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Today’s post is an excerpt from:
Removing the Blindfold
by Dr. John Rao, Professor of History at St. John’s University in New York, New York
INTRODUCTION
Judgment without Evidence
This is a book born of frustration; a frustration brought on by years of
exposure to the works of most American writers dealing with the question
of Catholic opposition to modern civilization. The articles, essays
and volumes which such authors have produced—promising to treat
this question fully and arousing my hopes accordingly—have seemed
to me ultimately to lead to nothing but dead ends and disappointment.
Whatever their initial goal may have been, their arguments have generally
misinterpreted both the nature of the Catholic critique as well as
the entire problem of modernity. In doing so, they have demonstrated
the power of the spirit of the times, the Zeitgeist, over many of even the
finest minds and best intentions.
Any American whose knowledge of the struggle between the Church
and the world in the modern era has been shaped by the typical texts
available to him in English must be led to two conclusions.
The first and most fundamental of these conclusions is that everyone
agrees that it is undoubtedly the modern spirit that is on the right
track in any contest with the Church. How could a person be expected
to think otherwise? Most Americans take the truths of modernity for
granted as the first principles. And even if some writers do go beyond
deploring what they might call the aberrations of the modern world,
and actually come to believe that they themselves espouse an anti-modernist
position, they almost invariably do so by emphasizing what is
merely a variation on the modern theme—a variation perfectly familiar
to the reader from his everyday environment. How often, to take but a
single example, one sees certain supposedly anti-revolutionary conservatives
strike at the disease of modernity in the name of an obsession
with individual freedom that is itself a manifestation of the presence of
the same non-traditional virus.
Secondly, anyone nourished by the available English sources (with
the very notable exception of the works of Michael Davies and Chris-
topher Ferrara) must also conclude that Catholic positions in the contest
with the modern world are either ludicrous or pointless. How, generally
speaking, could any other opinion be formed? After all, those
people who militantly accept modernity as dogma nevertheless insist
that they are operating from purely rational foundations. They cannot
allow what they consider to be irrational Catholic criticisms of enlightened
modernity to be presented as something worthy of the respect of
sensible people. Instead, they dismiss them automatically, as one would
exile fruits from a meat market, or shut his ears to the ramblings of the
insane. At best, they may triumphantly inform their readers that even
if such absurd objections to modernity once abounded in Catholic circles,
they have been banished since the Second Vatican Council and
no longer torture otherwise intelligent Christian minds. Meanwhile,
some conservatives who wish to be friendly to the Church in her commitment
to tradition offer “Catholic” solutions to present-day dilemmas
that correspond to their own unconscious modernism, harmonize
nicely with what is merely another strain of the spirit of the times, and
can be called Christian only with the greatest of reservations. Hence,
authors “friendly” to Catholicism who have nothing distinctly Catholic
to say influence readers who see that there is nothing specifically
Catholic to learn—which is what American society has taught them to
suspect all along anyway.
This book, then, hopes to contribute to bridging the gap between
what an American may think he knows about serious Catholic criticisms
of modern conceptions of human life, political order, and social
problems, and what he actually does know—which is generally very
faulty indeed. It is intended to help raise the consciousness of Americans
above their own Zeitgeist; to aid them to understand that the truly
sophisticated Catholic critique of modernity has never been revealed
to them; to the fact that that critique has been smothered beneath a
smug and even totally thoughtless disdain.
The task of providing a comprehensive English-language introduction
to this profound Catholic analysis of the problems of modern civilization
is, to a large degree, the task of describing Catholic counterrevolutionary
thought. This is because the French Revolution and opposition
to it have been and still continue to be the crucial historical symbols
of the battle of the modern world with the Church; the struggle of the
new order of the ages to “liberate” itself from the “oppression” of the
traditional and Catholic past of Europe.
This book seeks to demonstrate that much substantive Catholic counterrevolutionary
thought is not at all “what a vain people thinks.” It will
point out the abyss that separates such thinking from mere conservatism.
It will underline the way in which the doctrines of the Incarnation
and the Mystical Body of Christ lie at the foundation of the most
developed Catholic counterrevolutionary thinking, precisely because
those doctrines contain sublime teachings on the interaction of nature
and the supernatural as well as on the harmony of the individual and
society that are essential to the well-being of mankind. Perhaps most
importantly, it will discuss the profound Catholic counterrevolutionary
conviction that modernity, the Revolution, and the civilization built
upon it are involved in a great delusion, one that psychologically, sociologically,
as well as intellectually blinds people even to recognition of
obvious truths. This is not merely because they are objectively wrong
and not simply because they render inevitable the enslavement of man
and the decay of society under the guise of protecting human dignity
and assuring social perfection. It is also due to the fact that their manner
of penetrating and dominating the spirit of our world causes a veil to
descend before our eyes, blinding us to the possibility that their beneficence
should in any way be investigated and put to the test.
Serious Catholic counterrevolutionary thought is so broad in its scope
that the effort of opening it up to a readership almost totally unaware of
its existence is daunting. I have chosen to place this task within reasonable
bounds by concentrating on an Italian journal, La Civiltà Cattolica
(Catholic Civilization), which was published twice a month in Rome
from 1850 onwards. A study of the writings of La Civiltà Cattolica offers
the student an opportunity of examining both the theories motivating
the leaders of the Catholic counterrevolutionary camp and the way in
which these theories were applied to unfolding events.
La Civiltà Cattolica is immensely valuable because of its systematic
presentation of important themes. Nevertheless, it is essential to point
out in an introductory work of this type that the Roman periodical did
not act in a vacuum. It was especially influenced by events in France
and, in particular, by a French journal, L’Univers. L’Univers is generally
studied only with reference to its seemingly exaggerated, uncritical
support for Ultramontanism and attack on Gallicanism, which are
not central concerns of this book. Its editors, however, discussed a vast
range of other topics. Many times their arguments were contentious and
flawed, but they were also capable of great insight in ways that made
them highly useful allies of the Civiltà. Hence, the ideas and actions of
the Parisian Univers will serve as a complement to this book’s primarily
Roman focus.
With a view to most effectively introducing a topic unfamiliar to the
majority of American readers, I shall attempt to develop the history and
themes of Catholic counterrevolutionary thought in as clear, concise
and simple a manner as I can. Anyone wishing to do further research
on the subject would do well to consult the journals themselves with
their wide variety of interests.
Although the groups and individuals whose invaluable assistance
made this project possible are many—most notable among them the
Earhart and Marguerite Eyer Wilbur Foundations and Mr. David
Lane, who spent innumerable hours patiently editing early drafts of
this text—the names of two men need to be given pride of place. One
of these is Emile Mersch, a Belgian Jesuit priest who died under tragic
circumstances during the 1940 invasion of the Lowlands. It was Father
Mersch’s books, The Whole Christ and The Theology of the Mystical Body,
which first led me to recognize the Catholic counterrevolutionary concern
for an ecclesiology evoking major patristic themes. Without the
formation given me by Father Mersch’s teaching, I should never have
come to understand the profundity of the issues involved in the presentday
battle for the minds and hearts of men, nor the full consequences
of a Catholic defeat.
Secondly, Catholic discussion of the topics considered in this text
would be immeasurably diminished had it not been for the courageous
efforts of those prelates of the nineteenth century who sacrificed everything
to teach both supernatural and natural truths deemed “reactionary”
and therefore “useless” by the spirit of their times. Among those
prelates, the chief figure—as La Civiltà Cattolica and L’Univers both
agreed—was Giovanni Mastai-Ferretti, Pope Pius IX (1846–1878). A
man of action and of prayer rather than an intellectual, Blessed Pius
IX nevertheless sacrificed himself in defense of a Catholic civilization
that exalted the mind far beyond anything that the proponents of a socalled
Age of Reason could imagine. And since he did so while holding
a position that might have been used to flatter the powers of the world
rather than risk their vilification, it is to the memory of his life of selfsacrifice
that this book is dedicated.
Want to read more? Get your copy of Removing the Blindfold today!
