bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Aquinas Society of London
Authors: O'Sullivan Richard
Published: July 2007

The Aquinas Society of London came into existence naturally and, so to say, insensiblement among a little group of students who had been attending the pioneer lectures on the Summa Theologica that were given some twenty years ago by Father Vincent McNabb, O.P., at St. Peter’s Hut, Westminster, under the auspices of the University Extension Board.

Soon after the last war Father Vincent had conceived the idea of making the doctrine of Aquinas available to ordinary lay men and women. It was an immense and individual act of charity on the part of a poor friar who endeavoured in this way to share his intellectual riches and the special inheritance of his Order with lay folk for whom no other means of Catholic intellectual formation existed at the time. The success of these lectures on the Summa led in a short while to an expansion of the work, and in a few years three series of lectures on Theology and Ethics, and the History of Medieval Philosophy and a series on the Scriptures were being given by the Dominican Fathers at St. Peter’s Hut. Among the students who attended these courses of lectures were some who were destined in the course of years to occupy office and authority in the State. Who shall tell the full story of the influence these courses had on the lives of individuals and on the public life of the community?
A Polish Diocese
Authors: Radonski Karol
Published: July 2007

There are 21 of them in the territory of the Republic of Poland, 21 of Latin rite besides three of Greek and one of Armenian rite. The diocese of Wloclawek, of which I have been the Ordinary since 1929, does not differ much, in pastoral affairs, from its neighbouring dioceses of Eastern and Central Poland. Hence a brief survey of its history and of its state on the eve of the war,'will give quite a good picture of the whole Polish Church.

The capital of the diocese, Wloclawek, called in the Latin documents of the Middle Ages ‘Vladislavia,’ is situated on the left bank of the Vistula, at the place where the river has run a third of its way from Warsaw to the sea. At first the religious centre of this district (fertile Cuiavia) was Kruszwica, to-day a small town on the edge of lake Goplo. There Bishop Lucidus, native of Italy, developed his apostolic activity in the last decades of the tenth century, soon after the Poles had become Christian. He and his 13 successors—called by the Polish annalist, Jan Dlugosz, ‘bishops of Kruszwica’—were most probably missionary bishops, without a strictly specified territory. It was only in the thirteenth century that Michael Godziemba (1222-52), the first bishop of Polish extraction, left Kruszwica for the banks of the Vistula and founded (c. 1230) the See of Wloclaw, as Wloclawek was then called. The foundation's of the original Cathedral, which like all the castles in Poland at that time, was built of wood, can be still seen in the basement of a house on the bank of the river.
Parents' Associations in England
Authors: Woollen C. J.
Published: July 2007

Strictly, there is no such body as the Catholic Parents’ Association. The various parochial units may be linked with a central council, and, as in some dioceses, with a diocesan council, but in general each local association is self-contained, and has its parochial or district denomination. There is divergence in constitution and even in title, and that absolute uniformity is undesirable is evidenced by the declaration of the Bishops of England and Wales on 24th August last that ‘The Hierarchy have given full approval to the formation of Parochial and Diocesan Associations of Catholic Parents under the direction of the Bishops of the various dioceses. But they do not approve the formation of the National Federation of Catholic Parents’ Associations, nor of its appeal for funds.’

The Constitution approved for one English Archdiocese details the purpose of the Association thus:

(a) To learn and teach the duties and rights of parents.

(b) To promote and safeguard Catholic educational interests and the care of Catholic youth.

(c) To encourage representation of Catholic parents on public educational bodies.

(d) To encourage the practice of family prayers in every Catholic household of the parish.

This is a fourfold aim whose effectiveness will be in the efficient carrying out of the primary provision. The average Catholic, even if he or she has remembered the catechism teaching of younger days, is not so deeply versed in Catholic doctrine as to have clear notions on parental duties and rights in education. How many Catholics could answer correctly three elementary questions on them? The fact of State education, moreover, has familiarised nearly everybody with an almost Communistic conception of the State as the universal parent. It is the old story of an antiCatholic idea fraudulently winning assent as a principle through popular acceptance.
Catholic Action in Apostolic Days
Authors: McNabb Vincent
Published: July 2007

We have set down these extracts in the time-order in which they were written and not in the time-order of the recorded facts. Thus St. Luke's record comes last. Yet it narrates facts earlier than those recorded in the three earlier Epistles of St. Paul.

The principle here involved is of fundamental importance in deciding the value of facts omitted by an earlier writer but recorded by a later.

The first extract is from the first letter St. Paul wrote to the much-tried converts in Corinth. This unique letter—almost the most characteristic of his letters—remains the bridge between the Epistle to the Galatians in all later epistles. When we reflect that it gives St. Peter a place of primacy four times, that it has the very form of consecrating the Blessed Sacrament, and that it discusses almost in philosophical terms the doctrine of bodily resurrection—we may wonder why St. Paul sends the salutation of a man Aquila and (presumably) his wife Priscilla.
Europe's Future
Authors: Polimeni E.
Published: July 2007

Shortly before the fall of France, there appeared in La Vie Intellectuelle a striking article by a French historian, G. de Reynold. The writer was then living in the centre of Europe and was thus very favourably placed to study current events. Many of his reflections are as relevant to-day as they were in 1940, and might prove of interest to a larger public. It is with this object in view that I would like to refer to them here.

De Reynold begins his article by putting forward the opinion that Europe, geographically speaking, can scarcely be considered a continent; her space is too restricted, her peoples too mixed and individual to produce a homogeneous civilisation. She is more in the nature of an Asiatic peninsula. Had it not been for Christianity she would by this time have been absorbed by Asia; yet we find her still the ombril of the world, fitted by Providence for a high and unique destiny. With Europe’s natural order and arrangement— easy access to the sea and splendid internal lines of communication— it is only when Christianity weakens within her borders that a general disintegration occurs—and M. de Reynold is of opinion that should there ever be total apostasy it would be a sure presage of death, a death heralded by a long agony. The weakening in Christian beliefs has always been the forerunner of some Asiatic assault, or at any rate of the imminent danger of such a thrust. This danger is enhanced by the fact that the Asiatic conception of Empire, ever since the days of Diocletian, has exercised a distorting and sinister influence on the European conception of the Imperium Romanum. Asia is a continent of ‘worlds,’ its pattern is the Empire, whereas Europe is composed of nations and its pattern is the ‘kingdom.’
The Youth Movement
Authors: Dempster F. V.
Published: July 2007

The youth movement has received an enthusiastic reception from the Press and little adverse criticism has been made. There is, however, much criticism that does not come into print and it is the purpose of this article to examine objections to the movement and to suggest remedies where criticism is well founded.

The prevailing attitude of the objectors is suspicion derived from the national abhorrence of uniform and regimentation together with the example of dictator states and the débacle of British Fascism. But on the whole fears are aroused, not by what the movement is, but by what it may become ; to some the exploitation of youth for political ends is a potential danger that may well develop with the extension of central control. This danger is a real one and is bound up with the question of vested interest within the movement itself.

At the moment the activities of youth clubs are somewhat decentralised and organisers are given a free hand. This is good; initiative and individuality can play their part by modifying activities in accordance with the needs of the neighbourhood. Should the hand of bureaucracy fasten down on the movement, control may deprive it of its freedom and elasticity and result in its becoming a soulless and regimented function of the State.
Responsibility Again (II)
Authors: Kelly Bernard
Published: July 2007

Translated into the terms of concrete human life and work, man’s answerableness in the divine image means free obedience to normative law. Such is the character of human obedience and the proximate definition of man's responsibility. All four of its terms are equally essential. Thus an unfree obedience, whether of ignorance or of force, is to that extent irresponsible, and a freedom which is not essentially qualified as obedience altogether lacks the condition of responsibility, for it is answerable to nothing. Again, an obedience, however free, which has nothing to do with law lacks an essential mark of human responsibility, namely order in and towards the common good. And although we may obey other laws, the character of the law that binds us precisely as responsible beings is to be normative. For a norm is the truth of things understood as a nature to be served and thus binds our will not arbitrarily but through our understanding.

We should recall, as Eric Gill was wont to recall ad nauseam, that man’s nature is twofold, bodily and spiritual (‘spirit and matter, both real and both good’) : that human life is the unity of these two elements which are resolved only by death and by false philosophy. But our death looks forward to the resurrection of our bodies. Thus our dependance upon the divine Image is also twofold. It shares the dependance of all created things upon their Exemplar as bodily creatures share it, being fashioned in a determinate scope of growth, of development and decay; and it obeys the laws of heaven as the grass of the field obeys them. But our dependance is also spiritual, of knowledge and of love.
Religion Without Christ
Authors: Turner Luke
Published: July 2007

The period during which the scientific attitude of mind was linked with materialism is past : in every field of study, physics, botany, astronomy, psychology, the foremost experts have reached the conclusion that the neat mechanism of a previous generation is no longer tenable. It takes time, of course, for these conclusions to become known; but the result is that the scientific mind no longer finds religion intolerable. On the contrary, religion is seen as a necessity : as something which is demanded by the very limitations of science itself. This has, of course, been the consistent assertion of the Christian Church ; but it would certainly be wrong to suppose that the change of attitude in an important part of the scientific world means that there is any kind of movement back to traditional religious beliefs. There is, indeed, a movement towards religion; but traditional Christianity is distinguished from other religions by all that is meant by the word ‘supernatural’ and ‘revealed’; and neither of these two words commends itself, it would seem, to the scientist. What actually seems to be taking place is an attempt to get behind religious formulations to something upon which those formulations depend : no need is felt for creeds and dogmas; religion is something individual, an attitude of mind, a response of the personality.
The Church and the Welfare of Nations
Authors: Momme Nissen Benedikt
Published: July 2007

By their own unaided efforts neither individuals nor nations can attain the last end ot man on this earth—union with God. Now the duty of governments is twofold : to make every provision that their subjects may lead good and virtuous lives, and to prepare them for their eternal destiny. Hence it is one of their chief tasks to see that religion should hold its rightful place in national life. The task directly committed by God to the rulers of nations is to provide for the physical and temporal welfare of the citizens; to promote their spiritual and eternal welfare is the indirect task of governments, in so far as they are bound to assist the Church in carrying out her work in the Mate. The Church comes to terms with every form of government or political institution, provided that ‘the rights of God and of conscience are safeguarded ‘(Pius XI). It is the mission of the Church of God to teach the nations the principles of religious and moral life, to inculcate and to ensure them. For this is the field entrusted to her for cultivation by Christ, the absolute ruler in the kingdom of truth and love. Nothing contributes so effectively to the welfare of nations as loyal co-operation between ecclesiastical and civil authorities, whose distinctive spheres of action, with due regard to the special circumstances prevailing in each country, have been made to harmonies. In this the Church has to accomplish a task as responsible as it is exalted.

The Faith transcends all differences in national character. In ancient times the nations fashioned their religions according to their own lights; by human means they established national religions, which often enough lead to self-worship. Their cult sprang from their own narrow conceptions, and was not inspired by God.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
Authors: Brandreth Henry R. T.
Published: July 2007

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity should be regarded as complementary, and certainly not as opposed, to the Church Unity Octave. The Octave has among Anglicans come to be associated, whether rightly or wrongly, with the holding of certain doctrinal positions and therefore many who desire unity, and devoutly pray for it, have felt bound to hold aloof from the prayer thus organised. One might regret their decision, but mere regret would be no remedy for the situation and a remedy was necessary if the prayer was indeed to become universal. It was also desirable that from a movement which was purely eirenic in intention, all possible points of controversy should be removed.

A remedy was fortunately at hand. The work of the Abbé Paul Couturier of Lyons was already well-known in this country and the Abbé himself had paid visits here in 1937 and 1938. Père Couturier was the driving power of the ‘Semaine de l'Universelle Prière des Chrétiens pour’ l’Unité chrétienne ‘ wherein the movement of prayer for unity was released from any controversial doctrinal requirement and centred wholly in the prayer for unity of our Lord. He had appealed, with extraordinary success, to Christians of all denominations to join in this prayer and all found themselves able to do so without controversy or violation of conscience. The basis of this prayer, and its expression, is best stated in the Abbé’s own words:

‘When and how will unity be brought about? What are the obstacles to be overcome? This is Thy business, my faith can only bid me pray with Thee, in Thee, that Thy unity may be accomplished, that unity which Thou hast never ceased to desire, which Thou pursuest, and art preparing, which Thou wouldest long since have realised, if all men with me had been as a crystal between that part of creation which wishes to rise to Thee through the Christian and that part of Thee which wishes to descend to the world by the same agency of the Christian.
Dr. Jalland's Bok on the Papacy
Authors: Dvornik F.
Published: July 2007

As stated in the Preface, the present work comprises within the compass of eight lectures the Bampton Lectures for 1941, a survey of the relation of the Papacy and the Christian ‘Church, paying particular attention to their character within the first six centuries. The spirit in which it is written is accurately set forth by the author when he writes : ‘It may be that by a fuller recognition of its (the papacy’s) status in the history of our Faith there will grow a more generous acknowledgement of its appropriate place in the glorious reunited Christendom of the future.’ It is the eirenic spirit of theology, which in historical matters means a benevolent neutrality.

And we do need books of this kind. In the Catholic Church, most of our ecclesiastical history has been dealt with as a department of Apologetics and few are the Catholic historians detached enough to allow for the human element in the communion of saints. It seems so difficult for one who loves the Church as a son to reveal her past as a historian; or for one who reverenced her as divine to analyse such of her actions as are obviously human. Outsiders, of course, labour under the same difficulty the other way about and often fail to see the divine wood for the human trees. In medio Hat virtus.

Anglican historians of the Roman Catholic Church are fewer even than their Catholic opposite numbers, but few as they are, they substantially assist us in the arduous task of stating facts without bias either for or against the Church, of showing the possibility of criticising with love and reverence, of discerning the divine without overlooking the human.
The Place of Science in Modern Culture
Authors: Caldin E. F.
Published: July 2007

Natural science is concerned with understanding the working of material nature. The subject of this paper is the positive contribution which natural science, given its true place among the other activities of man, might make to the world. At the outset, it is essential to distinguish between science and the applications of science. When a certain knowledge of nature has been won, it is often possible to apply it to the control and manipulation of nature—to devise new techniques for handling matter. Modern industry is becoming more and more dominated by technology based in this way on applied science. The emphasis on the use of science in modern life is such that most of those who write on the ‘place of science in society’ are thinking primarily of the place of technics in society, and treat science only in relation to technics. But the question of the place of technics in society raises problems wholly different from that of the place of science in society, and a lack of clear distinctions here can lead to a wholly false conceptions of the functions of science. That technics (which presupposes science) will be of major importance to this nation, it is impossible to deny; that science has significance only as a basis for material prosperity is not, however, a legitimate conclusion. Science is concerned with understanding nature, not with manipulating it for economic purposes. The great human problems centreing round the rapid growth of industrial technology must here be left aside, as being only indirectly, connected with the functions of science in modern culture.
A Catholic People's College
Authors: Trevett Reginald F.
Published: July 2007

During the summer of 1944 a ‘Catholic People’s Week’ was advertised to be held during August at Walsingham. The Government ban on certain coastal areas forced the organisers to cancel their arrangements. As considerable interest in the project was aroused it will not be out of place to explain here the ultimate aims the organisers had in mind and the plans they have made for future action.

Educational reform is much to the fore at the moment. But the schemes to be put into operation are mainly concerned with the education of children. Many thinkers are convinced there is an equally if not more urgent need to provide for the education of adults. The acknowledged leader in this field is Sir Richard Livingstone, whose The Future in Education states unanswerably the case for adult education.

The human mind and will, the human senses and emotions, are never at rest. They are always open to the million influences of experience. Whether we realise, it or not, our own individual minds and wills are constantly fed and attracted by the realities of our daily round. Education should fit us to dominate these influences, to reject the unsound and absorb the wholesome. It should give us a high standard of discernment and firmness of character. Were we to drift and allow mind and will to submit passively to the flux of modern life with its press, radio, cinemas and factories, we should hardly succeed in retaining anything worthy of the name of personal autonomy. We do react, but do we react according to truth? Are our choices arbitrary, instinctive, thoughtless?
The Unity of the Spiritual Life
Authors: Graef H.C.
Published: July 2007

“Perfection is one … All men are obliged to tend to perfection, to the one and the same kind of Christian perfection, but each one according to his vocation, state in life, grace of God, personal fervour”. The unity in diversity of the spiritual life could not be stated more forcefully than in this quotation from the new book by the American scholar Pascal P. Parente Divine grace, the foundation and sap of the spiritual life, is one—but men are different, and as grace does not destroy, but perfects, nature, its workings will differ according to the different individuals on which it acts. Yet, the Divine Author of nature and grace never works haphazardly. His creation is ruled by Law, a law which has nothing to do with the modern passion for planning, coercion, and equality, but which is an organic order, in which each being is governed according to its nature. Therefore the spiritual life is governed by its own laws. These are, however, more difficult to discover, especially as they, also, have their exceptions, which are always more striking than the normal developments. The subject becomes even more complicated if we consider that, in the spiritual life, the normal term of development, viz., heroic sanctity, is so comparatively rare that it appears almost abnormal. Yet our Lord Himself has made perfection the aim to which all ought to tend: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Heavenly Father is perfect!” From this tremendous command—and it is a command, addressed to all, not a counsel, envisaging only the few—there is no escape.
The Dominican Sisters of the Eucharist
Authors: Pond K. E.
Published: July 2007

From its very beginning the Dominican Order has always manifested its vitality by giving effect to new ways of spiritual and apostolic life. It was not by the well-trodden path of enclosure, stability and retirement from the world that St. Dominic chose to lead his friars. His experience with the Albigensians had shown him that to meet the needs of the time other means must be found. Those means he had the vision and the courage to adopt. What struck his contemporaries about St. Thomas seems to have been his novelty, an imputation of which he might well be proud for it was his courage in bringing forth old truths in a new form that gave to the Church his synthesis of Aristotelianism and Platonism. It is not surprising, then, to learn that in the 20th century, as in the 13th, the Order of Preachers finds new ways, especially suited to the conditions of the time, of fulfilling its vocation of contemplata, aliis tradere.
An Island Tertiary
Authors: Evans Illtud
Published: July 2007

The Dominican dedication to Truth is capable of infinite expression : most obviously in the First Order with its work of preaching, but no less certainly in the contemplation of the enclosed nuns of the Second Order and in the innumerable activities of the Third Order, both regular and secular. At every level the central inspiration is the same, that passionate love of St. Dominic’s for the salvation of souls which led Pope Honorius III, in approving the Order, to prophesy that its members would be Púgiles fidei et vera mundi lumina.
An Outcast for Christ
Authors: Vann Gerald
Published: July 2007

Elegi abiecta esse in domo domini mei—I have chosen to be an outcast in the house of my Lord.

Dear Sister, the ceremonies of your profession are themselves so lovely a sermon that you can have no need of further words. Yet it is a joy to speak a little of your joy, and in particular to think over with you the particularly lovely antiphon which you are soon to sing: I have chosen to be an outcast in the house oh my Lord.

I have chosen. Our Lord once said to his disciples: You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. And yet God in his mercy when he calls us to his service, gives us the power to give him back his gift. Your vocation is his choosing of you; yet it is also your choice of him; an act of your own will. And that is why we are told that a religious profession is something that wipes wholly away whatever there was of darkness, of sin, in the past; it is a complete renewal of heart and soul, a complete cleansing—why? Because it is a complete act of love. But to have that effect it must be a perfect act. It is not enough to say I have chosen to be in the house of my Lord. You have to say, as you do say, I have chosen to be an outcast. Abiecta: it means thrown aside, poor, unnoticed, forlorn.
God is our Mother
Authors: S.M.A.
Published: July 2007

“As verily as God is our Bather, so verily God is our Mother; and that shewed he in all, and especially in the sweet words where he said: I it am”. (Mother Julian, Revelations of Divine Love, c.59).

St. Thomas states (1,47,1; 111,23, 2 ad 3) that the things which are in time are meant to be but manifestations of those which are from eternity; i.e. of God himself, of the eternal self- subsistent life of the Blessed Trinity, the nature ofwhich was revealed to Moses when the Lord spoke to him out of the burning bush: “I AM WHO AM . . . Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: HE WHO IS hath sent me to you” (Exodus, 3, 14). The Fulness of Being, the Plentitude of Life—such is God’s own description of himself; and when S. John, who had learnt the secrets of the divine life as he lay on the bosom of the Incarnate Word, declared that ‘God is Love’, he was only expressing the same truth from a different point of view. For love is only the ‘affluence’, the diffusion, the self-donation of being. So that Being at its source must also be love at its source (cf. Maritain, Introduction to Metaphysics, 4, 7-8).
St. Gertrude, The Mystic of the Sacred Heart
Authors: Graff H.C.
Published: July 2007

Modern devotion to the Sacred Heart is closely associated with the name of St. Margaret Mary and popular practices such as the Nine Fridays and the Holy Hour, and its beginnings are not so well known. Yet it originated not at Paray-le-Monial but in the centres of medieval contemplative life, especially in the Benedictine, Cistercian and Carthusian monasteries. St. Gertrude, the famous mystic of Helfta, is perhaps its most striking representative.

Little is known of her outward life, which is not surprising, for she entered her convent at the age of five, never to leave it. She was long regarded as its abbess, and most pictures still represent her assuch. But, according to modern scholars, this view was based on an erroneous identification of her with her namesake, Gertrude of Hackeborn, who governed the monastery during the Saint’s lifetime. It is even doubtful whether she was a Cistercian or a Benedictine. The main source of our knowledge of her are her Revelations, written in Latin, which, after her death, remained hidden for a long time. One manuscript, however, seems to have been in the possession of Master Eckhart, and the Dominicans were the first to defend her doctrine, and translated her works in 1505. Their devotion was shared by the Carthusians, especially by Justus Lanspergius, who, attracted by her cult of the Sacred Heart, became one of her most ardent disciples.

Of the five books of her Legatus Divinae Pietatis, to give it its Latin title, only the second is written by herself, the remaining four are compiled from her notes by one of her nuns.
A Parallel Between Newman and Thomism
Authors: Davis H. Francis
Published: July 2007

Though some writers have tried to prove that Newman was at heart a scholastic, perhaps even a Thomist, the tendency of Newman critics at one time was to go to the opposite extreme and put him forward as the founder of a new philosophy which might even supplant the traditional philosophy of the Church. This idea was behind some of the attempts of Modernists to put Newman forward as the prophet of modern Christian thought and apologetics. Neither of these contentions is justified. Newman was not a Thomist. He had on his shelves the Summa Contra Gentiles, but it is doubtful whether he studied St. Thomas, except in the quotations of modern scholastic writers. When he did read the scholastics, his mind was already formed, and Newman was not the man to take up a fundamentally new position in late life. But it was even more true that Newman was not a propounder of a philosophical system in opposition to any other philosophy, either ancient or modern. Though one does find a certain amount of even deep metaphysical thought, particularly in some of his many unpublished opuscula, yet metaphysics was at no time Newman’s principal interest. In his early days, he does from time to time hint at a sympathy with idealistic metaphysics. But he never commits himself to a single definite statement in its favour, still less an argument. He admits in a very early work a sympathy for the platonism of the Alexandrian Fathers; but he makes it quite clear that it is the Alexandrian Fathers which interest him much more than their platonism.
A Royal Vagabond
Authors: Frances Mary
Published: July 2007

In the royal palace within the Tower of London, Queen Philippa of Hainault, the wife of King Edward III, gave birth to a daughter in March, 1342, and called her Blanche. But soon joy was turned to sorrow, for within the month the baby died, and was buried with pomp in Westminster Abbey, where her effigy in alabaster lies near that of her brother Prince William of Windsor in St. Edmund’s Chapel.

The following year the queen was consoled by the birth of another girl-child and the expenses of “Queen Philippa’s uprising at the Tower’’ are mentioned on 26th April, 1343 (Issue Roll 17 Edward III). This daughter was also named Blanche, in memory of the little one she had lost. Now the only other mention to be found of this “Lady Blanche” is in the Wardrobe account of 19th. Edward III at the date November 13th, 1345; after that she disappears from English history and appears in the history of the Dominican Order under the name of Blessed Euphemia of England.

How much of her story is historical fact and how much is legend it would be difficult to say. We give the account as it has come down to us.

“The living mirror of virtue, grace and beauty,” so her biographer tells us, “the Princess was early enamoured of heavenly things.” She sought advice on prayer and the spiritual life from “certain religious at the court of her father.”

At this time her father’s confessor was Fr. John Woodrowe, O.P., who was engaged during these years with the preparations for the inundation of Dartford Priory, the charter for which had been signed by King Edward in the year 1346.
A Touchstone for Democracy
Authors: Jebb R. D.
Published: July 2007

The term ‘democracy’ as used to-day requires a definition. Originally it was applied to a form of government controlled by the people’s voice in a popular Assembly; but with the growth of States and the impossibility of direct expression of the popular will it came to mean representative government; that is to say, government by a parliament consisting of representatives nominally chosen by the people. But for the same reason that ordinary citizens of a modern State were unable to intervene in the processes of legislation and the actions of the executive, it was found to be impossible (or at all events inadvisable) for them to select the men who were to represent them. This was done by the Party caucuses, and all that was left to the citizen was permission to vote for one or other of the caucus nominees. During the last decade or so the term has been so loosely used that its positive content is almost nil, and its main characteristic has come to be a purely negative abhorrence of traditionalism and of certain forms of authoritarian government (though by no means all) confused under the general term ‘Fascist.’ To make confusion worse confounded a social connotation of the adjective ‘democratic ‘has persisted through all these changes. Because in the democracies of the original City States free men were politically equal, the word ‘democratic ‘is now used as a synonym for ‘egalitarian’ in a social as well as a political sense, and this extension of meaning is further extended to cover societies in which there is no true egalitarian spirit, but only an aversion to certain kinds of privilege.
Responsibility Again III
Authors: Kelly Bernard
Published: July 2007

Responsibility implies in the responsible person a nature to be served : our own human nature and that of our fellow men in all its kinship with other creatures and all its dependence on God. The service of nature in this sense involves service in and with our bodies : and it involves the service of bodily nature in others—not only in other persons but in all the bodily creation. For bodily nature, although indeed it is fashioned in accordance with the divine intellect, is answerable to God in man and not elsewhere. And this service of bodily nature is not any kind of task imposed from without, but is implied in the norm of our humanity and thus in the law of our understanding of ourselves and of the world we live in.

Thus the norm of our bodily life implies no bondage to material nature although it implies service in and of the body. Such service is responsible precisely to the extent that it is in obedience to our understanding, free to the extent the understanding we obey is our own. A distinction is noted here between the precise bearing of freedom and of responsibility, although in the integrity of human nature they inseparably imply each other.

‘Outside’ the integrity of human nature is the domain of sin, considered—precisely from the point of view we have adopted—as contra naturam. Thus, in the shattered and scattered consciousness which belongs to sin, freedom—obedience to the law of our own understanding so far as it is ours—may be held as a political or quasi-ethical ideal, even though the understanding be false and its law, absolutely speaking, no law.
The Living Word
Authors: Meath Gerard
Published: July 2007

During the last thirty years the exploitation of language by the linotype, radio and cinema has made words cheap, obscured their meaning and dulled our perceptions. Our idea of goodness is likely to be haunted by a phantasm of Guiness, and if it becomes coterminous with Guiness it becomes false. Our understanding of the difference between glamour and beauty is likely to be hazy, not only because of film stars, for Blackpool and the Scottish Highlands are both described as glamorous. We live in a world where sound in general and words in particular are scattered about with insensate prodigality and disregard for the consequences, and we cannot fail to become in some degree insensitive to the meaning and value of words.

Words were created to be the means of conveying thought. How often do they convey thought and how often only ‘sound and fury signifying nothing.’ The popularity of a slogan lies more in its sound than in its meaning; you can always lead the crowd by an attractive noise, and if you are unscrupulous by an evil meaning noise. While it is possible for a slogan to enshrine a gem of wisdom it is also possible for a slogan to be gibberish. When the press makes its appeal through such noise all stimulus of thought is killed, the channels of intellect are silted up with a deposit of jargon and cliches and we lose the power to distinguish between sound and significance. So our thoughts become muddled and consequently false.
The Cultural Responsibility of Christians
Authors: Chifflot D.
Published: July 2007

We must begin by recognising this fact: the Church is not concerned about culture. The Church can only be defined by her fidelity to a mission—that which was given by her founder. And this mission is not a command to be cultured, it is to save. “How is a man the better for it, if he gains the whole world at the cost of losing his own soul?” As for that “soul”, we must lose it if we would gain it. All the riches of the world, the triumphs of the flesh as well as the triumphs of the spirit, count for nothing in the kingdom of God, which is for the poor. We should be more than happy to sell everything in order to gain that single pearl. Go, teach, baptise. Not “baptise” Plato or Aristotle, literature or art, the community or the human personality, but baptise (without inverted commas) all mankind. It is not a matter of “assuming values”: it is rather the salvation of our brethren.

“So it was, brethren, that when I came to you and preached Christ’s message to you, I did so without any high pretensions to eloquence, or to philosophy. I had no thought of bringing you any other knowledge than that of Jesus Christ, and of him as crucified”. (I Cor. 3. i-v).
The Film as Propaganda
Authors: Lindsay T. F.
Published: July 2007

There could hardly be a more controversial topic than that upon which I have so rashly consented to embark in this article. The him is an artistic medium, and the discussion of art raises problems upon which all men, creators, critics and public, hold strong and conflicting views. Propaganda, too, is an inflammable subject. Not all those who are officially concerned in it would agree upon the ethics—or even upon the definition—of their calling. It is proper to state at the outset that the following reflections are wholly my own, and in no way represent any views that may be held, officially or otherwise, by my colleagues at the British Council.

Indeed, the British Council, whose immediate purpose is defined by a Royal Charter as being “the promotion of a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language abroad”, tends to avoid the use of the word “propaganda”—and that for the very practical reason that the term is now used in an almost wholly discreditable sense. To-day, the bemused or cynical citizen of a crazy world recognizes propaganda only in one sense; the deliberate propagation of falsehood for political ends. “That,” he says, as he turns his news-sheet over or his wireless off, “is just propaganda”. And he means, quite simply: “Someone is lying, and they hope to take me in. “ We must recognize, at the outset of our enquiry, that “propaganda” raises the issue of truth, and that “the film as propaganda” will involve us in a conception of the film as a truth-telling medium, or the reverse.
Almsgiving
Authors: de Vitoria Francisco
Published: July 2007

[Vitoria’s commentary on the Summa includes an elaborate discussion of the duty of almsgiving (on II-II, 32, 5). It is in many ways of great interest, but is too long and sometimes too intricate to encourage detailed translation here. I give in brief paraphrase the main steps of the reasoning, neglect some bypaths of argument, and translate in full one particularly vigorous passage. Actual quotations are given in inverted commas. I have thought it best throughout to render extrema nécessitas by ‘desperate need’. The term is technical, and is used of a state where without immediate help the sufferer is likely to die; gravis necessitas (‘serious need’) is something short of this, and may cover cases which common parlance would call ‘extreme’ *]

§1. St. Thomas maintains these four positions, (a) Some almsgiving is of precept, (b) Almsgiving from one’s superfluity is sometimes of precept, (c) In desperate need, almsgiving is of precept. (d) In other cases, almsgiving is of counsel.

§2. Further points are much disputed. In particular there are two questions, (a) In a case of desperate need, is a man bound to give from what is necessary for his status? For instance, his status requires him to ride. If the poor are starving and he can relieve them only by selling his horses, is he bound to do so and go about on foot? (b) If a man has superfluity (i.e., more than he needs for livelihood and status), is he bound to give alms from this, not in desperate need only (on which there is no dispute) but in serious need also?
Alice Revisits Wonderland
Authors: Hawkins D. J. B.
Published: July 2007

Alice had often wished to see Wonderland and Looking-Glass Country again, but she had never had the opportunity of doing so. In fact she had no idea how she could set about it. “And, in that case,” she told herself, for she was fond of giving herself good advice, “you ought to give up thinking of it, since it is no use wishing to do something if you do not know how to do it.” In spite of this, however, the wish remained.

Then, one day, when she was going down to the tube railway, the usual gale of wind met her as she turned the corner. She did not think anything of it at first, as she had experienced it before, but it gradually became more and more violent. She could not struggle against it any longer and felt herself being blown backwards faster and faster, until she was blown right through the wall.
Dominican Contemplatives
Authors: S.M.A.
Published: July 2007

The perfection of the Christian life consists essentially in Charity; principally in the love of God, secondarily in the love of our neighbour. (Sum: Theol: II-II, 184, 3). The source and exemplar of all Charity is the Uncreated Love which is the very life of the Blessed Trinity, while its plenitude is possessed by the Soul of Christ, of Whose fulness we have all received. Each Religious Order strives in its measure to reproduce some aspect of this “Charity of Christ which surpasseth all knowledge” (Eph. 3, 19), the contemplative life pertaining directly and immediately to the love of God, while the active life is more immediately concerned with the love of our neighbour. (II-II, 182, 2). Yet St Dominic, by founding an Order whose purpose was contemplation ordained to the Apostolate—contemplan, et contemplata aliis tradere, has perhaps come as near as is humanly possible to combining the two lives and the double aspect of Charity, in a single vocation. St Catherine, herself an outstanding example of the realisation of the Dominican ideal, had this brought home to her, when in a vision she saw St Dominic emanating from the heart of the Eternal Father, and resembling even in features the Word Who proceeded from his mouth. The Eternal Father explained to her: “My only Begotten Son devoted all his life to the salvation of souls . . . Dominic, my adopted son . . . taking on himself the office of the Word, directed all his efforts to the salvation of souls . . . That was the chief object that led him to plant and to train his Order. Therefore I tell you that in all his acts he may be compared to my Begotten Son.”
The Nationalisation of the Banks
Authors: Jansen G.
Published: July 2007

It is still too early to give a complete analysis of the Government’s policy as regards the nationalisation of the banks. Sir Hugh Dalton’s statements were too vague for that, he gave us to understand that all his plans were still in the experimental stage.

Nevertheless, from statements made by different Labour leaders, especially from those of Mr. Bevin, as Minister of Labour of the former Government, we can get quite a clear picture of the philosophy behind their policy, and of this philosophy I shall give a short outline and criticism.

The Labour party is convinced—and rightly so—that our reconstruction problems of today are not so much production as financial problems, that though we may have as many plans for industrial expansion as we like, while this expansion has to be financed according to the old system, in which the power to create and destroy money is left to the banks, our plans will turn out failures.

They fear especially the consequences of deflation. Deflation, the deliberate creation of a shortage of money, causes of necessity a sudden drop of prices, so that producers are forced either to sell below cost price, to destroy their products to keep up their price, or to cease producing at all.
Post War‐Jewry
Authors: Day A. F.
Published: July 2007

One thing is certain: the total population of the Jewish people has been considerably reduced. For the last twenty years it has been customary to reckon this roughly at sixteen millions, now the two or three millions ruthlessly and wantonly done to death by demoniacs, will have to be subtracted. This ghastly process cannot be regarded as a winnowing; as the avowed intention has not been to eliminate undesirable elements, but to exterminate all who could, in the widest stretch of the term, be designated Jews. Non licet esse vos has been the guiding principle. The arch-fiends who adopted this worse than barbaric policy have not been able to carry out their fell design to the full; but their failure is not due to any lack of malice: they have made a desperate attempt and seem to have been backed by diabolic assistance. The account of a Rabbi-survivor—one of a tiny remnant—rescued from the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp, published in The Times, of June 21st, 1945, is a lurid, but exact summary, of the nightmare horrors perpetrated there until the Nazis were forced to relinquish their grip on Bavaria. In this Ghetto, as he styles it—compared with which the worst mediaeval ghetto was an earthly paradise—it was normal that there should be at least a hundred burials, or burnings, a day, most of these the result of what was morally murder. During his three years as an inmate of this inferno, ‘ he estimates that fifty-five thousand perished. Such a violation of the primary instincts of human decency has already suffered a nemesis which, though severe, is mild compared with the crimes that provoked it. But the mills of God have only commenced their work of retribution.
American Religious Survey
Authors: Orchard W.
Published: July 2007

Dr. Sperry points out, we are each inclined to lift our eyebrows at the other’s problems and close our eyes to our own. The two great denominational differences between the States and Britain are that they now have no established Churches, while their Catholic numbers are about ten times ours. Twenty-three millions makes the Catholic Church in America now the largest of all the religious bodies: though that is surpassed by the twenty-five millions the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ can muster. Catholic growth is largely due to the influx of immigrants from European Catholic countries, and their greater birth rate, but also to the considerable number of converts. What has probably contributed to this growth is the fact that there has been little real persecution on either side; Church and State are separated, and so here is a free field and no favour, in which conditions the Catholic Church is not only winning easily, but it likely soon to dominate the situation. At this Americans are getting afraid, and Dean Sperry, while refusing to give way to any of the lower prejudices, does confess that he appreciates the fears others feel. It is feared that Catholicism, if and when it wins, will want Church and State to be united, and will no longer prove tolerant; though he gratefully admits that the first State to make religious toleration part of its constitution was Maryland, a Catholic foundation. He would obviously see with regret the disappearance of the strong individualist element in religion which Protestantism has fostered, and America, in particular, has emphasised as part of its independent and democratic spirit. He suspects that Catholicism is tempted to favour Totalitarianism. If the Dean fails a little, for all his determination to understand, where Catholicism is concerned, it remains to be wondered if any Catholic could have written such a sympathetic, friendly and understanding book.