The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-05-09

consequently of it's effectiveness as
guardian of moral order and tradi-
ton. In past ages the Catholic Church
and the temporal power, intimately al
lied, supported each other. Now their
divorce is complete; the Church has
most suffered from the divorce; pub
lie life has been entirely secularized;
and further aside, and a man may,
without scandal, live completely out.
side it's influence. This disorganiza-
ton Of belief is accompanied by a
growing disorganization of conduct,
the germ of most serious difficulties
for the civil power itself.
In France the Catholic religion had
rendered the service of continually
proclaiming and recalling the exist
ence of a moral law. Now many
minds, poisoned by rationalism, deny
the very principle of all obligation
whatsoever, whether towards their
neighbor, towards society, Dr. towards
their native land. They are impatient
of all authority, of all hierarchy, of
all discipline. A reign of universal
egoism is in preparation. Another
dark portent is the lowering of the
birth-rate, the population being al
most stationary, while in many parts
the deaths exceed the births.
There is no surer sign of decadence
in a nation, and such a nation is with
out defence against the pacific inva-
sions of foreign peoples, and it has
been shown that pacific ~invasions,
more surely than warlike, destroy the
souls of races and civilization (G. LIE
Bon, Lois Psychologiques). AS France
is now, suffering, so did Imperial
Rome begin to suffer and finally to
decline. Economic measures to arrest
the decline in the birth-rate will have
no real effect; only a moral change,
that is, a change based upon religion,
car effect any radical improvement
which will be permanent.
Again, political and social ~disorgani-
cation akin to anarchy is growing
apace. Political life is profoundly dis
ordered, and the industrial and COM
mercial classes are up in arms against
the v~acillating policy of a government
which is out for all the personal adj
vantages there may be in sight. Syndi-
calism has temporarily ousted Social
ism which, at any rate, had the merit
of having a somewhat hard discipline,
while it's present substitute (Syndical-
ism) cries out for immediate material
results-more wages, less work. The
day is not far distant when the popu-
lace, as in old Rome, may come to the
government clamoring aloud for
bread and circuses' (panem ct cir
~censes), as is the way with all de-
generate races, and then another reign
of C~aesarism will not be long delayed.
In England, again, religion has no
longer the same power. The increase
of wealth, the widely-diffused habit of
foreign travel, the presence in the
country of large bodies of foreigners,
especially wealthy Germans and Amer
leans, further the movement in the
same direction. The old Puritanism
has almost disappeared from the up
per ranks of society, and is retro
gressive in all social classes. Note
the frequency of scandalous divorce
cases, with avidity read by thousands
Of readers, the diffusion of s%candalous
novels, the inobservance of the Sab
bath now ~desecrated by the most pro-
fame distractions. The observer is
justified in the question; has the re.
gime Of greater freedom which Eng
land has adopted, been a source of
strength or a cause of weakness to
her?
The answer is hardly doubtful. The
Englishman is no longer the self-con-
fident being he once was; nor, logic
ally, is he so confident in the history
of England. The fear of decadence
has entered his soul; it pursues him
and e~nervates him-the earliest sign
of waning vigor. Then, az in France,
there is a more conclusive sign-be-
tween 1878 and 1910, the birth-rate
has fallen from $3.50 per thousand to
24.80. It's moral and material strength
is, indeed, visib1y impaired.
A~A0AOSOuO AO4uQ1 No A15AI NO dp-
piled to other European nations, in
Guiding his own, for in certain parts
of Belgium the birth-rate is lower still
than the average of France. In Ger
man towns, too, this sinister phenom-
enon is making it's appearance, &C
companied by a general slackening of
morality. 1t may seen absurd, says
Gerard, to moot the question CT deca-
dence in connection with Germany, a
nation in the full expansion Of its
force. But we must remember that
the evolution of civilization has be-
come astoundingly rapid.
Observing in a nation certain of the
disorganizing ferments which are now
weakening France, who shall affirm
that in fifty years their ravages will
not have become equally great else.
where? France, then, is not alone in
suffering from the growing disorgani.
cation of belief and conduct; nor will
she long possess the unenviable mon
opoly of political and social disorgani
zation.