perception and sensibility of heart.

him to serve the interests of his favor

ite cafe by making this and other anecdotes Avell known.

"With the Chevalier de Lautrec's

"Thanks to him the owner of the

payment, the proprietor recovered

establishment became something of a curiosity and was sought out to the point of aggravation. This was com pounded by the fact that although the innkeeper's political convictions were as vague as they were moderate, his qualities were ascribed to his per ceived political fervor, but in reality they lay in innate kindness and pater nal tradition. In any case, this was very advantageous to him, for while the Caf6 Lemblin became the meeting place of the officers of tiie Empire,

most of what was owed him; and as to the interest on that debt, which he had

never contemplated charging, he was

generously compensated by the les sons from such a proficient teacher of English, mathematics and, above all, good sentiments.

"Furthermore, owing to this noble relationship, the Cafe Valois won dis

faithful to the Cafe Valois, for whose

tinguished and selected patrons. It acquired an ever greater original

advancement he contributed as we

character, which was a considerable

shall explain.

advantage and almost vital need for

"We have seen that the proprietor

relations among the monarchists of that time, as he would also among those of the future, it became easy for

such an establishment at that time.

now retired or in the reserves, and of some republicans and liberals not be

of that hospitable establishment was

"Indeed, the Marquis de Rivarol

a creditor like few are found today or in any epoch. Various cases as beau

was not a man who would miss such

longing to the army, the voltigeurs of" Louis XV and the young members of the Guards Corps chose tiie Cafe

a good opportunity to be indiscreet for

Valois."

tiful as the one we have related digni-

charity's sake. Since lie had many

May-June, J993

^-5 i

^What we do, we do MARTYRS SAINTS HEROES

for the love of God, to Him only we look for our reward."

Sisters of Charity, True Heroines of The Civil War that difficulties and obsta

The events of the Civil

War brought out in the

cles, however apparently

most conspicuous manner

formidable at first, van

the merits and usefulness

ished before the relentless

of the religious orders, es pecially those of charity and mercy, and the Holy Cross, and, in spite of

influence of their sincerity and their goodness, and the quite as conclusive

prejudice

and

evidence of their useful

bigotry,

ness. But the greater their success, the greater the

made the name of "sister"

honored throughout the land. Prejudice and bigotry are powerful with indi

strain on the resources of

the principal orders. Not only did death and sick

viduals and communities,

ness thin their ranks, but

powerful, too, in propor tion to the ignorance which management, and economy took the

the Civil War, by adding fearfully to the number of helpless orphans, added likewise to the cares and responsibili

and must yield before a force superior

place ofconfusion,lax administration,

ties of the sisters. What with ceaseless

to their'sâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;that of truth. Furthermore,

and reckless expenditure, if not worse.

Obstacles, in many instances of a se rious nature, were placed deliberately in their path; but these were encoun tered by women who, with tact, tem per, and firmness, had relieved the suf ferings of the sick and wounded in the

duty in the hospitals, teaching in their schools, visiting the sick, providing for the fatherless whom every great battle flung upon them for protection, administering the affairs of institu tions periled by the universal distur bance, bringing relief and consolation to the prisoner in the crowded building and wretched camp to which the

shrouds the mind of man.

Still, these are but relatively strong,

as organizations having their motive in religion and their reward in the con

sciousness of doing good, these relig ious orders were more thoroughly ap preciated by a generous people.

Coinciding with their presence in a hospital, whether long established or hastily improvised, order, good 36

most efficacious manner.

It is therefore not to be wondered at

Tradition. Family. Property

chance of war consigned the soldier on either side—the sisters were tried

to the very utmost. Nothing but the spirit of religion, together with their womanly compassion for the sick and the suffering and their interest in the brave fellows who, docile children in their hands, followed them with wist

ful eyes as, angels of light and mercy, they brought balm to the heart of the wounded—nothing short of the sub lime motives by which these ladies were animated could have sustained

them throughout four long years of ceaseless toil and never-ending anxi ety.

At first, the soldier did not know what to make of them, and could not

comprehend who they were, or what was their object. And when the patient learned that the sister with the strange dress belonged to the Catholic Church — that church of which so many vile stories had been told him from child

hood—a look of dread, even horror,

might be observed in his eyes as he instinctively recoiled from her prof fered services. This aversion rarely continued long; it melted away like ice before the sun; but, unlike the ice,

which the winter again brings round, this feeling never returned to the heart of the brave man whom the fortune of

war placed under the care of the sister.

Once gone, it was gone forever. How

the prejudice, deep-seated and in grained, yielded to the influence of the sisters, may be best exemplified by a few incidents taken at random from a

vast number of a similar nature gath ered in many parts of the country. *

*

*

Seven Sisters of Mercy, belonging to the Houston Street Convent in New

York, were sent to a hospital attached to a federal corps. When they first en tered the wards, which were crowded with sick and wounded, the soldiers

regarded them with amazement. One of the sisters, a genial Irishwoman, re

ferring to this her first visit to the hos pital, told with much humor how the bewildered patients took the sisters for seven widows, who were looking for

May-June, 1993

the dead bodies of their husbands!

Among the patients, there was one

of the sister, than he shrieked with ter

ror, and buried his face in the pillow.

almost a child

"Do not fear me," said the voice full

scarce fit to leave his mother's guardi anship—and he lay his face on the pil low, as a hospital attendant, not emi nent for humanity,carelessly sponged

of sympathy; "I am only anxious to relieve your sufferings." The work of mercy proceeded, to the ineffable comfort of the wounded boy, who

a fearful wound in the back of the

murmured — "Well, no matter what

poor's youth neck. The hair had been

you are, you're an angel anyhow."

At times there were as many as

mere lad—indeed

matted with the clotted blood, and the

was agony to the miserable patient.

"Let me do it," said the sister, taking

eighty sisters in or near Richmond, in active attendance in the hospitals, giv ing their services alike to the wounded

the instrument of torture from the un-

soldiers of both armies. In one of the

rude touch of the careless assistant

sympathizing hand; and then, with tepid water and soft sponge, and woman's delicacy of touch, the hide ous sore was tenderly cleansed. "Oh,

who is that? —who are you— you must be an angel!" cried the relieved youth. The hair was gently separated from the angry flesh, so that the grate ful patient could turn his head and glance at the "angel"; but no sooner did he cast one rapid look at the strange garb and the novel head-dress

Richmond hospitals the following took place: A sick man, looking steadily from

his pillow at the sister, who was busy in her attentions to him, abruptly asked—

"Who pays you? —whatdo you get a month?"

"We are not paid; we do not receive salaries,"replied the sister.

"Then why do you work as you do?

—you never cease working."

"What we do, we do for the love of

choice,and could then understand,not

God —to Him only we look for our reward— we hope he will pay us here

only that his neighbors had been, like himself, the dupes of monstrous fa bles, but how the sisters could work and toil for no earthly reward.

after."

The wounded man seemed as if he

could not entirely comprehend a devo tion so repugnant to the spirit of the almighty dollar; but he made no fur ther remark at the time. When he be

came more confidential with the sis

ter,the following dialogue was held— Patient: Well, sister, there is only one class of people in this world that I hate.

Sister: And who may those be?

Patient: The Catholics.

Sister: The Catholics! Why do you hate them?

*

*

*

A sister was passing through the streets of Boston with downcast eyes and noiseless step, reciting a prayer or thinking of the poor family she was about to visit. As she was passing on her errand of mercy,she was suddenly addressed in language that made her pale cheek flush, by a young man of remarkable appearance and free, swaggering gait. The sister, though grievously outraged, uttered no word, but raised her eyes, and looked at the

Patient: Well, they are a detestable people.

Sister: Did you ever meet with a Catholic

that you say that of them?

my knees to her and ask her pardon!"

"You have asked it, and received

it," said the sister, looking full at him, but with a sweet expression of tender ness and compassion.

"What! Are you the sister I met in Boston? Oh, yes! you are —I know you now. And how could you have at tended on me with greater care than any of the other patients?—I who in sulted you so!"

"I did it for Our Lord's sake, be cause He loved His enemies and

blessed those who persecuted Him. I knew you from the first moment you were brought into the

""""""" hospital, and I have prayed unceasingly for your conversion," said

"I once insulted a sister in

Boston, and her glance haunted

Patient: No, never; I never came near one.

me ever after."

Sister: Then how can

pressed. Time passed on; the war in tervened; and when next they met it was in a ward of a military hospital in Missouri. The once powerful man was

Catholics.

now feeble as an infant, and had not

Patient: (indignantly). Oh, sister! you! —^you are so good! Impossible!

many days to live. The sister, seeing

Sister: Then, indeed,I am a Catho lic —a Roman Catholic.

The poor fellow, whose nerves were not yet well strung, rose in his bed as with a bound, looked the pic ture of amazement and sorrow, and

burst into tears. He had so lately writ ten to his wife in his distant home,tell

ing her of the unceasing kindness of the sister to him, and attributing his recovery to her care; and he was now to disclose the awful fact that the sister

was,after all, one ofthose wicked peo ple of whom he and she had heard such evil things. This was, at first, a great trouble to his mind; but the trouble did

not last long,for that man left the hos pital a Catholic, of his own free

the sister.

"Send for the priest!" exclaimed the • dying soldier; "the religion that teaches such a char

you think so hardly of persons of whom you don't know any thing?

Patient: All my neighbors tell me they are vile and wicked people.

Sister: Now, what would you think and say of me, if I were one of those

38

terested you are, and how mean I was, I am disgusted with myself. Oh,if that sister were here, I could go down on

ity must be from God." offender with calm, steady gaze, in which volumes of rebuke were ex

his condition, asked him if he be

And he did die in the sister's Faith,

holding in his failing grasp the em blem of man's redemption, murmur ing prayers taught him by her whose glance of mild rebuke had long haunted him like a remorse through every scene of revelry or of peril. *

*

*

"Do you believe that, sister? If you

longed to any Church; and on his re plying in the negative, she asked if he

scarcely a hospital at either side of the

would be a Catholic. "No —not a

line, North or South, of which the sis

Catholic— I always hated Catholics," he replied. "At any rate, you should ask pardon of God for your sins, and be sorry for whatever evil you have done in your life,"urged the sister.

"I have committed many sins in my life, sister, and I am sorry for them, and hope to be forgiven; but there is one thing that weighs on my mind at

ters had the care,in which these appar ently strange but most significant

believe it, I believe it too." There was

words were not uttered by the sick and the dying. Many poor fellows had not the vaguest notion of religious teach ing, never having troubled themselves

with such matters in the days of their youth and health; and when the expe rienced eye of the sister discerned the

this moment —I once insulted a sister

approach of death, the patient would

in Boston, and her glance haunted me ever after: it made me ashamed of my self. I knew nothing then of what sis ters were,for I had not known you.But now that I know how good and disin

be asked if he wished to see a clergy man. Frequently the answer would be that he did not belong to any religion.

"Then, will you become a Catholic?" would follow as a fair question to one Tradition. Family,Property

who proclaimed himself not to belong to any church, or to believe in any form of Christianity. From hundreds, nay, thousands of sick beds, this reply was made to that question: "I don't know much about religion, but I wish to die in the religion of the sisters."When asked, for example, if he believed in the Trinity, the dying man would turn to the sister who stood by his bedside, and inquire— "Do you, sister?" and on the sister answering, "Yes, I do," he would say, "Then I

sents, perhaps a letter, or a least a mes sage —and always sweet smiles, gen tle words, sympathy and consolation.

The ambulance, drawn by the gallant white steeds, was usually filled with

the sisters did, and this the prisoners knew in their grateful hearts. These

hundreds of white loaves —in fact,

horses shed light in their path;the clat ter of their feet was a music to the ear

of the anxious listener; and the bless

tended by the sisters in a hospital in St.

me!" —"Sister, sister, for the love of God!" —"Oh, sister, for God's

ings of gallant suffering men followed that chariot of mercy wherever it was bome by its snowy steeds in those ter rible days of trial.

Such was the effect produced by the sisters on the minds of the patients in their charge, that when wounded or sick a second time, they would make every possible effort to go back to the same hospital in which they had been previously cared for, or, if that were not possible, to one under the manage ment of these good women. Instances

Louis, declared that "he had never heard of Jesus Christ, and knew noth

sake!"— such were the cries that too often tortured the tender hearts of the

have been told of wounded men who traveled several hundred miles to

ing about Him." He was asked if he

sisters as they found their stock of pro visions fast mnning out, and knew that hundreds of hungry applicants were still unsatisfied. Many a time did they turn away on their homeward journey with whitened lips and streaming eyes, as they beheld those outstretched hands and heard those cries of gaunt and famished men ringing in their ears. To the utmost that they could do.

come again under the charge ofthe sis ters; and one,in particular,oftwo men from Kentucky, who had contrived to make their way to the large hospital at

do— whatever the sister believes in, I do." And thus he would make his con fession of faith.

A soldier from Georgia, who was

would become a Catholic. "I have

heard of them," he said; "I would not

be one ofthem at all —they are wicked people. But I'll be the same as you, sister; whatever that is, it must be

good." *

*

*

Presented with a universal pass by

General Beauregard, the sisters went everywhere unquestioned,as

with everything which active charity

could procure or generosity contrib ute. The rations given to the prisoners were about as good as the Confederate soldiers had for themselves; but to the

depressed pent-up prisoner, these were coarse and scanty indeed. "Sis ter! Sister of Charity! Sister of Mercy!— put something in this hand!" "Sister, sister, don't forget

if they were so many staff of- |^H||F

fleers. The general had like- |||||r

White Sulfur Springs in Virginia, a distance of 200 miles from where they

had been wounded.They had been un der the care of the sisters on a former

■ turn to the same hospital, occasion, and had then agreed that

should they ever be wounded or fall sick again, they would re-

and if they were to die that they should die in the faith

wise presented them with an ■ ^/

ambulance and a pair of |yj

of the sisters who had

splendid white horses, re-

\l

been so good to them.

markable for their beauty,

■'

K

conspicuous at a consider-

able distance. Many a time <t \[ had the sight of these horses | brought gladness to the heart of the prisoner, as he beheld them turning the comer of the highway leading to the

I Catholic priest before li they beheld the clergyman 111

who received them into

.

Church in the Virginian hospital. One of the

1

camp. When the white |iRH

specks were seen some three- ^ l|y quarters of a mile on the road, nOJ the word was given,"The sis-

ters are coming!" As that an- HHjl nouncement was made, the

drooping spirit revived, and

the fainting heart was stirred

these men were

^Hl' K American Protestants, |^H| 5 and had never seen a

and on account of their color,

was past cure, and was conscious of his

approaching death.

"Ben," said the dying man to his comrade, "all is

right with me —I am happy; but before I die, let me have the satisfaction of

I

with hope;for with the sisters

seeing you become a Catholic." Ben willingly

came food, comforts, pre-

consented to what he had

May-June, J993

before resolved on doing, and he was received into the Church in the pres

dies are;I do. And if you had been,like me, lying sick and wounded on a hos

ence of his dying friend, over whose

pital bed, and been tended night and day by those ladies, as I was, you'd then know them and respect them as well as I do. They are holy women.

And now, if you don't, everyone of you, at once quit this car, I'll call the conductor, and have you tumed out; and if you say one word more, I'll whip you all when I have you out side." The young fellows shrank away abashed, as much perhaps at the jus

features there stole a sweet smile,

which did not depart even in death. *

*

*

An officer who was brought in

wounded to a hospital at Obannin ville, near Pensacola, which was under the

care of sisters, asked a friend in the

same hospital what he would call "those women" — how address them?

"Call them 'Sisters,' replied his friend. "Sisters! They are no sisters of mine; I should be sorry they were." T tell you, you will find them as good as

tice of the rebuke as at the evident

sisters in the hour of need." 'I don't

sive.

believe it," muttered the surly patient.

Owing, in a great measure, to the care of his good nurses, the officer was soon able to leave the hospital strong in body as well as improved in mind.

Before he was well enough to leave,

It was a touching sight to witness the manner in which soldiers who had

experienced the devotedness of the

sisters to the sad duties of the hospital, exhibited their veneration for these to be in the same car with

was always an enemy to the Catholic Church. I was led to believe by the

preachers that these sisters — both nuns and priests — were all bad. But when I get out of this, I be gol-damed,

did not proffer his place to

on the route, their dress excited the

had bled for what each deemed to be

the sacred cause of country. Wherever

the sister went, she brought with her an atmosphere of holiness. At the first sight of the little glazed cap, or the flapping comet, or the dark robe, or at the whisper that the sister was coming or present, even the profane and the ribald were hushed into decent si lence.

Taken,with adaptations,fromTrialsandTriumphs ofthe Catholic Church in America, Vol.I. by Prof.

P.J.MahonandRev.J.M.Hayes.S.J..(Chicago,J.S. Hyland &Company,1907)Excerpts from pp,961970. Illustrations of: "St. Vincent de Paul" by, Leonard von Matt and Louis Cognet.(Chicago, HenryRegneryCompany,1960)

"holy women." Did the sisters happen the gallant fellows, there

heels who dares say a word against the sisters in my presence!" He was rough, but thoroughly honest.

During the war,a number ofthe sis ters were on their way to a hospital, to the care of which they had been ur gently called, and, as the train re mained stationary at one of the stops

but earnest tones of entreaty, and the smiles lighting up pale, wan faces,she read the deep gratitude ofthe men who

power by which, if necessary, it would have been rendered still more impres

he said to his friend: — "Look here! I

if I don't knock the first man head over

the sister's reward as, in their feeble

was not one of them who

the sister, and who did not

feel honored by her accep-

tance of it. Maimed,lopped of limb, scarcely convalescent, still there was not a

crippled brave of them who would not eagerly solicit the sister to occupy the place he so much required for himself. "Sister, do take ■ my seat; it is the most com- m fortable." "Oh, Sister, take ■

wonder and ridicule of some thought

mine; do oblige me." "No, I

less idlers, who entered the car and

Sister! mine." Sweet was f

seated themselves opposite to, but near, the objects of their curiosity, at whom they looked and spoke in a manner far from complimentary. The sisters bore the annoyance unflinch ingly. But there was assistance nearer than they or their cowardly tormentors supposed. A stout man, bronzed and bearded, who had been sitting at one end of the car, quietly advanced, and placing himself in front of the ill-man nered offenders, said,"Look here, my lads! You don't know who these la

Tradition. Family. Property

Family Series

The Little

Barrel A French Medieval Tale

In consideration of our new subscribers, Traditon, Family^ Property thought it advantageous to publish this tale previously seen in Crusadefor a Christian Civilization magazine #2/1979.

ETWEEN Normandy and Brittany, in a faraway place there lived a lord ofawesome renown. He had a castle near the sea that

was so strong, so fortified, and so well de fended, that he feared not king or count, or prince,duke,or viscount. He was a rich lord

thou wishest to eat meat! Believe what we say: God will eventually punish thee!"

"By the time that happens, I shall have assaulted and hanged many people!" replied the lord scornfully.

"Art thou so certain that God will continue to tolerate

terror about the land, ambushing and killing pilgrims and merchants on roads and trails. He observed no fasting or abstinence, attended no Mass, and listened to no ser mons. No one had ever known another person as wicked

this much longer?" inquired the knight. "Thou shouldst hastily repent, beg for pardon, and weep for thy sins. A man of great sanctity, a hermit-priest, dwells deep in the neighboring woods. Let us go to confession."

The lord reacted sharply, saying,"I? Iâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;go to confes sion?" Then, swearing, he remarked,"I would go there only if he had something that I could despoil him of."

His vassal responded patiently, saying: "Accompany

as he.

us, at least."

One Good Friday, having awakened in a good mood, he commanded his cooks, shouting: "Prepare the game I hunted yesterday,for today I want to have lunch early."

Upon hearing this, one of his knights exclaimed:"My Lord, today is Good Friday, everyone is fasting, and lo.

Smiling ironically, the lord protested:"I acquiesce for your sakes. But I will do nothing for God." And so they took to the road.

of great stature and handsome bearing. However,despite his distinguished noble lineage, he was vain, cruel, dis loyal, and proud,fearing neither God nor man. He spread

May-June, 1993

Arriving at the hermit's retreat, in the heart of the quiet and solitary forest, the knights entered the abode of the holy man. But their lord remained outside on his horse.

41

After confessing their sins as sincerely and diligently as they could, the knights pleaded with the hermit:"Fa ther, our lord, who is outside, is not in a good state of soul. Please entreat him to go to confession."

Supported on his staff, the hermit went out to meet the lord. Addressing him with calm dignity, he said: "Wel come,Sir. Being a knight, thou must surely be courteous.

Accept my invitation, then. Dismount, and let us go to speak inside."

A churlish oath rising to his lips, the lord answered impatiently: "Speak with thee? What for? Speak about what? We have nothing in common! Besides, I am in

haste and wish to take my leave." .

give me at least the consolation of allowing me to subject you to a penance."

"Penance? Art thou making a fool of me? What pen ance wouldst thou give me?"

"In atonement for thy sins,thou shalt fast every Friday for the next three years," the monk stated.

"Three years!" protested the lord. "Hast thou taken leave of thy senses? Never!"

"One month, then," the holy man said indulgingly.

"No!"

"Thou shalt go to church and recite a Pater Noster and an Ave."

jm'

Undismayed, the hermit insisted: "For the sake of the order

of chivalry, please come in to visit my chapel and my abode."

Overcome by the hermit's persistence and especially by the forcefulness of his being, the lord grumbled to himself: "What a

misery I fell into when I accepted [jgroMMftCT to come hither this morning!"

Very much against his pleasure, he relented. Hoping he would soon somehow succeed in ridding himself of the hermit, the lord

Next the hermit took him by the arm and led him into the chapel.

Once they were before the altar, the man of God said to him: "Sir, considerthyselftobemyprisoner.

Kill me if thou wishest, but I shall

m&m "

^ _ '

^

not freely let thee go hence before having told me all thy sins."

The lord was beside himself. He looked at the hermit

so furiously that the latter was fear-stricken.

After a few terrifying moments of suspense, the lord exclaimed angrily: "I will tell thee nothing! In fact, I do not see why I should not slay thee right here and now!"

The holy hermit risked his life once again."Brother," he said, '*tell me just one sin, and God will help thee confess the others."

Swearing anew in exa.speration, the lord barked,"Wilt thou never leave me alone? If so, I will confess. But I

shall repent of nothing, absolutely nothing!"

With mighty arrogance, he told all the .sins of his stormy life at one fell swoop.

Heart- broken at the sight ofsuch callous impenitence, the hermit began to weep. Still once again, he tried. "Sir,

"That would be very boring to me,and a waste of time, too."

"For Almighty God's sake, do at least one thing. Take this little barrel to the brook nearby, fill it with water, and bring it back to me!"

"Well, since this is not difficult, and since I will

thereby ridmyself of thee, I agree. Upon my word,I shall not rest until I have brought this barrel full of water back to thee."

With great strides, the lord went down to the stream and dipped the barrel in it, but not a single drop of water went in. He tried again one way, and then another way, but the barrel remained empty.

"By God!" he exclaimed. "What is this supposed to mean?"

Tradition, Family, Property

Again he dunked the barrel in the water, but to no avail.

Puzzled and gnashing his teeth with rage, he sprang to his feet and ran swiftly to the anchorite's dwelling. Upon finding him, he exclaimed:"By all the saints in Heaven,

thou hast placed me in a great predicament with this cursed barrel! I am unable to put a single drop of water in it!"

The hermit listened to him and then lamented: "Sir,

what a sad state thine is! A child could have brought this barrel back to me overflowing with water. But thou... thou hast not been able to put a single drop in it! This is

a sign from God to thee, because of thy sins."

In an outburst of anger and pride, the lord retorted,"I swear to thee that I will not wash my head, or shave, or trim my fingernails, as long as I have not fulfilled my word. Even if1 have to go all around the world,I will fill this barrel to the brim!"

The little barrel hanging from his neck, the lord took off, taking with him but the garments he had on, and having no other escort but God. In every stream that he encountered, he tried to fill the barrel, but it was always in vain.

In hot and cold weather alike, he carried on across

mountains and valleys, and through bushes and thorns that tore his skin and made him bloody.

His days were painful, his nights worse yet.Famished,

he was obliged to beg for food. At times he fasted for two or three days in a row, not being able to obtain even a piece of stale bread to appease his hunger.

Seeing him so tall, so strong, so rugged, and so tanned

by the sun, people were wary and feared to receive him. Many a night

By now,the little barrel had become an enormous burden for him, but he always carried it tied about his neck.

After a year of fruitless efforts, he decided to return to the hermit's abode. It was an exhausting journey. But at last he arrived, exactly on Good Friday!

The hermit did not recognize him. However, upon no ticing the little barrel, he asked:"What has brought thee here, dear brother? Who gave thee this little barrel? It has been a year now since I gave it to a fair lord. I do not know whether he is alive or dead, for he has not come back."

Enraged, the stranger replied: "I am that lord, and this is the state to which thou hast reduced me!" Then he told

the hermit all his misadventures, but not showing yet any sign of repentance!

The man of God listened attentively and became in dignant at such hardness of heart."Thou art the worst of men!A dog,a wolf,or any other animal would have filled this barrel! Ah, well do I see that God has not accepted

thy penance,for thou hast done it without contrition."

Seeing the lamentable state of that hardened soul, he began to weep."My God, look upon this creature that Thou hast made and that so madly plays with the salva tion of his soul. Ah! Holy Mary, obtain mercy for this man.Sweet Jesus,shouldstThou have to choose between

the two of us, unleash Thy wrath upon me, but save this creature."

Mystified, the lord stared at the weeping and praying hermit, and he thought: "There is nothing linking me to this man but God. Yet he suffers and weeps at the sight

.X"":;.'

he found no lodging and had to sleep exposed to the elements.

He had to bear mockery and in-

"

suits, but he went on. No one was

able to curb his pride or to soften even

slightly his cruel heart. Hejourneyed through England and France, Spain and Italy, Germany and Hungary.

There was no country where he did not go and no waters in which he did

/

1".

not try to fill the little barrel. But he

— W&k

never succeeded.

He walked so long and so hard, that he gradually wasted away. Now no one could recognize him with his disheveled hair, his skin adhering to

his skeleton, his sunken eyes, and his protruding veins. He was so weakened,that he needed a staff to lean on.

.i — I

~

Srr— ^

^

; r- </•-- .It"

a:-::.

M

of my sins. Indeed I must be the worst of men and the greatest of sinners, for he is desolate and ready to sacri fice himself on my account. Ah! Give me, O God, great repentance, so that this holy man may have at least the consolation of my contrition. 0 King of Mercy, I ask Thee: forgive me for everything of which I am guilty!"

Thus did God do His work in that soul. The lord's

contrition was so deep, that his hard ened heart was moved. His eyes be came watery, and a large teardrop ran down his face, falling right into

receive communion.

"Yes, Father. But hurry, for I feel that I am going to die."

After communion, the lord was completely purified and clean, no stain of sin remaining in his soul.

"Father,thou hast done me ail kinds of good.In return, my whole being is thine. I am in thy hands. The end approaches. Pray for me."

As the lord was taken into the her

mit's arms, he breathed his last. At

that moment, the chapel became filled with light, and angels descend

the little barrel, which was still tied

around his neck.This single tear was enough to fill the barrel to the point [ of overflowing. This was the sign that God had forgiven him his sins.

The hermit and the lord embraced

one another, shedding tears for joy.

"Father, I want to go to confession again, but this time with contrition for all my sins." Thus he confessed, greatly repentant and weeping abun dantly.

After giving him absolution, the hermit asked the lord if he wanted to

m

ed to lead that soul to Heaven in a

magnificent cortege. Due to his ex alted virtue, the hermit could see all

these wonders. Following this, there remained in front of the altar only the body ofthe lord clothed in ragsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and the little barrel hanging from his neck!

This account is based on the books

Beaute du Moyen Age, by Regine Pernoud (Gautier-Languereau, 1971), and

Poetes et Prosateurs du Moyen Age, by Gaston Paris {Hachette, 1921).

"Family Series" is a contribution of Tradition, Famiiy, Property magazine to your family.

44

Tradition, Family. Property

La Macarena Presides over Mother's Day After our guests ar rived and had had suf ficient time to settle down

and

to stroll

about the orchard and lawns of the Estate of

A copy of the Statue of Our Lady of Hope,the famous La Macarena, ofSeville, Spain.

Our Lady of Good Success, the first part of our special Mother's Day pro gram opened with a slide presentation on the origin of the in ternationally famous statue of Our Lady of Hope of Ma carena.

A

pecially that the promises announced by Our Lady of Fatima in 1917 be speedily fulfilled.

The surprise feature of this Mother's Day gathering was the musical presentation of the Holy Choir of Angels Band, masterfully conducted by Mr. Vincent Corazinee, West Point's former instructor. We Want God,the favorite hymn of St. Louis Marie Grignion de Monfort, the celebrated author of the treatise True Devotion to Mary, was zealously

TFP

speaker gave our friends and supporters a detailed account of her center piece role in the Holy Week ceremonies in Seville, Spain.

He went on to explain why devotion to the Blessed Mother under the invocation Our Lady of Hope is so necessary to prevent discouragement among faithful Catholics, to in spire them to strive for perfection and to strengthen in their souls the resolve to resist the tragically depraved influence of the contemporary world at all costs.

Following this presentation, everyone gathered around the touching Dolorosa. A rosary was then prayed for the special intentions of those mothers who were present and for all the mothers throughout the world,asking our Blessed Mother to protect them in the numerous trials contemporary society poses to Catholic motherhood. Other intentions in cluded reparation for the sins committed against the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and es

Above: The Holy Choir ofAngels Band performing during the barbecue lunch offered to the mothers, Below.

sung by the members of the marching band as they formed a semicircle under two stately oaks. Traditional American themes were interpreted by the fife and drum corps,and the brass band furnished our guests with favorite classical pieces. A bagpipe solo and a variety of American marches completed the program.

As the afternoon waned, each mother was pre sented with a rose and a card displaying a picture of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom on the cover and containing a Mother's Prayer inside. Upon ending our program, many inquired if something was in the works for...

Father's Day!

Dear mothers who weren't able to attend, we wish

that Our Blessed Mother grant you many graces and blessings throughout your lives, and that she especially prepare and aid you in the fight which is in store for all good and faithful mothers.

IZl

I.

<

I'. ^

(Cross venerated at the Headquarters of the American TFP, Bedford. NY.)

Tfe Jriend ofthe Cross Slccordiiy to Saint Louis Marie Qrignion ck Montfort A friend oftfie Cross is a fwfy man, separatedfrom visiBCe tfiings. !His Heart is Cifted(tigft oBove adtfiat isfraiCandperisHoBle; "ftis conversation is in Heaven"((PHiC 3, 20); Hejourneys Here Sebzu Cif^e a stranger andpifgrim. Ode f^^eps His Heartfreefrom tHe zvorld, foo/q upon it zvitH an uncon cernedgHmce ofHis (eft eye and disdainfudy tramples it underfoot

lA friend oftHe Cross is a tropHy zoHicH tHe crucified CHrist won on Calvary, in union witH Olis blessed0\dotHer. 0{e is onotHer ^enoni (Qen. 33, IS) or 'Benjamin, a son ofsorrow, a son oftHe rigHt Hand Conceived in tHe sorrowfulHeart ofCHrist, He comes into tHis world tHrougH tHegasH in the Savior's rigHt side and is adempurpled in His Blood fnie to tHis Heritage, He BreathesfortH only crosses andBlood, death to the world, theflesh andsin and Hides HimselfHere Below with Jesus CHrist in Qod(Col 3,3).

s

•

' 'm

m

[m

-•«*». i»

¥L

The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property - TFP

Deprived of any political power in contemporary re publics, the nobilily retains mere shreds of it in monarchies. It has a scant representation in the world

f

of finance, when it has any. In diplomacy, as well as in the world of culture and the patronage of the arts, its role is much less evident than that of the bourgeoisie.

In most cases, the nobility today is little more than a residue. Notwithstanding all this, it is a precious rem nant that represents a tradition essentially consisting of a human type.

How can this human type be defined?

The very course of events made the nobility a stand ard of excellence that would edify all men and, in a cer tain sense, give all excellent things the prominence they deserve. When we say that something is noble and aris tocratic, we stress that it is excellent in its kind. This is

so even in our society intoxicated with egalitarianism, vulgarity, and base moral corruption.

Even down to the first decades of our century, tem poral society, at least in its general lines, still tended to

continuously improve in the most varied fields. As far as public or private religiousness and morality are con cerned, this statement would need to be strongly nuanced.

Today, on the contrary, there is an omnifarious ten

dency toward vulgarity and extravagance, and at times even toward the brutal and insolent triumph of ugli ness and obscenity. In this sense, the revolution of the Sorbonne in 1968 was an explosion of universal scope that ignited evil tendencies long incubated in the con temporary world. These phenomena brought with them a pronounced proletarianization, in the most pejorative sense of the word.

NOBILITY:

Nevertheless the old impulse toward elevation and

perfection, bom in the Middle Ages and developed, in certain aspects, in the following centuries, has not died. On the contrary, it still checks, to some extent, the expansion of the proletarianizing impulse. In some ambiences, it even has a certain dominance.

STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE

In the past, the nobility as a social class had the mis sion of cultivating, nourishing, and spreading this im pulse toward perfection throughout society. It was pre eminently oriented toward this mission in the temporal sphere, as was the clergy in the spiritual order.

The noble was a symbol of this impulse, its very per

THE IMPULSE TO ALL

sonification. He was like a living book in which all of so

ciety could read eveiything our elders, eager for eleva tion. yearned for and were gradually attaining. Such was the noble.

Of everything he was, this precious impulse is per

FORMS OF ELEVATION

haps the best he retains. Little wonder that men of our time, in growing numbers, turn to him and ask with

AND PERFECTION

mute anxiety if the nobility will preserve this impulse and even expand it courageously, and thus help save the world from the chaos and catastrophes into which it is sinking.

Tradition, Family and

Contents

Property

November-December,1993

♦> Italian Nobility Rejoices at Launching of TFP Book

2

Editor: C.Preston Noell III

The American TFP in Action

Associate Editors:

Earl Appleby Gary Isbell Eugenia Guzman

TFP Campaigns Around the Nation.

TFPs Around the World

Steven F. Schmieder

"Madonna" Is Rebuffed in Argentina

9

Great Documents of Catholic History

Jack Burnham

Photography:

Saint Catherine of Siena to Gregory IX

11

Todd Kamuf

Circulation:

Commentary

Philip A. Moran, Jr.

Stop and See

12 Foreign Correspondents:

International

SPAIN: Felipe Barandiaran

■ "Religious War-Never More"

14

ROME: Juan M. Montes

■ Sudan Christians Being Eliminated ■ The Holy Shroud and the Carbon-14 Dating

14 15

FRANCE: Mario B. Varela

BRAZIL; Orlando Lyra CANADA: John Misek

Abortion: Moral Relativism

16

Ambiences, Customs and Civilizations

Clothes: Mirror of an Epoch

20

Prophets, Martyrs, Saints, and Heroes Luis Segura Vilchi

22

^ 'A'

Forgotten Truths ■ To Die or to Kill for Christ Is Not Criminal, but Glorious

❖ Austria: The Imperial Family and the Feast of Christmas

24

25

Family Series Christmas Saves a Chouan

28

TRADITION, FAMILY and PROPERTY magazine is a publication of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP), Subscription $18.00 in the United States and

Canada(US$). Rates for foreign subscriptions $25.00. List of other TFP publications available upon request.

Direct all subscription requests and inquiries to: The American TFP, P.O. Box 1868. York, PA 17405. Tel.:

(717) 225-7147, Fax:(717) 225-7382. Copyright© 1993. Permission is granted to reproduce in whole or in part any article of this magazine with credit given to Tradition, Family and Property.

Our cover: The Nalivily

Rome Italian Nobility Rejoices at Launching of TFP Book Its Doctrinal Arsenal Is Enormously Strengthened

Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveirds latest book, Nobility and

Analogous Traditional Elites in the Alloeutions of Pius

XII, has been launched in yet another country: Italy.

aging and worrisome, many analysts ar gue, is that no alternative, credible ruling class is available to reverse the trend to

ward self-disintegration and lead the Ital ian people toward the goals of a sound common good.

In this context one can readily appreci ate the immense value of Professor Coirea

de Oliveira's work. It offers a solution for

the crisis by explaining the meritorious role of the nobility in leading and shaping society through the centuries. Unlike less privileged countries, Italy can still count on a numerous and Never has the country stood in more need of such a work. experienced nobility, which needs only to rediscover its Published by Marzorati Editore of Milanâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a firm famous for mission and function.

Millions of worried Italians may have therefore sighed high-quality historical and cultural worksâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the book's Italian with reliefon October 31 whenRAI I (Italy's most important edition appears, coincidentally, or better, providentially, right as the country traverses a deep political crisis termed "Tangen- TV network) provided prime-time coverage of the launching

topoli"("Kickback City") by tho.se .striving to remove a ruling

of Professor Correa de Oliveira's book in Rome.

class widely besmirched by corruption scandals.

Inasmuch as corruption is the root cause of the Italian crisis, one cannot but conclude that this is more than a political crisis; it is a moral crisis. But what is more discour

The launching had been held the day before at an interna tional conference where leading members of the Italian aristocracy officially announced their candidacy for partici pation in the national leadership. Is it po.ssible that Italians Tr.M}ITI()N. Famii.y and PKori-KTY

S,

3*

i /

glimpsed a dim light at the end of their dark tunnel and recognized the alter native class able to overcome

From left to right: Archduke Martin von Habsburg, Cardinal Alfons M.Stickler, S.D.B., Prince Carlos of Bourbon-Two Sicilies,

Archbishop emeritus of Louren^o Marques, Candido Alvin Pereira.

"Tangentopoli"?

"We will be the new Italian ruling class," stated Prince Sforza Ruspoli, one of the speakers at the symposium jointly sponsored by Rome's Centro Cul-

turale Lepanto and Tradition, Family, Propertyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Italy Bureau under the patronage of Cardinals Alfons Stick

Dominioni and Marquis Luigi CodaNunziante.

The renewed commitment of the nobility was fruit of Professor Correa de Oliveira's book, recently published in

English, Italian, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

The launching of the English-language edition took ler and Silvio Oddi.

About 250 distinguished guests attended the conference place in Washington, D.C., on September 28, before an in the grand "Sala del Baldachino" of the magnificent audience of many hundreds under the chairmanship of the palace of Princess Elvina Pallavicini, perhaps the most Honorable Morton Blackwell (see September-October is representative member of the Roman aristocracy. Among sue of Tradition, Family and Property magazine).

The Washington event was followed by presentations those present were ranking clergymen,scholars, diplomats

and journalists, but, as one would expect, most of the audience were nobles, including Archduke Martin von Habsburg of Austria, Prince Carlos of Bourbon-Two Si cilies, Duke of Calabria, Princess Urraca of Bourbon-Two

of the book in Italy. The first presentation was part of the Milan congress of the Paris-based CILANE, attended by the Grand Master of the Order of Malta, Era'Andrew

Bertie. CILANE (Commission dTnformation et de Liai

Sicilies, Marquis Aldo Pezzana Capranica del Grillo, son des Associations Nobles d'Europe) is the umbrella organization of the associations safeguarding the princi Duke Giovan Pietro Caffarelli (President of the Associa tion of Italian Nobility), Princes Carlo and Fabrizio Mas simo, Baron Roberto Selvaggi, Countess Elena Caccia November-December, 1993

ples and traditions of the European nobility.

The second presentation, sponsored by Tradition, Family,

r

-

IT

I

B

CAM:

'A

X

The presentation of Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites at Milan's Palazzo Serbelloni Propertyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Italy Bureau, was held at Palazzo Serbelloni be fore 200 Milanese personalities.

On both occasions the book was received with enormous

interest and appreciation.

Similar enthusiasm was shown at a November presenta

tion in Palermo honored by the participation of several of the

most prominent members of the Sicilian nobility.

But at the Rome symposium the Italian nobility unequivo cally claimed its role in national leadership for the first time since the downfall ofthe monarchy.So much so that a full-page

report in Italy's largest newspaper, La Repitbblica (10/31/93), described the event as a "veritable cavalry charge, a counterat tack."(Unprecedented numbers of nobles most certainly took part, either as candidates or as supporters, in Rome's municipal elections on December 5. Their names are laden

with history and tradition and need no com ment: Barberini, Orsini, Chigi, Borghese and others.)

According to Pius XII's teachings, the no bility has a fundamental role to play in contem porary society. When the ruling elites of so many countries are suffering a serious credi bility crisis, the nobility must strive more than

ever to fulfill this role by leading an exemplary

Participants of the launching in Rome

Tuxdition, Family and Property

life and serving the common good in the most selfless

manner. In this way they will be a model for the rest of society.

Clearly echoing the Pope's message as set out in the book, in his words at the Rome launching Prince SforzaRuspoli called on all the members of the aristocracy to overcome their divi sions and unite under the Papal leadership in the name of the people, who "want to see the values of prayer, action, and

The American TFP

in Action tPlinio Conia de OBveira

sacrifice,of which our ancestors—saints, leaders and heroes—

gave testimony at the price of their life." Furthermore, Prince Ruspoli said,"I wish to express to Professor Plinio how grateful and indebted we are as Rome's aristocracy, and therefore as an aristocracy faithful to the Church,for his work."

In his speech Giovanni Cantoni, head of the Alleanza Cattolica, stated that since Papal social teachings are part of

9{pBi[ity

the Church's moral Magisterium according to John Paul II,

^naktgous TnuUtionaC'Elites

Professor Correa de Oliveira's brilliant commentaries on

Pius XII's allocutions to the Roman Nobility should be

Jl'Ztnt

regarded as integral to the moral theology of the Church.

In his turn, the renowned political analyst Prof. Domenico Fisichella stressed the historical role of the nobility and other traditional elites as moderating elements for an ideal rela tionship between the monarch and the people. He also dem onstrated how contemporary elites, unable to perpetuate this function, easily become oligarchies.

teftas

Atrinj

■X''

Prof. Roberto de Matlei, President of the Centro Culturale

Lepanto, highlighted in his speech that the nobility has a public vocation. It is called to defend "the principles and institutions of the Church and Christian civilization" at a

political and cultural level.

Far from having lost their reason for being, the nobility and analogous traditional elites can give us hope for the future. Yes, the world is sinking into chaos and anarchy. But for those who wish, there are solutions—noble solutions—to

our problems,as Professor Correa de Oliveira so masterfully outlines in his landmark work, whose Naples presentation is scheduled for early January. □

VL-

TFP CAMPAIGNS AROUND THE NATION Just days after the September 28 Washington launching of Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira's book Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pius XII, teams of TFP members and volunteers were flying or driving to key areas of the nation to begin the cam paign echoing the book's appeal for a preferential op tion for the nobles and analogous traditional elites.

The book was available In several languages

Novemher-December, 1993

In bookstores and libraries, plantations and factories, uni versities and seminaries, patriotic organizations and pri-

Areas where the book is already being promoted by teams of TFP members or supporters.

mm[\

UPDATE: Over 120 U.S. book

stores now carry Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions ofPius XII: A Theme Illuminating American Social History,

by Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira. vate clubs, in front of church doors and in family living rooms, no

effort is being spared to place the book in the right hands.

TFP supporters and friends quickly organized also. While some visit new friends to enroll their support and others leaf through

family address books and business "rolodexes" looking for names of people who should be contacted, others organize small get-to gethers and lectures where the book and the campaign can be promoted.

In Spring Grove,Pennsylvania,the TFP headquarters also bustle

Tradition, Family and Property

with activity as the rearguard tends to the needs of teams and contiguous states, and the repercussions overleaf illustrate supporters alike. Reports are analyzed, problems solved, the enthusiasm with which Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira's experience and the best methods and arguments to use timely book is being received. quickly passed on to everyone involved.

Not aday goes by without the mail room shipping out more books, leaflets, and new names for the teams to contact, and

late into the night the fruits of the day are tallied up on the control charts.

As this magazine goes to print, barely eight weeks since the beginning of the campaign, 1,600 books have been sold and hundreds more have been accepted by bookstores from coast to coast.

The map above shows the major hubs from which TFP teams and supporters operate in their efforts to cover the 48

November-December, 1993

n

What people are saying abou t the book...

"It's exactly what's happening inside the Church! Two sides! Those who want the hierarchical structure and

"Being a teacher, I understand where you're coming from.

"Young people today are going astray because they have no real role models.

"I want to buy your book, as I see that it will also inform me of many greatthings I don't know about."

A professor from Ohio

those who want to destroy it. Look at what they've done:

They've taken out the Communion rails so you can't kneel.

Deep down, it's two concepts of God. We want a transcen dent God and they want a pantheistic God,and when they go to Communion they think they are gods, since every thing is God for them. Deep down it's an ontological

"This book is a gift from Heaven.'

A New York businessman

problem."

A parishioner of Our Lady of Consolation Church, "At first glance I am indeed impressed with the book, and will study its contents judiciously.

Philadelphia

At first blush it seems to reflect my sentiments entirely.

1,600

"I am also interested in TFP's goals and what it stands for. This is ouronly hope for the salvation of whatwas once a civilized society. It is gratifying to see that there are people who care."

From a letter, Mr. LM.,Pennsylvania

"This book is a refu

tation of equality."

A director of Wake

copies

Forest University, N.C. "I

consider

this

sold,

beautiful book to be a

good purchase for the university's library, and I encourage my students to read it as a

sofar.

"That is just fine. In this house we believe in supe riority and hierarchy, so you can goahead andspeakabout that in my house with no prob lem."

"Oh, I'm in favor of elites. You need peo ple to set the pace.

But notthese phonies we have leading us now!"

A gentleman visited at his home, Minnesota

source of Catholic

Leader of a union of

die-makers, eastern Pennsylvania

moral teachings."

"You know, admire you men greatly.

Forest University "I understand that the great problem in our society is the denial of the pursuit of per fection. People want everything level. This is what

A professor at Wake

was done in Russia, in the USSR, and in all the communist countries. And we're now seeing the

result. But people have lost their minds. In spite of knowing the effects of socialism in a country, we are seeing this country striving to be social ist. And if they succeed, we can say the country is finished."

Mr. F.B., Chicago

jUJ The owner of a Midwest bookstore asked for 6 copies of the book. When the TFP volunteer began to remove them from a box of 12, the store owner said: "I'll just take the whole box."

CQ Another store owner commented: "I think this book will contribute to a cross-pol lination of ideas I hope to achieve with my

store,something mass-market chains do not do."

IContinuedfrom p. 7.}

Christmas and the New Year will provide a short respite

during which the TFP teams will gather in Spring Grove to celebrate the birthday of Our Divine Redeemer, Who in His love for all men embraced both extremes of society, choos

ing, in His infinite wisdom, to be born of Israel's most noble stock—that of David, the Prophet-King—but in poverty, in a bare, windswept Bethlehem stable, from which the Holy Family would eventually have to flee to escape the ruthless persecution of the antithetical, pseudo-elites of the day.

Reinvigorated by the graces of Christmas, in January the campaign will resume its attempts to provide the nation's authentic elites that atmosphere of understanding, support and enthusiasm so characteristic of Christian civilization

Dear Subscriber o/" Tradition, Family and Property magazine: If you know of anyone who would be interested in Nobility and Analo

gous Traditional Elites in the Allocu tions of Pius XII: A Theme Illuminat

ing American Social History, please let us know so we can send him or

her an offer of the book.

SdCCm

and which the envy and revolutionary hatred of egalitarianism want so ferociously to erode and destroy. □

TFPs Around the World

"Madonna" Is Rebuffed in Argentina HtblAUM

BUENOS AIRES—As part of a 40-day tour

of ten countries, the singer "Madonna" ar rived in Argentina on October 28.

The Argentine TFP protested the presence of "Madonna" by issuing a denunciation of this media darling and handing out thou sands of flyers in the main areas of the capital. In the flyer the TFP urged Catholics to request the outlawing of the obscene "Ma donna" show and to express their disapproval to its sponsors.

According to the daily media, the "Ma donna" choreography included topless danc

SALIDA

ers and simulations of sadomasochism and

homosexuality.

Although she calls herself a Catholic,

Argen tine TFP distributes flyers against "Madonna"

Louise Veronica Ciccone, "Madonna," has more than once defined Catholicism as "a hypocritical

and mean religion." On some of her music videos she makes sacrilegious use of statues and crucifixes. Her

pseudonym clearly alludes to the name with which the Most Holy Virgin is designated in the Italian language.

Her degrading presentations—termed "daring" and therefore "courageous and marvelous" by elements of the media—provoked repulse in several countries on her itinerary.

In Germany, Norbert Geis, Chancellor Helmut Kohl's

November-December, 1993

spokesman for legal affairs, called her show "an orgy."

He stated that "if 'Madonna' does not refrain from pre senting those obscenities in Germany she will not be allowed to perform. Forbidding the show is not an arbitrary measure but a necessary decision to maintain public order."

Shortly thereafter the singer canceled her German show, alleging insurmountable technical problems.

In Mexico, the Centro Civico de Solidariedad, repre senting 47 civic, business and educational groups, asked their government to forbid the show.

TFP in downtown Buenos Aires

Understandably, there was widespread disapproval and public morality. They are elements of a profound among the Argentine clergy and laity at the arrival of cultural revolution taking place around the world."

"Madonna."

"It is a sexual and anarchic revolution," the declaration

continued. "Unlike previous revolutions, it does not aim to stir up the masses in order to attain its goals. Rather, it strives to change the mentality of each Argentine by accustoming him to the gross, the obscene and the blas declared that"'Madonna' attacks the dearest values of the phemous. In this way, it hopes to undermine the founda Catholic Religion" and lamented that"many members of tions of the social order."

The TFP subsequently issued an appeal to all Catho society choose not to voice their shame at her presence lics, reminding them that an inactive indignation is a form because they fear being labeled as authoritarian."

President Menem reproached the singer for her blas of complicity. It exhorted them to express publicly their love for the Most Holy Virgin and the Catholic Church phemous use of the sacred symbols of our religion.

Attorneys Guillermo Piuma, German Amadeo Voss and to demand efficacious government action against the and Mariano Pinedo as well as Attorney Genera! Dr. show.

The street campaigns of the TFP could not be ignored Alejandro Molina requested a court suspension of her show, since it attacked "the religious conscience" and by the media. The well-known TV entertainer Marcelo harmed the psychological and social identity of the youth, Tinelli criticized the TFP on his "Video-Match" pro a violation of the International Convention of the Rights gram. He was tired of phone calls from people attacking of Children ratified by Argentina. However, Federal his imprudent support of"Madonna." Her show organ Judge Dr. Marcela Perez Caton refused the request, izers, Productores Internacionales de Rock & Pop,feel merely forbidding the attendance of unaccompanied chil ing the heat, stated in a communique that, as far as they were concerned,"the groups claiming to be the defend dren under thirteen.

As the Argentine TFP stated in one of its declarations, ers of Catholicism in Argentina represent neither the "a veritable wave of amorality, pornography and blas Catholic population nor the youth, who wish to attend the show." phemy is invading the country."

"These 'artists' and 'shows,'" it affirmed, "are an Meanwhileâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and for the next three daysâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the switch intolerable aggression to the deepest convictions of the board of the TFP headquarters was swamped by wellArgentine people. They destroy the youth, good customs wishers from around the country.

Cardinal Antonio Quarracino termed "Madonna""por nographic and blasphemous" and her presence and per formance "offensive to the Argentine woman." Msgr.

Alfredo Nolasco, secretary of the Bishops Conference,

10

Tradition, Family and Property

Great Documents of Catholic History

3n tL n

i m

e6u6

ume

cin

Sojeet

W

CL'l1st

cruci

Wu,ÂĽ

fied and of sweet Mary:

not be fed with the food of men. Since

Most holy and sweet father, your poor unworthy daughter Catherine in

He has given you authority and you have assumed it, you should use your

of the world, preserving only the honor of God and the due of Holy Church. Authority also you have, to give peace to those who ask you for

Christ sweet Jesus, commends her

virtue and power: and if you are not willing to use it, it would be better for

it. Then, since you are not poor but rich, you who bear in your hand the

you to resign what you have assumed; more honor to God and health to your

keys of Heaven, to whom you open it is open, and to whom you shut it is shut. If you do not do this, you would

In the Name of Jesus Christ cruci

self to you in His precious Blood with

desire to see you a manly man, free from any fear or fleshly love toward

Church; declaring that brutes should

yourself, or toward any creature re lated to you in the flesh; since I per

soul would It be.

will

be rebuked by God. I, if I were in

ceive in the sweet Presence of God

your place, should fear lest Divine judgment come upon me. Therefore

good desire and so serves to hinder

makes is this: He wills that you make peace with all Tuscany, with which you are at strife; securing from all your

the honor of God and the exaltation

wicked

rebelled

Christ crucified to be obedient to the

and reform of Holy Church, as this.

against you whatever is possible to

will of God, for I know that you want and desire no other thing than to do His will, that this sharp rebuke fall not upon you:

that nothing so hinders your holy,

Another demand

sons

who

that

have

His

St. Catherine oe Siena

I beg you most gently on behalf of

"Cursed be thou, for the time

and the strength entrusted to thee thou hast not used."

TO Pope GregoryIX

I believe, father, by the goodness of God,and also tak

ing hope from your holiness, that you will so act that this will

not fall upon you. secure, without war, but punishing I say no more. Pardon me, pardon them as a father ought to punish a son me; for the great love which 1 bear finite mercy, may take from you all who has wronged him. Moreover, the to your salvation, and my great grief passion and lukewarmness of heart, sweet goodness of God demands when I see the contrary, makes me and re-form you into another man, by from you that you give full authority to speak so. Willingly would I have said forming in you anew a burning and those who ask you to make ready for it to your own person, fully to unbur ardent desire; for in no other way the Holy Crusade, that thing which den my conscience. When it shall could you fulfill the will of God and the appears impossible to you, and pos please your Holiness that I come to desire of His servants. Alas, alas, sible to the sweet goodness of God, you, I will come willingly. So do, that sweetest father mine, pardon my pre Who has ordained it and wills that so I may not appeal to Christ crucified sumption in what I have said to you it be. Beware, as you hold your life from you; for to no other can I ap and am saying; I am constrained by dear, that you commit no negligence peal, for there is no greater on earth. the Sweet Primal Truth to say it. His in this, nor treat as jests the works of Remain in the holy and sweet grace Therefore, my soul desires with im measurable love that God, by His in

will, father, is this, and thus demands

of you. It demands that you execute justice on the abundance of many Iniquities committed by those who are fed and pastured in the garden of Holy

November-December, 1993

the Holy Spirit, which are demanded of God. I ask you humbly for your from you because you can do them. benediction. Sweet Jesus,Jesus Love.

If you want justice, you can execute it. You can have peace, withdrawing Letters ofSt. Catherine ofSieua, London: J. M. from the perverse pomps and delights Dent & Co., 1905.

II

STOP AND

SEE COMMENTARY

Plinio Correa de Oliveira

theme, such as the internal crisis of the

commercial function, with agitated propaganda that barely allows people the peace of mind not to shop.

Church, but I felt that there were no

"Glory to God in the Highest and

I could not resist. My original inten tion was to write about some other

conditions for such a subject either in myself or in those around me.

If we exaggerate in saying that Christmas has died, it is certainly true peace on earth to men of good will." that it still preserves some rays of life.

How this angelic canticle found a fertile If such be the case, let us search for

At the same time, as iffrom the depth environment in those desolate fields of of my soul, harmonious and soothing Bethlehem, in the upright hearts of the reminiscences of my Christmases of shepherds awakened from their deep old, made themselves felt within me, and tranquil sleep. And, in contrast, and I am sure many of my readers share how these angelic words seem strange and without resonance or affinity in the this same state of spirit. thoughts of man obsessed with mate To encourage our exhausted and rial things in our modem cities. desolated souls, let us unveil the light of Christmas for a moment so that af

terwards we may again resume our al most unbearable tedium with greater fortitude. *

*

Let it be well understood that I do

not speak of the propagandistic and inauthentic Joys which dominate the feast of Christmas in our days. These have assumed the characteristics of a mere

12

formed features and creating im pressions that incite social revolution.

these rays.

Before anything else, we will find them in the very fact of it being Christ

mas Day. We see that each liturgical feast brings with it an effusion of spe cial graces. Whether men appreciate it or not, grace knocks at the door of each soul, and it does so more sublimely, Has the authentic Christmas died? lovingly, and insistently on Christmas With a touch of exaggeration, one Day. It can be said that, in spite of could say that it has. It has died in the everything, a light hovers in the air, a virtually robot-like souls of so many certain peace, an encouragement to our millions of men. And one may even souls, a force of idealism and dedica tion that is difficult to ignore. say that it has perished in certain Na tivity scenes as well. Yes, Christmas Moreover, in certain churches and in

has also died in the progressivist Na tivities designed by modern art, por traying the Holy Family with de

many households the authentic Nativity still presents to our souls an image of the Infant God, Who came to break the

Tradition, Family and Property

There is no happiness

equal to this, not even when the Catholic

finds himself like Jesus

Christ Our Lord, nailed to the Cross.

bonds of death, to trample upon sin, to forgive, to regenerate, to open to men

new and unlimited possibilities for vir tue and goodness.

Behold God, compassionate and within our reach, made man like us,

having next to Him the perfect mother, His mother but also ours. Through her, even the worst of sinners may ask and

hope to receive everything.

It is a feast in which our happiness at having faith and virtue shines, and in which we rejoice at having all our ac tions and possessions placed in a .sacral Thejoy of Christmas? Yes, but much

you who live totally for vain glory, O you who live torpidly for sensuality, O you who live diabolically for revolt and

more than this. For a true Catholic, it is

for crime,STOP AND SEE those souls

Christus," the Christian is another Je

also the joy of all 365 days of the year.

who are genuinely Catholic, over whom shines the joy of Christmas, and ask yourselves what your happiness is

sus Christ.

order.

For in those souls in which Our Divine

Savior dwells by the work of grace, this joy lasts forever and is never extin guished. Neither pain, nor struggle, nor illness, nor even death can eliminate it.

O you who live greedily for gold, O

November-December, 1993

in comparison to theirs?

Do not take these words as provoca tion nor disdain, for in fact, they are more than this.

They constitute an invitation for a perennial Christmas, which is the life of the true faithful: "Christianus alter

There is no happiness equal to this, not even when the Catholic finds him

self, like Jesus Christ Our Lord, nailed to the Cross. â&#x2013;Ą

REVOLUmNAND COUNTERREVOLUTION

Part IE The Counter-Revolution Chapter X The Counter-Revolution, Sin,

INTERNATIONAL

and the Redemption

"Religious War â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Never More!"

1. The Counter-Revolution Should Re

{Corriere della Sera, September 23, 1993 - Italy)

vive the Notion of Good and Evil

One of the most significant missions of the Counter-Revolution is re-establishing or reviving the distinction between good and evil, the notion of sin in thesis, of Original Sin, and of actual sin. When performed with

a profound compenetration of the spirit of the Church, this task does not produce de spair of the Divine Mercy, hypochondria, misanthropy, or the like, so frequently men tioned by certain authors more or less im bued with the maxims of the Revolution.

2. How to Revive the Notion of Good and Evil

The notion of good and evil can be re vived in various ways,including:

* Avoiding all formulations that smack of secularist or interdenominational moral

"Religious warâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;never more," is the message of 350 representatives of world beliefs gathered in Milan."Religion must not incentivate hate, conflict or war. War must cease to be fueled by religion." An emphatic, clear, and grave statement comes from Milan:

"Holy war doesn't exist; only peace is holy. Hatred is the cause ofall conflicts."Cardinal Martini declares the need for"a beautiful, clear, and serious message of ethical restraint and dialogue."

Promoting the goals of brotherhood and cooperation,representatives of350 religions from across the globe gathered for the 7th International Peace Congress. Although dissimilar, Catholics and Christians of East and West, Hebrews, Muslims, Buddhists

and Hindus held discussions and preached for four days after the opening ceremony in the Scala with Gorbachev.

After much reflection, John Paul II sent a message to the Peace Congress:"Peace is a gift of God placed in the hands of men."

The Congress is a call to greater awareness and responsibility, both on personal and collective levels. It presents a forceful invitation to"enjoy walking together to construct

a more unified world, overcoming the limited concerns of communities, ethnic groups and nations." The Pope mentions cases where positive results have been reached when men follow "paths of the heart and friendship." (Bishop Paglia, co-sponsor of the

* Opportunely pointing out that God has the right to be obeyed and that, therefore,

congress with the Ambrosian Diocese, describes the activities of the Community of St. Egidio in the same terms.) The recent Israeli-Palestine agreement and last year's developments in Mozambique were given as examples.

Rabbi Samuel Sirat, president of the European Conference of Rabbis, proposed that the Community of St. Egidio and its president, Andre Ricardi, be awarded the Nobel

His Commandments are true laws, which

Peace Prize for "believing in the impossible and transforming it into reality." Their

we ought to observe in the spirit of obedi ence and not simply because they please us.

dream Is to hold the next congress in Jerusalem.

ity, because secularism and interdenominationalism logically lead to amorality.

*.Emphasizing that the law of God is intrinsically good and according to the order of the universe, in which the perfection of the Creator is mirrored. For this reason, it

should not only be obeyed, but loved; and evil should not only be shunned, but hated.

* Spreading the notion of a reward and of a chastisement after death.

* Favoring social customs and laws in which uprightness is honored and wicked ness suffers public sanctions.

* Favoring customs and laws meant to prevent proximate occasions of sin and even those conditions that, having the mere ap

Sudan Christians Being Eliminated {Estado de Sao Paulo, October 29, 1993 - Brazil)

Caritas Afrique president, Father Henri Boulad, spoke to the publication Famille Chretienne about the atmosphere of religious persecution in the Sudan: "The population of southern Sudan is used as human shields to protect the army. Food sent to aid the town of Juba was seized by the army and not distributed to the civil population. No one is allowed to leave the town. The roads are mined and those who try to flee are executed. This situation has been going on since 1992. They are trying to exterminate an entire popu lation. Those who resist conversion to Islam are taken

to the desert. Forsaken several miles from the towns,

pearance of evil, may be harmful to public

they are left in the desert without food and water.

morality.

These deportations have been carried out since 1984.

No one has reacted to this day."

* Insisting on the effects of Original Sin m man, his frailty, the fruitfulness of the

Redemption by Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the need for grace, prayer, and vigilance in order for man to persevere.

Orphans and children are kidnapped and later taken to the North, where they are indoctrinated in Islam and kept as servants with no salary; they are fed their master's leftovers.

Priests and catechists have been imprisoned, some undergoing torture while others were submitted to violent questioning.

* Making use of every opportunity to indicate the mission of the Church as the

teacher of virtue, the fountain of grace,and the irreconcilable enemy of error and sin.

Tradition, Family and Property

INTERNATIONAL ated conditions and then tested them."

The results? "A notable exchange be tween the gasses of the air and the fabric was clearly proven. The exchange modified the Carbon 14 content significantly, by

THE HOLY SHROUD AND THE

CARBON-14 DATING

about 25%. When this fabric is dated in a Carbon 14 test it seems much more recent

than it really is."

Russian Scientist Accuses Western

This is the first time the doubts of the

Laboratories

scientific community regarding the .sup posed medieval origin of the Shroud are confirmed in an experiment.

It could be the plot for a fiction book. On one hand, a brilliant Russian scientist, re

cipient of the former Soviet Union's highest

But the Russian scientist makes yet

awardâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the Lenin Awardâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;because of his

another criticism of the results obtained

research of Carbon 14. On the other, pres

by Western colleagues: "The work of

tigious Western laboratories, accused by

their laboratories, whose results were

the Russian scientist. At the center of the

published in Nature magazine, presents a

controversy, the Shroud, a relic that due to a phenomenon unexplained to this day de picts Christ taken down from the Cross.The scientist: Dimitri Kusnetzov, who is stirring the international scientific community with a discovery and is accusing Western labo ratories of having committed a grievous

serious irregularity. The scientists did not

This causes a Carbon-14 enrichment,

error in their analysis of the cloth. Accord

which will make the fabric seem younger

ing to him, the Shroud was not painted in the Middle Ages as their test states, but truly

when tested."

dates from the time of Christ.

possible to establish the manufacture date of the Shroud fabric using the corrections proposed by him. "I did that. I took the

take into account the Carbon-14 enrich

ment that occurs in the preparation of linen cloth. In the process, the cellulose undergoes a change, with the increase of a polysaccharide and the loss of a lipid.

Professor Kusnetzov was asked if it is

Despite appearances, it is not fiction.

Kusnetzov is not a character of fantasy. He

speaks perfect English. He is emphatic but

results of the Carbon-14 dating of the

courteous. He explains why he is re

Shroud, published by Nature magazine,and calculated the Carbon-14 enrichment pro duced by the fabric-making and by the fire the Shroud went through. The cloth cannot be less than 1,900 years old and absolutely

searching the Shroud:"I did not know any thing about the Shroud, and not being a Catholic I can tell you it isn't the 'sacred' that I am interested in. However, the tests

on the Shroud are important to people who study Carbon 14. These tests enable us to

cannot be medieval."

understand better the nature of the method

not a Catholic, to study an object so impor

used in Carbon-14 dating. It might seem simple, but in reality it is very complex."

tant to so many people? "I did not approach it as a religious problem, but as one of the most intriguing archaeological problems that a scientist can face: a problem that shows the limits of the present Carbon-14 dating. I was surprised to see the impas sioned atmosphere surrounding the issue.

What does it mean to Kusnetzov. who is

As for how his interest in the Shroud be

gan, Kusnetzov affirms: "I was at a congress in London to present the results of a new method of obtaining dates by using radioac

tivity.... At the end of my presentation, a French scientist. Prof. Guy Berthault, sug

gested that I use this method to verify the results of the tests done on the Shroud. The

project seemed interesting and I accepted.

"On studying the history of the Shroud, I learned that the cloth had been through a fire at Chambery in 1532. I decided to re create in a laboratory the conditions of this

November-December, 1993

The scientists coordinated by the British

tragic event: a humid, gassy atmosphere, with carbon dioxide, carbon and oxygen, at a temperature of 140 degrees Celsius. I obtained a piece of linen whose threads had been dated beyond doubt as being from the

Museum displayed little scientific aplomb.

At any rate, the only thing our scientific proofs can demonstrate is that this cloth was

the winding sheet of a man who at the time

of Jesus Christ suffered the passion de.scribed by the Gospels." time of the Emir of Bukhara, around 750(.?0 Days. September 8, 1993) 840 A.D. I submitted them to these recre

15

The first article of an important, extensive series -

ABORTION: MORAL RELATIVISM

by Orlando Lyra

About 1.6 million abortions are performed in the United States each year. That means that one in

as is a wart. Certain physicians who for

a true and authentic 'massacre ofinnocent

merly obligated themselves to preserve

children' on a world level, especially

life, have devolved into professional kill

when the latter are weaker and more de

three conceived babies is killed in his

ers. Says one: "an aborted baby is just fenseless. Above all, it is worrisome to

mother's womb.' In a number of cities such as New York and Washington the

garbage!'"^

number of abortions exceeds the number

of births.^

see that the moral conscience seems to be

At the same time, animals and plants terribly confused and experiences an in are protected and the legal recognition of creasing difficulty to understand clearly the "personhood" of lakes and rivers is and precisely the difference between

The figures of the abortion holocaust

argued before the United States Supreme

right and wrong in regards to the funda

analyzed by proponents and opponents

Court.^ Why such contradiction? In a letter

phenomenon of the elimination of many

alike reveal a tragic truth as irrefutable

as the objective data from which it de rives: never before has the life of the unborn child been accorded so little

worth.^ Lack of respect for the life of the unborn has reached such a point that to

day he may be eliminated from his mother's body with the same indifference

addressed to the bishops of the universal Church,Pope John Paul II drew attention to the following significant psychological phenomenon which, when properly com prehended, answers the above and other critical questions: "In the context of the multiform aggression of the present at tacks on human life, the statistics present

mental value of human life. Indeed, if the

unborn human lives is very serious and

frightening,it is no less serious and fright ening to witness the moral sensibility dis

appear from the consciences. The civil laws and rules do not slow this disappear

ance, rather they contribute to reinforce it. Indeed, when some Parliaments vote

laws authorizing the killing of innocent

The American TFP has participated in L

^^rnmnu^MuisaF the imcEHT.' PIUS? CON

16

/

Tradition, Family and Property

persons and some states use their re

ened, and his will to submit to it is weak

sources and structures to favor such

ened. Thus, abandoning himself to rela

crimes, individual consciences, fre

tivism and scepticism (cf. John 18:38), he goes seeking an illusory freedom apart from truth itself."^

sciences, vitiating their ability to discern good and evil. Accordingly, the clearest,

The relativistic mentality does not ac cept any moral absolute criterion or ob

most incisive arguments do not convince persons intoxicated with relativism. Ex

terium, based on sacred Scripture and Tradition, about the inviolability of inno

jective rule of conduct but regards human

posed to the firepower of logic they with

acts as merely the consequence of subjec

cent human life."^

tive conditions and experiences, chang

draw and when the fire lulls, they reap pear intact.

quently not well formed, are induced more easily to error. To break this vicious circle it seems more urgent than ever to

strongly reaffirm our common magis-

life itself has become relative in value?

Just as a subtle radioactivity destroys cellular tissue, relativism corrodes con

Given this state of spirit, the question This phenomenon of transcendental ing according to the cultural and material importance cited by the Sovereign Pontiff ambience of the day. Accordingly, it is arises as to what, if any, impression a serious argument against abortion, even is in large measure a consequence of the more negative than positive. relativistic and subjective mentality of modem man, a mind-set shaped not only

by the influence of the philosophical doc

Denying the truths and norms of con duct, relativism fails to provide a positive concept of man, life, or the universe. In

trines of relativism, but primarily through the increasing amoral habits, customs,

its most radical philosophical expression,

and behaviors permeating the West. Con

destiny, an immanent fruit of a blind evo lution, and the universe as an eternal ex

sequently, we are dealing with a relativ

it views life as a breath without name or

when reinforced by solid statistics and

shocking photographs, could cause in the mind of the relativist.

The wandering relativist is used to en joying the moment's sensation, not to re flecting. He disdains logical thinking and

argumentation based on principles, whether moral, philosophical or even bio logical. The language of argument, espe cially regarding abortion, seems far too

Relativism finds its roots in fallen hu

plosion of chaotic energies, a continuing history without a purpose, "a flowing without fluid, a flight without a bird, a dream without a dreamer."^

man nature: "As a result of that mysteri ous original sin,committed at the prompt

sex was made relative and transformed

closed the door to interest in the matter

before the argument is even presented.

ism more practical than theoretical, though its actions express profound doc trinal errors.

abstract. Approached in this matter he In the realm of morality and customs, finds the subject boring. In sum, he has

ing of Satan, the one who is 'a liar and the

into a disposable product of easy con

father of lies' (John 8:44), man is con

sumption. Human sexuality was sepa

stantly tempted to deviate his gaze from the li ving and true God to direct it to idols (cf. 1 Thes. 1:9), exchanging the 'tmth

rated from its primary end: procreation.

When contraceptives fail, abortion is the ultimate guarantee against unwanted

Accordingly, we understand why many worthy anti-abortion efforts, de spite the validity of their arguments, fail

about God for a lie' (Rm. 1:25). Man's

pregnancy. As one relativism leads to an

to attain the desired success. Often they neglect to take into account the harmful

capacity to know the truth is also dark-; other, is it really surprising that human

*

*

*

every Washington Marchfor Life since 1973

I

Jt'-

' \A â&#x20AC;˘ y,

^

Hlii^ â&#x20AC;˘

.1

'I

November-December, 1993

17

effects of relativism and subjectivism.

If those who fight for the inviolability

Notes:

mas-Clave de Humanismo Cristiano [Madrid:

1)"Each year approximately 1.660,000 cow

Speiro, 1984], p. 3).

of innocent human life wish to conquer more terrain in the field of American pub

ardly executions by abortion take place in the

4) Dr. Martti Kekomaki. Another abortionist,

nation's abortion chambers. This comes to

lic opinion, penetrating to the decisionmaking center which vacillates on abor

30,769 each week,5,128 every day of a six-day working week, 641 every hour of an eight-hour

Howard Diamond,declares:"I feel sorry for a starv ing cat.â&#x20AC;&#x201D;A fetus that nobody wants?â&#x20AC;&#x201D;that's not

tion according to the whims of relativism, they must comprehend and combat the

of the workday"(Wanda Franz, Ph.D., National

Today's Final Solution [St. Louis: Landmark Press, 1983], pp.99,102).

Right to Life News, March 24,1992, vol. 19, no.

5) Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U.S. 741-752

tendencies and psychological deviations that underlie pro-abortion relativism.

Breaking the spirit of relativism is essen tial to finding the way to victory. The

(1971), dissenting.

6, p. 3).

6) "Le massacre des innocents": Lettre du 2)Cf. David C. Reardon, Aborted Women Si lent No More(Westchesler, IL: Crossway Books, Pape Jean-Paul 11 a tous ses freres dans I'Episcopat, L'Osservatore Romano, French edition, 1990), p. 3.

June 25, 1991. Father A. Lobato, O.P., wrote 3) Not only life, but all human values are despised in the modern world, as John Paul II about this, with wisdom:'The typical crisis of our

series of commentaries we commence

workday or more than 10 abortions every minute

sad!" (William Brennan, The Abortion Holocaust:

with the present seeks to analyze relativ

observed in his 1979 address at Puebia de los

times, so-called post-modemism, resides in the

ism in relationship to abortion so that we may shine a light in the consciences of our fellow men,the light of moral sensibility, whose brilliance shall dissipate the dark ness ofindifference toward good and evil

Angeles;"An inadequate vision of man might be

loss of the concrete moral sense, in the inability of the conscience to judge righteously" ("Con-

that is responsible for the massacre of innocents whose blood covers our Nation with such shame.

Characters

of a Tragedy

one of the most outstanding weaknesses of the

present civilization. Undoubtedly, in our epoch

scienza morale e storicit dell'uomo in San

man has been written and spoken about more than ever; this is the epoch of humanism and

Tomasso d'Aquino," in Crisi e risveglio della conscienza morale nel nostro tempo, Bologna, 1989, p. 39).

anlhropocentrism. However, paradoxically, it is also the epoch of the deepest anguishes of men at levels never thought of before, an epoch of human values trampled upon as they have never been" (oiled in Victorino Rodriguez, O.P., Te-

7) John Paul II, Splendor Verilatis, 1.

8)Cf. Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., Dios:Su existencia (Madrid: Ediciones Palabra, 1980), pp.

142-143.

mere convenience. One Hollywood ac tress protested she could not let her film career suffer from the "tumor" growing in her womb.

Self-described "pro-choicers" and Induced abortion can be compared to a theater drama invariably ending in trag edy. The cast consists of several charac

pro-lifers divide American public opin ion around this life-and-death drama.The

latter defend the right to life of the unborn child; the former defend the so-called pre rogative of the woman to "terminate her pregnancy," under the mantra of privacy. an innocent victim whose silent scream Women Exploited by Abortion cries out from more than 4,000 souls each day. Then there are the perpetrators who, (WEBA) was formed by innumerable

ters. The first is the unborn child, threat ened with cruel and brutal extermination,

with morbid irony, are precisely those

women who, having repented from al

lowing themselves to be lured by the abortion industry, tell their hard-lived truths in the hopes of helping others not State. to make the same tragic mistake. "These Whoever wishes to understand the drama's plot, the rationale for abortion, women do not speak of abortion in terms must address the vlctimizers,not the victim. of political or ideological philosophies.

If a mother is asked why she is murdering They do not cherish abortion as a Utopian her own child, she will tout a laundry list of freedom, nor do they condemn it as the ultimate vice. They have no patience with excuses, each more dramatic than the pre ceding: financial problems, physical or such abstract windgames, because to whom duty calls to cherish and protect the baby: the parents, the doctors and the

mental health, rape, incest, even the physi

them, abortion is very real. These

cal or mental condition of her unborn

women have confronted the harsh cir

child.

cumstances which demand abortion

Of course, many abortions are for

18

and they have struggled with its pain-

m Tradition, Family and Property

ful decisions. They have experienced

existence ofa human being in

abortion in all its realities, in its relief

the process of development.

and its shame." ^ But as we shall see, the voice of expe rience that pretends to separate the reality

was a universal consensus that

Moreover, there always human life is inviolable, and

doctrinal reasons, ironically called "ab

that it must be respected since its beginning.The famous oath of Hippocrates (460-370

stract windgames" by sui generis anti-

B.C.),^ÂŽ once standard in our

abortionists.

medical schools, forbade

of abortion from its theoretical underpin

nings does nothing less than reinforce the

On the other side ofthe barricades,two

different nuances of the same ideological

dye may be distinguished.

A darker tone characterizes the radi

physicians to provoke abor tion in women.

How then will the child abuse that is abortion be ex

cals of the abortion cause, the well articu

plained as a solution of prob

lated group of activists participating in the lucrative industry of abortion,the pro fessionals who lead the pro-abortion

lems, sometimes trivial, as

camp.

Black is portrayed as gray by the selfdubbed "pro-choicers" who protest they

States?'^ No matter how desperately

consider abortion an evil, but a far lesser

he tries to deny it even to him

evil than unwanted pregnancy. This ideo logical nuance is the most frequently

self, man has an inner unity that impels him to adjust his action to his principles. He feels the need to justify his

found among those who label themselves favorable to legal abortion.

Abortion proponents, radical or"mod erate," make all sorts of efforts to hide the

victim of the abortion drama. They go so far as to suggest that abortion is akin to pulling a tooth or even a simple act of hygiene, but any abortion, spontane ous or induced, has as a precondition the

I

the list of horribly massacred innocent victims grows un ceasingly in the United

actions for his own sake and coherence between what she thinks and

the sake of others.

mother who aborts tries every way to find

what she does.^^ The dilemma over the acceptance or

a justification for her infamous deed, in an unconfessed, perhaps unrecog

rejection of abortion has given rise to one of the great moral and philosophical con

nized, effort to maintain a semblance of

troversies of all times.

The same occurs with abortion: the

1992: In 85 cities of Pennsylvania, the American TFP collects 43,615 signatures in favor of the unborn.

p *

Huvi.,.., Will You

- ,,

Sign Oun petjios

i

I November-December, 1993

19

Even if the public debate has often been diverted to practical and subjective

eyes to higher realities. Thus self-blinded,

tally doctrinal.The principles at stake are

he simply decreases the scope of his analysis, preventing him from solving innumerable vital questions that appear

essential to the restoration and preserva

before him.

issues, its foundations remain fundamen

tion of civilized life on earth.

AmSiences,

Consequently, there is no way to flee

Universal principles do not disappear from the deep examination of the final simply because man chooses to close his causes of induced abortion.'^

Clothes: Mirror

Notes:

9) Nancy Jo Mann, in David C. Rear-

were exterminated in the United States

don, Aborted Women, Silent No More by means of induced abortion. Consider (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, ing the yearly figures of that period, the 1987), Foreword.

10) "1 will give no deadly medicine to

anyone if asked nor suggest any such counsel: furthermore, I will not give to a woman an instrument to produce abor

conclusion is that there was an average

increase of a 123% per year (of. Stanley K. Henshaw et al,"Abortion Services in the United States, 1987 and 1988," Fam ily Planning Perspectives, 22:3,

May/June 1990, p. 103).

13)Aristotle observed keenly:"Qualis 11) "In all countries, in all epochs, in which monotheism, in its purely religious unusquisque est tails finis videtur ei" or in its more secularized form, was the (Each person sees the end according to accepted creed, the Hippocratic Oath himself) (III Ethicorum, c. 5, no. 17). In was applauded as the embodiment of his immortal Confessions, St. Augustine truth. Not only the Jews and the Chris observes: Truth is loved in such a way, tion."

that whoever loves something that is not tors, men of the Renaissance, scholars the truth, would like that thing to be true" of the enlightenment and scholars of the {Confessions, LX, c. 23, no. 34). The nineteenth century embraced the ideals French author Bourget concludes his of the oath" (Dennis J. Horan and best -known novel saying: "It is neces Thomas J. Balch, "Roe vs. Wade: No sary to live according to what we think, Justification in History, Law or Logic," in otherwise sooner or later we will end up Dennis J. Horan, Edward R. Grant, thinking the way we acted" (Paul Bour Paige C. Cunningham, Abortion and get, Le Demon du Midi [Paris: Plon, Constitution: Reversing Roe vs. Wade 1914], vol.11, p. 375).

14) After enumerating recent docu through the Courts (Washington: Geor getown University Press, 1987), p. 63. ments of the ecclesiastical magisAbortion is prohibited by numerous terium condemning abortion, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the Con codes and declarations. The Interna tional Code of Medical Ethics states: "A gregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, doctor must bear in mind the importance affirmed: "In spite of that position and of preserving human life from the time of of the many pontifical interventions conception" (World Medical Association about some of those problems or about Bulletin. 2:5, January 1959). The Decla their particular aspects, the field is still ration of Geneva affirms: "I will maintain open for a new global analysis at a the utmost respect for human life from doctrinal level that aims at deeper doc the time of conception" {World Medical trinal reasons and denounces the most perverted consequences of the 'death Association Bulletin, 1:22, April 1949).

12) According to data from the pro- mentality'" ("Conference with Leaders tians, but the Arabs, the medieval doc

abortion Alan Guttmacher Institute, from 1973 to 1990,26,214,015 unborn babies

20

of the Roman Curia," 30 Giorni, no. 5,

May 1992, p. 26).

of an Epoch CONSIDERED from a merely mate rial point of view, i.e., the service it renders the body, clothing is but a

covering. At best, one recognizes its function of protecting a basic modesty

arising from the depths of instinct.

But those who know man is more than

mere matter know that clothing is not just a covering. They know that, in accord ance with the natural order, it should ren der service to the soul.

What service? Certain shapes, colors,

qualities of material produce definite im pressions more or less the same for all.

They do so from a propriety that is not

simply conventional, still less imagina tive, but one whose roots are deeply

Customs and CiviCizations Sy Tdnio Correa de OCiveira on the beach and in the countryside of certain nations.

These are men who pride themselves on being in step

with "progress." Their clothes, as we know,invade all spheres of daily life; already they are in popular use in a number of cities, such as Paris.

What mentality does this attire reveal? That which one could perhaps tolerate in a child and nothing more. Whatever the social class, clothes should mir

ror gravity, a sense of responsibility, an elevation of spirit. What opportunity do people dressed this way afford their souls to mirror those values?

"Tell me how you dress, and I will tell you what

you are." This maxim which often may prove errone

ous when applied to the individual is insightfully true for the epochs of history.

Two types of dress: two kinds of mentality, two styles of life. What a difference! And who will dare to say that the change was for the better? â&#x2013;Ą

planted in the essence of reality. They produce impressions and therefore states of spirit, mental attitudes, and, in cer tain cases, all the declivity of a personality. This is one of the foundations of art. Thus, a man may express by means

of attire his moral personality to a certain point. This is eas

ily perceived in feminine apparel, so apt to mirror the men tal make-up of the women who wear it.

More than the mentality of an individual, professional dress expresses the mental pattern proper to a profession. It will be sober as the cassock of a priest, grave as the aca

demic gown of a professor, imposing as the mantle of a king.

In an age concerned with elevating man, with a desire to

evoke dignity, grandeur, and seriousness, clothes common or professional enhance the expression of these values. The dress of all men,from the sovereign to the lowest plebeian, will tend to be noble, dignified, and virile, as one notes in the dress of former times.

Consider the photograph above, of a simple doorman of the Bank of England in traditional attire. One could not ex

press more effectively the modest but authentic responsibil ity and authority of his humble but honest post.

The remaining photos depict our contemporaries as seen

November-December, 1993

/ 21

Prophets, Martyrs,Saints and Heroes

f

I Famil)

"Long Live Christ the King!"

"Long live Christ the King!" Such thanks to his vigorous personality, fer shows no fear, no horror... nothing! His was the cry that opened the gates of vor and intelligence he soon became expression remains unchanged as he one of its inspirers.

Witnesses attest that it was only as he was being removed from his prison

contemplates the stark reality so crudely presented before his eyes. He is

cell that Segura Vilchi was informed of they were executed by the communist his imminent execution. He promptly regime they had fought; a tyrannical responded that his killers would be regime that shut down their churches, sending him to Heaven.

Even the captain and soldiers of the persecuted religion and spread dis grace over Mexico, the great beloved nation of Our Lady of

clers of the time attest that they noticed

Heaven and eternal glory to many

blessed during the Catholic resistance in the Mexico of the 30s.

The Cristero martyrs shouted it as

Guadalupe.

Luis Segura Vilchi also shouted it as he was shot to

death by firing squad, with neither trial nor forewarning.

The accusation against him: Having plotted against the life of the dictator Obregon.

In the photographs, we see the young engineer walking toward his place of execution.

He is as serene as if he were

its next victim, neverthele.ss the chroni no reaction. His self-control is total. It

can only result from an extraordinary grace to face martyrdom and from a special strength of soul. His soul is strong because it prepared it self for this suffering long ago.

Through hard reflection and meditation, it contemplated the worst that could come to pass.

Contemporary man hates to prepare for the worst. He loves to dream of the best, to fanta

size about an idyllic situation for himself where everything

good happens and nothing evil interferes. He does this to

avoid recognizing the impor tance of suffering for his sanc-

walking up the aisle of a

tification. And what is the con

church for Holy Communion.

Such is his serenity that we can times about to receive the God

sequence? When the worst does occur, the person's mo rale collapses. Young Vilchi's did not. He was prepared for the

for whom he is now to die.

cruelest reality, as these photo

easily picture him in former

Impressively pure, mascu line and noble of countenance,

well dressed, and visibly pos

graphs prove. Tlie sanctity of his martyrdom is enhanced by his heroic preparation.

"Gentlemen, I am ready!,"

sessing good breeding, this hero can rightly be considered

said he as he faced his execu

a model Catholic youth; a

tioners and looked heaven

youth that is serious, generous,

ward. Seconds laterâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and

and filled with faith and cour

with what assurance!â&#x20AC;&#x201D;he was

age. How easily he could have entering another Heaven, of used his many qualities in an which ours is but a symbol. egoistic way, building for himself a firing squad became moved on seeing What glory is his as he is carried by comfortable lifestyle with a smooth ca him. Led to the execution site by an the angels to the very throne of God reer! All he had to do was collaborate officer, Vilchi had to walk by the still- for his encounter, his real encounter, with the illegitimate regime or at least warm corpse of Father Pro. In the pic with Christ the King, for whom he not oppose it. But the conscience of this tures Vilchi is looking down to his right. has Just given his earthly life, and devotee of the Holy Church could not There is the body of the famous priest. with Mary, who smiles sweetly upon accept such a thing. Segura Vilchi Yet we do not note even the slightest this heroic son who during his entire joined the Cristero movement, and contraction of Vilchi's features. He life was such a faithful devotee!

November-December, 1993

23

J'oiyotten Ir^uths To Die or to Kill for Christ Is Not

Criminal, but Glorious About the lawfulness of war against the pagans, death, because death inflicted or suffered for Christ's sake Saint Bernard, the Mellifluous Doctor, has these glowing bears no trace of crime and often brings the merit of glory.

In the former case, there is a gain for Christ; in the latter, words:

Christ is gained. Who doubtless both willingly accepts the But in truth the knights of Christ fight the battles of their death of an enemy for punishment and more willingly Lord with all tranquillity of conscience,fearing neither sin offers Himself to the soldier for consolation. The knight of by the death of their enemies nor the danger of their own Christ, I say, kills with tranquil conscience and dies even more tranquilly. In dying he benefits himself, in killing he benefits Christ. For he bears not a sword without cause; he

is the minister of God for the punishment of evil and the exaltation of good. When he kills a malefactor, it is not homicide but, so to say, "malecide"; and he is clearly considered the avenger of Christ in the case of those who do evil, and the defender of Christians. Moreover, when he

himself is killed, it is understood that he has not perished, but that he has arrived in eternal glory. The death, there fore, that he inflicts is a gain for Christ; the death that he

receives is his own gain. The Christian glories in the death of a pagan, because Christ is glorified; in the death of a Christian, the liberality of the king is revealed, because the soldier is taken away to be rewarded. Furthermore, the just

man will rejoice over the one when he has seen the pun ishment. Concerning the other, a man will say: "If indeed there be fruit to the just: there is indeed a God that judgeth them on the earth"(Ps. 57:12). Not that the pagans should be slain if by any other means they can be impeded from

persecuting and oppressing the faithful. But presently it is better that they be killed so that, in this way, the just men do not bend to the iniquity of their hands, for on the contrary, certainly the sinners' rod will be upon the lot of the just.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux preaches the Crusade

De Iciuck' novae niilifiae, in Migne. Palrologia Uitiiui, vol. 182. col. 924.

UmjjExiaH ^aYni[^ and hristmas Eve was a double feast,as it also was

the Empress's birthday. Then, surrounded only by those she loved, the Empress's cold ness and silent restraint would always vanish, her reserve break up, and she would become abso lutely transformed by what touched her sympathies

'm t-?'

and her affections.

There always were two Christmas trees, one on the 23rd of December, which the little Archduchess

Marie Valerie, the last of the Empress's daughters, deco rated with her own hands for a hundred poor children selected from among her especial proteges, and one on the 24th for the imperial family. The great fir trees, glittering

with gold and silver nuts, rosy cheeked apples, and with myriads of little lights to illuminate the thousands of beautiful toys, were indeed things to admire.

phyry hearth a fire of aromatic logs burned,adding its soft glow to the dazzling little flames of the candles on the Christmas tree.

When the court lackeys, in their state liveries, had

opened the doors and drawn back the heavy portieres, the troop of enraptured children thus admitted to delights worthy of Paradise bowed reverently, but without shyness for they knew that they were loved there, and heartily welcome,too â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and then ranged themselves, the boys on the right and the girls on the left. Archduchess Valerie was a picture to see as she advanced towards them, a joyful smile on her young lips, and her small hands filled with beribboned parcels, like some good little fairy about to distribute her lavish gifts. Each child received warm clothes, boots, caps, handkerchiefs, woolen underwear, fur-lined gloves, and toys, to say nothing of"goodies," as "Mutzerl" called bonbons of all kinds. The happy young-

At four o'clock in the afternoon

of the 23rd the poor children's tree was lighted up in the Rittersaal, a splendid gallery-like room, with a lofty, arched ceiling, where stained-

glass windows, Flemish tapestries of untold value, draperies of tawny

I

velvets, and great escutcheons of preciously enamelled metals halfcovered the finely carved and inlaid

wainscoting. Every frame and mir ror, every one of the double row of

grim damascened sets of armor which stand on each side of the long "Saal," was garlanded with mistle toe and holly. Clusters of Christmasroses and banks of snow-drops peeped forth from trailing wreaths of ivy gracefully dispo.sed in every available corner. In the gigantic por

November-December, 1993

25

sters gave expression to their ecstasy by jumps and bounds, and shouts of merry laughter,Just as unrestrained as if they were in their own homes, instead of within the wails of the imperial palace. When the noise had some what subsided, the Archduchess invariably asked as her reward to hear them sing the "Kaiser's Hymn." For a minute all was still then the grand melody would roll out under the high, emblazoned ceilings, the fresh young voices going upward, like the carol of a hundred larks, intoxicated by the mere joy of living. When these glad tones had once more dropped into silence, the doors at the lower end of the Rittersaal were thrown open, revealing a large hall where a substantial feast had been prepared.

Oh! how all those youthful eyes would widen with surprise at the sight of the long tables loaded with huge sides ofcold roast beef, haunches of venison, great plump,

Empress :Wms

Elizabeth of Austria

StQnu Cftrea ic Ofitadn

9\(p5iCity anddlna[oÂŁous 9{pBUity Sin(UoÂŁous 7raditwnaC'ERtes

TraditionaCEfites

, ialStiUlctatiMtifttusXIl iSoM

JtaotaJarioTMiMj

IBL-

The Paternal Notion of Social Superiority The Christian glory of the traditional elites lies in serving not only the Church but also the common good. Pagan aristocracy boasted exclusively of its illustrious lineage. Christian nobility adds to this title another still higher: the exercise of a paternal mission vis-a-vis the other cla.sses.

The name "Roman Patriciate" awakens In

our mind even greater thoughts and visions of history. If the term patrician in pagan Rome, patricius, signified the fact of having ancestors and of belonging not to stock of common rank but to a privileged and dominant class, in a Christian light it takes on a more luminous aspect and deeper resonance in that it associ

ates the idea of social superiority with that

26

illustrious paternity. It is a patriciate of Christian Rome, which had its highest and most ancient splendors not in blood but in the honor of

protecting Rome and the Church: patricius Romanorum, a title carried over from the time of

the Exarchs of Ravenna to Charlemagne and Henry III. Through the centuries, successive Popes also had armed defenders of the Church, drawn from the families of the Roman

Patriciate; and Lepanto marked and eternal

ized a great name in the annals of history.^ This body of concepts certainly conveys an impression of the paternality permeating the relations between the highest and lowest classes.

Two objections against such an impression readily arise in "modern" minds. First, someone can always

TRAnmoN,Family and Property

tmffled turkeys, and enormous piles of daintily cut sand wiches. Wonderful cakes studded with candied fruit,

showers of bonbons in capacious silver shells, pyramids of grapes, and peaches, pears, oranges, and pineapples, completed this gargantuesque tout ensemble,above which floated the delicate aromas of tea, coffee, bouillon, and chocolate.

Later on, when the overjoyed children had been dis missed,their little stomachs well filled and their tiny hands

burdened with presents, Valerie was entrusted with an other duty,equally delightful to her.The Mayor of Vienna, when Christmas was spent in the Austrian metropolis

ily dinner, after which the second Christmas tree was to be lighted, a touching little ceremony always took place in the Empress's private salon. There, her children and the Emperor, with a very transparent but none the le.ss extreme assumption of secrecy, laid out a multitude of birthday souvenirs amid a mass of flowering plants. Then all the candelabra were lighted, and Elizabeth was solemnly led in by Valerie to receive the congratulations and embraces ofthose she loved best on earth.The smiles upon her sweet face, and the suspicion of a tear in her glorious eyes, were the best thanks that she could ever have offered, for they brought to their very highest point both the radiance of her beauty and the charm of her personality.

instead of at Godollo, as often was the case, was sum

moned to the Hofburg, and received at her hands a small

portfolio containing the Christmas offering ofthe imperial couple to the city hospitals, ten thousand florins, and an order for hot-house fruit, cigars, illustrated papers, and magazines, as well as quantities of flowers.

Christmas was one of the occasions selected by the Empress to instill in her children's hearts the continual thought ofother people's comfort and pleasure, which was one of her own most striking characteristics.

The Martyrdom ofan Empress, New York and London: Harper &

On the 24th of December,immediately before the fam

be counted on to affirm that frequent oppressive acts committed in the past by the nobility or the analogous elites invalidate this whole doctrine. Others hold that

any affirmation of superiority eliminates Christian

gentleness, sweetness, and amenity from social rela tionships. They argue that superiority normally

Brothers Publishers, 1902.

Typical examples ofthis aristocratic gentleness are found in many noble families who know how to be extraordinarily kind toward their subordinates with out consenting in any way that their natural supe riority be denied or abased.

In truly Christian families, do we not see

arouses feelings of humiliation, sadness, and sorrow

perhaps the greatest of patricians being careful

in those over whom it is exercised, and that to arouse

and solicitous to maintain toward their domes

such feelings in one's neighbor is opposed to evan gelical sweetness.

Pius Xn implicitly answers these objections when he affirms:

If this paternal conception of social supe riority has sometimes, in the clash of human passions, driven souls to deviations in the relations between persons of higher rank and those of humbler station, it is no surprise to the history of fallen humanity. Such devia tions in no way serve to diminish or obscure the fundamental truth that, for the Christian,

tics and all those around them a comportment which, while surely in keeping with their rank, is always free of haughtiness and expressive of kindness and courtesy in words and actions that demonstrate the nobility of hearts that see these men as brothers and Christians and

united to them in Christ by the bonds of charity, of that charity which, even in their ancestral palaces, between the great and humble, al ways comforts,sustains, gladdens,and sweet ens life.ÂŽ

(From Chapter V,pp. 55-57)

social inequalities merge in the great human family; that therefore relations between un equal classes and ranks have to remain

passage to Marcantonio Colonna, the Younger, Duke of Paliano

Notes:

1) RPN 1942, pp. 346-347. The Pope refers at the end of this

regulated by a fair and righteous justice and

(1535-1584). Saint Pius V entrusted hini with the command of

at the same time be informed by mutual re

twelve pontifical ships that pardcipated in the battle. He fought with

spect and affection, which, while not abolish ing the disparities, should diminish the dis tance and temper the contrasts between

such heroism and ability that he was received triumphantly in Rome.

them.^

November-December, 1993

2)Ibid., pp. 347-348. By "fallen humanity," the Pontiff alludes

to mankind's decadence due to Original Sin. 3)ibid., p. 348.

27

Here is a story such as I was .told one evening on the t banks of the river Cousnon. It hap pened in that part of the French countryside of Fougres which from 1793 to 1800 was the scene

Christmas

and where the memories of the

alive, for in France, the French Revolution is referred to by this

and winding paths leading away from the road.

Saves a Chouan by 0. Lenotre

of the Chouan's greatest glories, time of"The Great Terror" remain

explored clearings along the route

The Chouans were peasants who remained loyal to the King and fought against the

After passing Tondrais and crossing the Nanson Creek, the "Blues" entered a forest to avoid

the homes along the way. When they reached the crossroads of Servilliers, the sergeant ordered a

French Revolution.

dark name.

One winter night, in the year of 1795, a detachment of revolutionary Republican soldiers tramped along the edge of the forest of Fougres, taking a shortcut on the route be tween Mortain and Avranches. The air was mild but brisk;

it was one of the longest nights of the year. Here and there, snow drifts filled hollow furrows, forming squares of light in the darkness.

halt; the men,exhausted, stacked up their guns and threw down their packs. Firewood was collected and a fire lit; the peasant was tied to a tree.

The peasant, a Chouan, watched his guard with lively, quick eyes. He did not tremble or utter a word but his fea tures became contracted in anguish. He knew that death was close. His emotion did not escape his guard, a feeble

young man, vicious and fond of mocking his victims, an at titude common among the people from the outskirts of

^amiCy Series On they trekked, little chains hanging from their two cornered hats. They wore blue uniforms criss-crossed by wide belts, heavy cartridge pouches hanging over their backs, and large, striped, red thick-clothed trousers tucked into their leggings. The air seemed heavy, as they trudged along, bored and tired, their backs bent under the weight of their packs and the heavy flintlock rifles slung over their shoulders.

They were taking with them a prisoner, a peasant who had fired at them in the dusk from behind a shrub. The bul

let had pierced the hat of the ser geant and struck a pipe being smoked by one of the soldiers. He had being immediately pursued, seized and disarmed, and now the "Blues"(as the revolutionaries were

called) were taking him to their bri gade encamped in Fougres.

The peasant wore a goat skin coat, open at the che.st to reveal his small Briton jacket and a waistcoat studded with big buttons. He wore

wooden clogs, and a coarse, felt, wide-brimmed hat streaming with ribbons covered his flowing hair.

His wrists were bound by ropes se

curely held by two .soldiers, and he followed them with a .severe counte

nance showing neither suffering nor pain. His small, clear eyes secretly

2H

Paris. While tying the rope securely, he sneered at the pris oner:

"Do not be afraid, my child; it is not to happen yet; you still have six hours to liveâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;time to win the last lottery, if you had the ticket. Come on! Stand up straight!"

"Tie him well, Pierrot. We must not allow this man to

leave us without our little ceremony," Jeered another.

"Calm yourself. Sergeant Torquatus," answered Pierrot.

"We will deliver him to the General unharmed.""You

know, dog," he continued, addressing himself anew to the prisoner, who had ceased to show fear, "you should have no illu sions. You should not expect to be shortened as the former aristocrats.

The Republic is not rich and we are lacking guillotines, but yoifll have your bill paid in good lead bullets; six to the head, six to the

body. Now, my dear man, medi tate on that pastime until morn ing!"

Having said this, Pierrot joined his comrades around the fire, and proceeded to eat a piece of bread

from his bag.

The war had been waging in the

French region of Britanny for three horrible years, with the revo lutionary troops fighting the peas ant troops. This furious fight with

Tradition, Family and Property

r WM

the "invisible" peasants enemy had turned into a hateful hunt, as that of wild beasts. There was nothing left on both sides reminiscent of the frequent generosity common be fore the war among soldiers; neither was there left any compassion for the prisoners, nor pity for the defeated. A captured prisoner was a dead manâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;both the "Blues" as well as the Chouans had so many to avenge!

Moreover, men had seemingly lost all human feeling in this dreadful epoch. The habit of killing, the uncertainty of the next day, the upheaval of customs, the violent split of social structures had made of these men real beasts, coura

now become enraged."Oh! You villainous Chouan!" he

cried, shaking his fist at the prisoner,"If I could only kill all of the one hundred thousand of your kind at once!"

The peasant remained calm and silent under this assault of hate. He seemed to be listening for something which the jeers and laughter of the soldiers prevented him from hear ing. Suddenly, he bowed his head and appeared to recol lect himself. In the tranquil air of the night, from the depth of the forests the breeze of the woods brought to them the tolling of a far-off bell, clear, distinct, and sweetly rhyth mic. Closely after, a second bell, graver than the first be

geous or untrustworthy, lions or tigers, having no other

gan to toll from another distance, then, a third bell joined

mission than that to kill and to live.

"Hey! Young man, this one is for you!" He slipped it into the barrel of his gun and then filled it with scraps of paper.

The rest of the soldiers burst out laughing, enjoying the

the other two, tolling softly, tenuous and plaintive.

The "Blues" stirred, surprised.

"What is that? Why are the bells ringing? A signal, per haps...? Ah! The scoundrels!... That is the warning bell!"

They began to talk simultaneously, some rushing for their carbines. The peasant lifted up his head, and gazing at them calmly through his clear eyes, explained,"It is

added torment of the unfortunate lad.

Christmas."

Pierrot finished his piece of bread and began to clean his carbine. He picked a bullet from his pouch and holding it delicately between his fingers, yelled to the peasant,

"I have another one for you to digest!" yelled one.

"This will make a dozen buttonholes in your skin," mocked another.

"Not to mention the coup de grace which I shall deliver through both your ears!" added the sergeant, who had by

November-December, 1993

"It's what?"

"Christmas... the bells are ringing for midnight mass."

The soldiers grumbled, and returned to their seats by the fire. A silence fell over them. Christmas... midnight mass... these almost forgotten words amazed them. They

29

:A, name!" mocked Pierrot with a laugh.

resuscitated vague memories of happy hours, of tenderness, and of peace.

They hung their heads and listened to the tolling of the bells, those bells which spoke to them a forgotten lan

This time, the other "Blues" did not

laugh with him, n

ItH! I .\K

"Silence!" demanded the sergeant.

"One has the name he chooses.

guage.

Branche d'or is a war name, not his

Sergeant Torquatus replaced his pipe, crossed his arms, and closed his eyes with the air of a dilettante who en joys a good symphony. Then, as if

real one. I... I have taken the name of

Torquatus!"

The distant bells continued to ring.

Little by little the sergeant's voice grew softer as if he were afraid to

ashamed of this weakness, he turned to

wards the prisoner and asked in milder tones,"Are you from the country?"

"I am from Cogles, not far off."

"So, there are stall priests in your home town?"

"The 'Blues' are not everywhere," the Chouan replied.

"They did not cross the river Cousnon, and on the other side, one is free. Listen!... This is the small bell, the one from the castle of Monsieur du Bois-Guy. And down

there,... it is the bell from Montours... if the wind blew this way, one could hear the ringing of the la Rusande, which is the big bell from Landan."

"Well, well, no one is asking you that much informa tion," interrupted Torquatus, a little uneasy over the si lence of his men.

At this moment, from every point of the horizon, there arose from the night, the chimes of the remote villages. It was a sweet melody, tuneful and harmonious, crescendo and growing softer with the changing speed of the wind, turning and turning it about. The soldiers listened with lowered foreheads. They thought about those things which had been ignored for years. They pictured their own townchurches, the candles glittering, the nativity scenes made of large mossy rocks, where red and blue votive candles burned through the night. Their memories stirred, and they seemed to hear again the merry songs of Christmas,... those songs which so many generations had sung, those in nocent and venerable ditties as old as France, ditties which

spoke of shepherds and bag-pipes, of stars and little chil dren who speak about harmony, pardon and hope. These fond reveries softened those ferocious soldiers. Just as a

single glass of wine inebriates a man who has fasted long, they felt their hearts melt by the kind warmth of these sweet thoughts... ones they had ceased to think about.

Torquatus was shaking his head as a man meditating on something.

"What is your name?" he suddenly asked the Chouan.

"Branche d'or"(Gold

en Branch), the prisoner responded.

"Ooo-la-la! What a

30

break the charm that this far-off music

held over sleeping nature.

"Do you have a wife?" he asked.

Branche d'or tightened his lips, and wrinkled his brow over lowered eyes. He shook his head in assent.

"And what about your mother?" asked Pierrot, "is she

still alive, your mother?"

The Chouan did not respond.

"Do you have any children?" asked a third.

A groan rose from the prisoner's chest. In the flickering light of fire, they saw tears rolling down his cheeks. The soldiers looked at him, uneasy and ashamed.

"May I untie him for a moment?" requested Pierrot, vis ibly moved by emotion.

Torquatus approved with a gesture. When untied, the Chouan sat at the foot of the tree, and hid his head in his hands.

"Man...!" observed the sergeant, "they will have an ugly Christmas up there,... your wife and children. If they knew â&#x20AC;&#x201D; O misfortune! What a dirty rag this war is! You see, my boys," he continued, addressing his men,"every one at this time was merry and happy. Christmas was the great joy and merriment. Today..."

Looking into the dying fire he added dreamily, "I too, have a wife and children in Lorraine. It's the country of the Christmas trees. One cuts an evergreen from the forest, decorates it with candles and toys... O! How they laughed, those dear little ones! How they clapped their hands with joy! ...They must be unhappy now."

"In our homeland," said another, drawn in by the warmth and sharing of Christmas memories,"at the Church, we built a big cradle for the Infant Jesus, and all

night long, we gave goodies and silver coins to the little boys and girls."

"In the North, where I come

Treasures of the Church

from," related a third, "that fellow,

St. Nicholas, passed by the streets wearing a large beard and a long

When holy water is blessed, the priest reads several prayers, which include an exorcism of the salt and the water. An exorcism is the banishing of evil spirits. The Fathers of the Church teach us that when Satan caused the fall of our first parents

overcoat covered with flour to imi tate snow. He knocked on the doors

calling out,"Are the children in bed? O! What fear that gave us.

And how happy we were."

he also obtained an influence over inanimate

All of them gave way to their memories. The long-forgotten im pressions of their childhood passed

things intended for the use of man; and therefore, when any material object is to be devoted to the

service of God, the Church often prescribes for it a form of exorcism, to free it from the power of

over their stone hearts as a kind dew

the Evil One.

drop over a dry herb. Now all were silent. Some hung their heads low,

allowing their spirits to drift back into that peaceful and sweet past.

Others gazed at the peasant with pity. Suddenly, when the bells, which had stopped ringing, resumed that distant tolling, a sort of anguish spread over the small troupe. The sergeant stood up and began to pace back and forth feverishly, grum bling to himself and staring at his men as if consulting them. Then, ap proaching Branche d'or, he tapped

The prayers used in this ceremony are very beautiful, and express well the reasons for the use of holy water. Those said over the salt invoke the

power of "the living God,the true God,the holy God," that whosoever uses it may have health of soul and body; that the devil may depart from any place in which it

is sprinkled; that whoever is touched by it shall be sanctified, and freed from all uncleanness and all attacks of the powers of darkness.

The prayers said over the water are addressed to the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, that through the power of the Blessed Trinity the spirits of evil may be utterly

expelled from this world and lose all influence over mankind.Then God is besought

The Powers of Holy Water

him on the shoulder and said,"Go." The Chouan lifted his head and

stared at him without understanding.

"Go!... run... you are free."

"Run off," yelled the "Blues,"

"take off as the sergeant orders you to!"

Branche d'or stood up, amazed,

to bless the water,that it may be effective in driving out devils and in curing diseases; that wherever it is sprinkled there may be freedom from pestilence and from the snares of Satan.

Then the priest puts the salt into the water in the form of a threefold cross, saying: "May this mingling of salt and water, be made in the name of the Father and of the

Son and of the Holy Ghost"â&#x20AC;&#x201D;after which another prayer is recited, in which God

not quite believing them. He stared

is asked to sanctify this salt and water, that wherever it shall be sprinkled all evil

at each soldier in turn, and when un

spirits shall be driven away and the Holy Spirit shall be present.

derstanding of what was passing

Holy Water should be used frequently. It is a constant reminder of Baptism and its devout use blots out Venial Sin. There is an indulgence of one hundred days every time it is taken. This indulgence was renewed by Pius IX in 1876,and in order to gain it there are three requirements: The sign of the cross must be made with the holy water, the person must have contrition for his sins, and he must say the words: "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost."

Stand at the door of any church and watch the people who enter. Do many of them gain the indulgence? They dip their fingers into the water, make a mysterious

dawned on him, he gave a shout of joy and dashed into the forest.

Moments later, the detachment si

lently resumed their march. As they turned into the trees, they heard

groans behind them. Torquatus turned and saw Pierrot choking with emotions sobbing his heart out, thinking, surely, of the olden-day Christmas with the wooden shoes

stuffed with toys, and of his old mother, who without a doubt, at this

same moment, prayed to the Child

Jesus to preserve her little boy.

"Family Series" is a contribution of Tradition, Family and Property magazine to your family.

motion in the air, and pass along. There is no recollection, no audible words, no

recognizable sign of the cross, merely an action performed through habit and in a very slovenly manner. None of the above requirements are fulfilled. Bear in mind

that while the use of holy water in any way may be beneficial, to gain the indulgence it is necessary to make the sign of the cross, to say the usual words, and to have in our hearts a spirit of true contrition.

The Externals ofthe Catholic Church. New York: Sullivan, 1918. and A Catholic Dictionary, New York; The Macmillan Co., 1956.

31

Cloth-dressed statues, starlit heavens,flowing waters..

The TFP Headquarters'

Nativity Scene

32

Tradition, Family and Property

i

M

I

I

fam

Tradition, "

A

^ Family nnJ Property

hristian Duty of r-revolutionary

T

Tradition,

family and

9{pSi[ity JUmUogous Trtu&tionid'EUtes intlitJittxutionsafViusXIl

Frtnch TFr Honanthi

Uawfcf JUsri* MamtOt

Silitm l&imaatij<gMmtxkanScâ&#x201A;¬iaS}6tWy

Tradition Family and Property magazine, wishes to all of its readers a blessed Christmas and

a New Year full of hope in the prophetic words of Our Lady of Fatima

"In the end My Immaculate Heart will triumph."