The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1921-01-22
SIGNS or DECADENcE.

One need not be endowed with
prophetic powers to note certain
.omin0us signs of decadence in our
national life. To deny them is
futile, since they are visible and
evident to any man who pauses to
think. The lives of nations re-
semble, on a broader scale, the
lives Of individuals. The same
symptoms point to identical causes
and effects in both cases.
The history of the great nations
of antiquity forms parallel to the
development of our own country.
Rome, Greece and Babylon had a
similar spectacular rise to emf
nence, power and unsurpassed
prosperity: each Of these nations
owed its eventual downfall to yir-
tually the same causes.
The ancients possessed not the
sterling code of Christian moral
ity; but they were imbued, in their
early life, with the deep principles
of the natural law. just SO long
as they remained faithful to those
natural dictates did they progress
to the heights of national great
ness: just so soon as they cast
aside all moral restraint did they
start the downward plunge that
ended in moral bankruptcy,
despair and death. Today Baby
Ion is a memory, Greece a depend
emit unit, while Rome exists only
in the rejuvcnated life of her
Christian heritage: the empire as
such is gone forever.
Examining the causes of this
transformation, one finds that the
moral law became relaxed, and
with this lowering of personal and
national standards, clean living,
high thinking and upright acting
soon became dimmed and quickly
passed away into the oblivion of
things long forgotten and ignored.
The basic ideal of the family
seems to have been the first bull
wark to be assailed and to fall be-
fore the latter-day attacks of
pampered luxury. The natural
law ordained the unity and integ-
rity Of the family: RIGHTEOUSNESS
entered in, and conjugal love de-
generated into promiscuous and
unbridled animal passion. St.
jerome states that in his day,
when the decline had become ire
trievable, a certain titled woman
numbered the years of her mar
riage by the number Of her, hus-
bands: and she had had twenty
two of these. She was but a
sample of the general degradation.
At a similar period of decay in the
other nations mentioned sensuality
had fallen SO low that modern
historical works blush to speak of
| it: one finds the details only in the
larger and unexpurgated editions
of ancient history.
With the weakening of the fam
lily ties, immodesty. became the
order of the time; hrazen audacity
in. public and in private swept
aside the last vestige Of personal
purity and reverence so character
istic Of the brave days Of Old
The general disregard of these
natural commandments led to- a
lack of respect for law itself; dis
order, violence, graft, peculation,
dishonesty Of every phase seeped
into the foundations Of national
life, until the whole fabric shud-
dered, crumpled and fell with a
crash that has been heard down to
1.-THE present day.
Now, our present-day customs
in many ways recall to the think
| ing man the decline of those great
nations Of antiquity. We see
about us a disintegration of fam
lily life, as evidenced in the hor-
rible prevalence Of divorce with
its consequent ruination of imma-
ture children. Outside Of the
|Catholic Church the marriage
bond is but a society tie that binds
ever so lightly and that may be
Esevered practically at will a con.
EDITION Of things Of which thou.
sands avail themselves annually
The former ostracism visited upon
1.-THE divorced person is now turned
Into a certain admiration for the
supposed courage to s1live one's
Town life as one sees fit
/ The Catholic Church with severe
penalties imposes upon her chill
Idren the law of modesty; outside
/ the Church, with a few exceptions
L Al q 4 - - L u 1. /.