Evening star., 1946-02-21
pes Address Warning Cardinals Of Modern Imperialism

stands firm. To her is applicable
even in our days the word Of the
Lord: Even If the earth be melted
with all that dwell therein; / shall
establish the pillars thereof" /"
Psalms 74:D.
Two Pillars Of Society.
On such base especially rest the
two main pillars, the fabric of hui
man society as conceived and willed
by God; the family and the states
Resting on such foundation they
can fulfill securely and perfectly
their respective roles: the family as
the source and school of life, the
state as guardian of the law, which
like society in general itself, has its
proximate origin and its end in the
complete man, in the human person,
the image of God.
The Apostle calls the faithful by
two magnificent names:
Fellow citizens with saints" and
the domestic Of God" (Eph. 2,
19. Do we not see that, of these
epithets, the first refers to the life
OF the state, and the second to that
OF the family? And is it not DOS
sible to find here an allusion to the
manner in which the church helps
to establish the foundation of So
ciety in its inner structure, in the
family and the state? Have this
concept and this manner of acting
lost today their validity? The two
master columns of society, as they
lost their center of gravity, have
alas, also been torn from their base
And what Is the result, except that
the family has seen the decline of
its vital and educative power. and
the state, on its side, is on the point
OF abdicating its mission of defender
OF the law to transform itself into
that leviathan of the Old Testament
which dominates everything be-
cause 1t wants to draw almost every
thing to itself?
| Certainly today, in the inextric-
able confusion in which the world
is tossing. the state finds itself COM
PEELED to take over an immense
weight Of duties and Offices; but does
not this abnormal state of affairs
threaten gravely to compromise its
essential force and the efficiency OF
its authority?
The Arduous Mission of the Church
Now what is the consequence OF
all this for the church? She must
today, as never before, live her mis-
sion; she must reject more emphat-
ically than ever that false and mar
row concept of her spirituality and
her interior life which would confine
her, blind and mute, in the retire
ment of the sanctuary.
/ The church cannot cut herself
oil, inert in the privacy of her
churches, and thus desert her Di-
vinely providential mission of form
ing the complete man, and thereby
collaborating without rest in the
construction Of the solid foundations
Of society. This mission Is for her
essential. Considered from this
angle, the church may be called the
assembly of those who, under the
supernatural influence of grace, in
the perfection OF their personal
dignity as sons of God and in the
harmonious development of all hu.
man inclinations and energies. huilo
the powerful structure of human
intercourse.
! Under this aspect, venerable
brethren, the faithful and more
precisely the laity. are in the front
line of the church's life: for them
the church is the vital principle
of human society. Accordingly they
especially they-must have an
ever-clearer sense not only of be-
longing to the church, but Of being
! lCna Y,HYn, nann l-iI