Catholic Problems in Western CanadaDaly, George Thomas
Religion
Catholic Problems in Western Canada
Daly, George Thomas
Catholic Church -- Canada
The nation's business is our business. The true love of country
demands from Catholics at this critical stage of our history to throw
all their energies into the various social activities. Society
throughout the world is shaken in its very foundations. This universal
unrest in the political, social and economic spheres is a decided mark
of the birth-throes of a new social order. Therefore, we will conclude
with Cardinal Gibbons; "The Church cannot remain an isolated factor in
the nation. The Catholic Church possesses spiritual and moral
resources which are at the command of the nation in every crisis."
The reform or remodelling of the social fabric, if it is to be
effective and abiding, must ultimately rest on the definite and
unchanging principles of morality. These principles constitute the
moral law, as physical principles are the basis of the physical law.
Ernest Fayle, in a very instructive article on "Reconstruction," in the
October number of the "_London Quarterly Review_," makes a statement
very pertinent to this matter; "The economic, political and social
factors in human life are so inextricably entangled that if we accept
quality of life and not mere power or wealth as the touchstone of
national success we dare not, even in the consideration of economic or
political questions, lose sight of the moral issues."
The Catholic Church has always been the teacher and guardian of that
natural moral law which stands as the foundation and buttress of the
social edifice. Her plans of Reconstruction rest on the eternal
principles of equity which God has engraved on the human conscience and
which the teachings of Christ have sanctioned and perfected. In the
light of Catholic doctrine moral laws are definite and unchanging, for
they are the deliberate expression of the necessary and fundamental
relations upon which rests human nature. They are the living, free
expression of man's place in creation. The most elaborate schemes and
powerful organizations are soulless without these basic principles of
morality and have but an ephemeral existence.
Is it not, therefore, a great act of patriotism to try to throw into
the scales of the nation's destinies the mighty weight of
indestructible and tried principles? A growing respect is to be found
for the soundness, the wisdom and the justice of Catholic social
principles, even in circles where our beliefs have not yet found
acceptance. True statesmen have always recognized the influence of the
Catholic Church's doctrine in social matters, although they may not
believe in the truth of her teachings. They always looked upon her
principles of social life as the ballast that steadies the ship on
heaving seas. To make the Church a spiritual ally, to recognize her
moral power and her far-reaching influence has always been considered
good diplomacy and clear-sighted statesmanship.
_Catholic's Patriotism in Public Life_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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