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| Catholic Kingship and Monarchy: The Ideal Form of Government |
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Posted by: Stone - 1 hour ago - Forum: Resources Online
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Catholic Kingship and Monarchy: The Ideal Form of Government
![[Image: monarch-king-charlemagne.avif]](https://fatima.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/monarch-king-charlemagne.avif)
Fatima.org | October 24, 2026
Last year marked the centenary of Quas Primas (1925), the great encyclical of Pope Pius XI establishing the Feast of Christ the King. In that text, the Holy Father reminded the faithful that Christ reigns not only in Heaven but also in society and in the hearts of men:
“He must reign in our minds, which should assent with perfect submission and firm belief to revealed truths and to the doctrines of Christ. He must reign in our wills, which should obey the laws and precepts of God. He must reign in our hearts, which should spurn natural desires and love God above all things. He must reign in our bodies and in our members, which should serve as instruments for the interior sanctification of our souls” (Quas Primas, no. 33).
As we reflect on this recent centenary, it is fitting to recall that the Social Kingship of Christ once found visible expression in the political order itself. For centuries, Christendom upheld the Catholic monarchy as the ideal form of government, uniting temporal authority to the spiritual order under Christ the King.
Scriptural Foundations of Monarchy
Sacred Scripture presents kingship not as a human invention but as a divinely sanctioned institution. God Himself gave Israel a king in Saul, and later David, of whom He said: “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man according to My own heart, who shall do all My wills” (Acts 13:22).
The Davidic monarchy prefigured the eternal reign of Christ, the Son of David, Whose Kingdom is everlasting. Moreover, Our Lord confirmed Pilate’s words that He was indeed a King, declaring: “My kingdom is not of this world…[1] Thou sayest that I am a king. For this was I born, and for this came I into the world; that I should give testimony to the truth” (John 18:36-37).
Thus, monarchy is not contrary to Christian revelation but finds its perfection in Christ the King.
Patristic and Medieval Witness
The Fathers of the Church recognized monarchy as the natural and most stable form of governance. St. Gregory of Nazianzus wrote: “Monarchy is the most ancient and most fitting image of the divine government” (Orationes, 3). Note his use of the term “image.” Men are made in the image of God. Thus, the order of our earthly government is best when it images the order of heavenly rule. Heaven is most definitely a monarchy. Our time on earth is meant to be a “practicing” for Heaven and thus our finite political forms of government ought to prepare us to better participate in the eternal order of Heaven.
Likewise, St. Augustine, though acknowledging the abuses of corrupt rulers, affirmed that righteous kingship is a great good when subordinated to God: “Justice being taken away, then, what are kingdoms but great robberies?” (City of God, IV, 4)
The Scholastic theologians, especially St. Thomas Aquinas, gave the most systematic defense of monarchy. In De Regno, Aquinas argued that monarchy best secures the unity and common good of a people, just as the universe is governed by the one God:
Quote:“It is manifest that it is better for a multitude to be governed by one man, than by many: for there is nothing worse than for the multitude to be without unity” (De Regno, I, 2).
Thus, monarchy reflects both the unity of divine governance and the order of nature itself.
Papal Teaching on Catholic Monarchy
The Popes of the Church have consistently upheld monarchy as a legitimate and even ideal form of rule, so long as it is subordinated to Christ and His Church.
Pope Leo XIII, in Diuturnum Illud (1881), explained:
Quote:“The authority of the rulers is not greater than that of God, and it is not lawful for them to command or ordain anything against His will. … The right to rule is not bound up with any particular form of government; it may take this or that form, provided only that it be of a nature to ensure the general welfare.”
While the Church did not bind Catholics to monarchy as the only permissible form of government, she consistently taught that monarchy most perfectly mirrors the divine kingship of Christ when properly ordered to God’s law.
Pope Pius XI himself, who instituted the Feast of Christ the King, lamented that nations had rejected the gentle yoke of Christ and sought instead to found their laws apart from Him:
Quote:“Then, truly, will many evils be cured … when all the world shall have recognized the authority of Christ and every tongue shall confess that our Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father” (Quas Primas, no. 19).
The implication was clear: Societies governed under Christ the King – often embodied in Catholic monarchs – flourished in faith and culture, while those rejecting His reign fell into disorder.
Historical Witness of Catholic Monarchs
History itself testifies to the fruitfulness of Catholic monarchy. Charlemagne, crowned by Pope St. Leo III in 800 A.D., sought to defend Christendom and advance the Faith. St. Louis IX of France reigned not only as a wise administrator but also as a saint, embodying the Catholic ideal of kingship:
Quote:“I prefer to see my kingdom destroyed and reduced to a desert rather than receive the mark of a mortal sin” (St. Louis IX’s advice to his son).
The Holy Roman Empire under Henry II and his wife, Cunigunde; England under Edward the Confessor; Russia under Vladimir the Great; Spain under Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand; Austria under the Habsburgs; and Portugal under King John II – all reveal how monarchs could foster Catholic culture, defend orthodoxy, and uphold the social reign of Christ.
The Decline of Catholic Monarchy
The Protestant Revolt, the Enlightenment, and the French Revolution dealt devastating blows to Catholic kingship. The dethronement and even execution of kings in Europe reflected not merely political upheaval but the rebellion of man against the Kingship of Christ.[2] The rise of liberal democracies, founded on religious indifferentism and the separation of Church and State, was condemned repeatedly by the Popes of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Pope Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors (1864) rejected the proposition that “the Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (no. 55). Monarchy had once embodied the opposite principle: the union of Altar and Throne for the glory of Christ the King.
Why Monarchy Is Superior
From a theological and philosophical perspective, monarchy remains the superior form of government because:
- Unity of Rule – Reflects the divine governance of the universe by one God.
- Stability – Provides continuity across generations, rooted in dynastic succession.
- Symbolism – Embodies the Kingship of Christ and His reign over men.
- Paternal Authority – The king serves as a father to his people, reflecting natural law and the family structure.
The Jesuit theologian Suárez, while acknowledging that sovereignty originates in the community, taught that monarchy is the form that most perfectly secures order:
Quote:“Among the legitimate forms of government, monarchy is to be preferred, since the unity of the ruler corresponds most closely to the unity of divine governance.” (De Legibus ac Deo Legislatore, Bk. III, c. 4)
And St. Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621), a Doctor of the Church, confirmed monarchy’s preeminence but insisted it must remain bound to the Faith:
Quote:“The best form of government is that of one just prince, tempered by laws and counsel, for this most nearly resembles the government of God over the universe” (De Laicis, c. 6).
As St. Thomas succinctly taught, “The best government is that of one who rules with a view to the common good” (Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. 105, a. 1). And that is found in a true Catholic monarchy.
Lessons from History
It is important for Catholics today to recall that an “absolute monarchy” is not the only form of monarchy. European history saw the rise of totalitarian (or absolute) monarchies in the late 17th Century, notable examples include Louis XIV (†1715), the Sun King in France; Frederick the Great (†1786) in Prussia; Joseph II (†1790) in Austria; and Peter the Great in Russia (†1725). All too often people living today associate ‘monarchy’ with the abusive rule of these kings. Their sinful rule actually paved the path for their demise by opening the path for revolutionary ideas to take root in the zeitgeist of their age.
Earlier forms of Christian monarchy had a built-in system of checks and balances. The monarch depended on the support of his high-ranking vassals, and this ensured he acted with greater justice. The Church also exerted a great deal of influence upon the ruling class and frequently pressured them into acting in favor of their people’s common good.
An absolute monarch on this earth, without any checks and balances, will almost always fall into corruption. (There is a reason why we have the saying ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely.’) However, a virtuous Christian monarch with proper limits, checks and balances is clearly the best form of government here on earth.
We all know that, given the reality of original sin, every human government is liable to succumb to corruption. In a democratic form of government, with rule by the many, it is nearly impossible to enact real and lasting reform. Likewise, it is very difficult to reform an oligarchy because the majority of the ruling class would all need to convert. A communist or socialist form of government is even further beyond repair because the very materialistic principles of the system reject God and His grace. However, a monarchy, ruled by a single family, is the structure which can most easily undergo conversion and reform. Moreover, virtuous royal parents can have a profound impact on raising saintly children and forming them from infancy in the art of governing according to the common good and Christian principles.
Proof of this is easily found in how many monarchs have been canonized by Holy Mother Church. The list includes many of the good kings listed above, as well as St. Hermenegild (Visigoths), St. Magnus (Orkney), St. Ferdinand III (Castille), St. Stephen (Hungary), St. Canute (Denmark), St. Olaf (Norway), St. Wenceslaus (Bohemia), St. Clotilde (Franks), St. Elizabeth (Hungary), St. Adelaide (Holy Roman Empire), St. Hedwig (Bavaria), St. Jadwiga (Poland), St. Isabel (Portugal), and many others. Contrast this with the complete absence of canonized rulers in democratic systems of government.[3]
Conclusion: Restoring the Kingship of Christ
With the passing of the centenary of Quas Primas, Catholics are called to renew their faith in Christ the King – not only as a personal devotion but as a social and political reality. While monarchies have largely disappeared in the modern world, their theological justification remains. They remind us that political authority is from God and must be exercised in union with His law and His Church.
The restoration of Catholic monarchy may not be immediate, but the restoration of the Kingship of Christ in our homes, communities, and nations is urgent! For as Pius XI taught:
“When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony” (Quas Primas, no. 19).
In a world of chaos, Catholic monarchy stands as a forgotten but enduring witness to the truth that only Christ reigns, and only under His reign can men and nations find peace.
ENDNOTES:
[1] This phrase does not mean that Christ’s kingdom has no influence or power in the world. Rather it means His kingdom is not made of the things of this world. The things of which earthly kingdoms are made (money, resources, military force, etc.) is not what makes up Christ’s kingdom. It is precisely because Christ’s kingdom is of eternal, infinite, spiritual, and true realities that His kingdom is supreme and universal.
In a similar phrase, it is often said that Christians are ‘in the world but not of the world.’ [As I have heard it (& based on Jn 15:19; 17:14-16)] This means Christians are not to be governed by the same values and false maxims which govern the world, which is under the dominion of the prince of darkness. But we do live in this vale of tears and must fight for the common good of the world.
[2] The French Revolution attacked both Altar and Throne because both Bishop and King are meant to represent Christ’s Kingship in Church and State, respectively. This revolution destroyed the French monarchy, and the Italian Revolution devastated the Papal monarchy. The English monarchy never recovered its splendor after Henry VIII’s schism, and the Spanish monarchy was never able to recover after the Communist Revolution of the 1930’s. World War I dealt a final “death blow” to monarchies by dethroning the Austrian (Holy Roman) Emperor and the Russian Tsar. It was Divine Providence that Our Lady would appear at Fatima to restore God’s right order in the midst of the crumbling of Christendom’s monarchies.
[3] Gabriel Garcia Moreno (1821-1875), former Catholic President of Ecuador, is perhaps the only ruler of a democratic republic that deserves the title of saint. It is highly unlikely that any elected ruler of a democracy or republic which does not confess the Catholic Faith as its official state religion would ever be able to rule in such a manner as to be canonized.
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| Praying for the Pope’s Intentions: The 6 Intentions of the Holy Father |
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Posted by: Stone - 2 hours ago - Forum: Church Doctrine & Teaching
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Praying for the Pope’s Intentions: The 6 Intentions of the Holy Father
Fatima.org | March 20, 2019
St. Clement Mary Hofbauer once said: “A Christian who does not pray for the pope is like a child who does not pray for his father.” Yet, in our age when the Faith is under attack, when the Pope himself seems to be propagating errors and advancing heresy, and when the Church allows the scandal of the sexual abuse of children to advance, how can we possible pray “for the intentions of the Holy Father”?
Often, you may hear people praying for the intentions of the Holy Father at the end of their Rosaries or other prayers since this is usually a requirement to gain an indulgence. For instance, praying an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be for such intentions always concludes the Way of the Cross. But should we join in such prayers if the Pope’s personal, private intentions seem contrary to the Church’s intentions?
Yes. In fact, we should! By offering our prayers for the intentions of the Holy Father we are not praying for the personal intentions of Pope Francis but rather for the six objective intentions of the Holy Father as the Church Herself teaches.
What are the 6 intentions of the Pope? The 6 objective intentions of the Holy Father are as follows:- The Exaltation of the Church
- The Propagation of the Faith
- The Extirpation of Heresy
- The Conversion of Sinners
- The Concord between Christian Princes
- The Further Welfare of the Christian People
Exaltation of the Church
It is not an exaggeration that the Church Herself is in a great tempest as She is under assault from both the liberal, modernist forces within Her as well as from the secular, atheistic external forces that beset Her from outside. With immoral and scandalous priests within and with corrupt governments and politicians assaulting Her rights, it is imperative that we pray for the exaltation of the holy Catholic Faith, without which it is not possible to be saved.
Propagation of the Faith
We have before our eyes the example of St. Francis Xavier, among others, who labored for years in great trials and sufferings to save souls and propagate the saving Faith to all peoples. St. Francis converted more people in his life than anyone since the Apostle St. Paul. He baptized over 50,000 in 10 years, converted the entire town of Goa in India, and he labored long in Japan. Where are our missionaries today? Have they vanished in large parts because we no longer pray for them?
Extirpation of Heresy
We live in dangerous times when error is advanced as progress. The average Catholic today is exposed to more heresies and errors than arguably ever before in our history. Modernism, the synthesis of all heresies, along with relativism, subjectivism, religious liberty, and false ecumenism poisons the mind of many in the Church. And this disease of heresy is so pervasive it has infected many clergy as well. What are we doing to stop it? What are we doing to help counter this heresy? Do we pray for God, through Our Lady, to crush heresy?
Conversion of Sinners
Our Blessed Mother at Fatima said that many souls go to Hell because there is no one to pray for them. What are we doing to counsel the doubtful, to correct the erring in charity, and to make satisfaction to God for the sins of others? We can make Holy Hours of Reparation, pray Rosaries of reparation, or offer up all our daily prayers and actions for this intention.
Concord between Christian Princes
Only 100 years ago the world was plunged into the “war to end all wars” as Catholic nations fought and annihilated each other. As the Faith has further been eroded within society especially in Europe, we have seen the rise of democratic, atheistic nations. God is no longer the King of all ages. Nations claim to receive their power from the governed and there is no room for God. But what would our world look like today if the kings of old – the King of France, the King of Bavaria, the King of Belgium – were to reign today as true sovereigns who advanced the rights of God and restored true charity to all? Do we pray for truly Catholic governments to return like France of old or Ecuador under Garcia Moreno?
Further Welfare of the Christian People
The Holy Father, the Servant of the Servants of God, can teach us by example how to love our neighbor and perform both the corporal as well as the spiritual works of mercy. If you have read How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization by Thomas Woods, you will recall how Dr. Woods relates the varied, countless achievements from monasticism. Among them, we have not only the preservation of literacy and the priceless books of antiquity but countless works of charity, the first wide scale use of water power, the cultivation of agriculture, the clearing of immense areas of previously uninhabitable land, the creation of complex astronomical clocks, the creation of champagne, and dozens of other significant accomplishments. We owe a deep debt to the monks for their work in building our society. The welfare of the Christian people can only be advanced when we return to God and exalt the Holy Catholic Church again. Indeed, part of this restoration must involve prayer for the growth of monastic vocations. May we one day see this happy day return when monasteries and convents blanket our lands and these holy souls pray to God day and night for their fellow Christians.
Conclusion
Alas, if we have fallen from the habit of praying for the intentions of the Holy Father out of despair or sadness for what has been occurring in our Church, let us renew our rigor to say our prayers for the intentions of the Holy Father. As we do so, we should keep these six intentions at the forefront of our minds.
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| Contemplatives: Their Place in the Church Militant |
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Posted by: Stone - Yesterday, 04:42 AM - Forum: Resources Online
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Contemplatives: Their Place in the Church Militant
By A Carthusian Monk
This work, originally written by French Carthusians circa 1895 and adapted to the situation in England by the Carthusians of St. Hugh's Charlerhouse, Parkminsler in 1920, has been adapted by The Angelus to address the needs of the modern post-Conciliar apostolate.
Imprimi potest
Fr. JACOBUS MARIA, Prior Cartusiae. In domo Lucae, 4 Maii 1920.
Nihil obstat
Fr. THOMAS BERGH, O.S.B. Censor deputatus. 7 Junii 1920.
Imprimatur
+ PETRUS, Episcopus Southwarcensis. 9 Junii 1920.
![[Image: 3.jpg]](http://www.angelusonline.org/images/articles/2001_May/3.jpg)
The Angelus [Emphasis - The Catacombs]- May 2001
We are certain that God has not permitted all the destruction in Church and civil society in recent years without intending to bring good out of it. If the great "Reconstruction" is ever to occur, then we must take our part in it and we ought to do so particularly by working for the revival of the monastic orders which are given to prayer and penance. But various objections are raised against this view; it is the task therefore of the following pages to answer some of them.
Such complete absorption in the things of God as is involved in the contemplative life, it is said, could be understood in the ages of faith, when out of a society almost wholly Christian, religious vocations sprang up in lavish profusion. In the vast monastic family of those days, contemplatives had their chosen place in the front rank. But nowadays things are changed, and contemplation seems to be another word for selfishness. It is the day of active apostolate. The enemies of Christianity have banded together all the forces of evil for a last assault against the Church; it is, then, our urgent duty to gather in the same way all the vital forces of Catholicism and throw them into the breach. To hold aloof is to act the part of a deserter. And, they add, it is the more regrettable that men such as the Carthusians should stand apart from the fight, since they hold back from the Church Militant in action, not only well-trained soldiers, but even born leaders, the solitary life demanding qualities of mind and heart, and strength of character greater than that of other religious vocations. It will be seen that we do not seek to minimize the force of this objection; but to its plain statement we shall give an equally plain and frank answer.
Active Life or Contemplative?
That it is the day of active apostolate is quite true. In the present fight there is room for all men of good will, and to hold aloof is to act the part of a deserter; with this we are in hearty agreement. But let us make clear what we mean by that. What are we to understand by "activity"? Does it consist in bustle and noise, in feverish movement to start and keep going works of propaganda? Some might think so; they, however, judge by outward appearances only. Thinking men and theologians judge differently, accustomed as they are to descry beneath the exterior, the essence of things.
The marvelous force of activity increases in a being in proportion with the perfection and simplicity of its nature; so that it increases by leaps and bounds as we pass from animal to man, from man to angel, from angel on to God Himself. Grounding his argument on that of Aristotle, Saint Thomas Aquinas (ST, II-II, Q. 182, A. 1) shows the greater excellency of the contemplative over the active life, both in its origin and in its object, as well as being more meritorious and more fruitful in results.
If we let our faith reply, the answer is even more decisive. For indeed, God Himself is the unchangeable and eternal Contemplative; but is He not at the same time pure activity as well, always acting ad intra, within Himself, even supposing creation not to have taken place? Again, on earth where do we find the most intense activity but in the Tabernacle on our altars? Yet, where is there less appearance of activity? Our divine Lord seems to be sunk in a death-like slumber. Nevertheless, what is certain is that the world draws its life from the divine Contemplative of our altars, the world, that is, both material and spiritual. The day when the last altar shall have disappeared will be the day of doom, when the world shall fall asunder.
What Is True "Activity"?
"It is the day of active apostolate." Certainly, if we take due account of the above principles. But let us place the question on a practical footing. For men of light and leading, in what does this activity consist, which is their duty and on which the salvation of society depends?
Of late, much breath has been spent and much ink spilt in the attempt to formulate the principles upon which the campaign at this crisis must be conducted. Meeting after meeting has been held, plans have been multiplied, resolutions affirmed and reaffirmed; a kind of artillery preparation before attack. And indeed, the outcome has been that many well-tried institutions have taken a new lease on life, while new societies or associations are rising to meet new situations. But is there not the danger of forgetting that the true principles underlying all Reconstruction, the divinely traced program, is something simpler and of wider scope than all this; something simple with heaven's simplicity, since thence it was brought to earth when angels sang their Gloria in excelsis on Christmas night over a sleeping world: "Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will" (Lk. 2:14).
First of all, then, we are to give glory to God. That is to say, we must first seek the kingdom of God and His justice (cf. Mt. 6:33). Peace and happiness for the individual, the family, for society at large and the Church will follow in the nature of things and as a necessary consequence.
Now, it was for the realization of this program that God gave us His Son, the Word made Flesh, who is the principle and the essence of His activity. Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Calvary, His indwelling in the Blessed Sacrament, tell us with masterly eloquence how this glory has been given to God and peace brought to men.
But look more closely into the life on earth of Jesus Christ. It lasts but for three and thirty years; and of those, thirty are given to silence, to prayer and to hidden toil. Three only does He consecrate to His public ministry, and even then, during that short time, see how again and again our Savior goes apart from His disciples by day and by night to give Himself to prayer. For amidst all the comings and goings of the divine Word on earth, never for a moment does He lose sight of His Father's glory. As Fr. Faber says,
Quote:If we look at (our Lord's life on earth) in general, so as to get a view of its characteristics, it seems to us, first of all, a life of oblation. Worship was its predominant idea. Adoration was the mold in which it was cast. It continually reflected God. Yet it was not a private life, not a life which looked only to God and itself and so was sanctified. Its oblations were not simply its individual worship of God, but they belonged to all creation and were offered in its name....The business set before it was to consume itself for the glory of God. Thus it was incense, as well as victim....Its human soul was the thurible in which it was fragrantly consumed, offered asleep or waking, by night or by day, with every pulse of its human life. (Bethlehem, 78-79, 1860 ed.)
The entire work of the Incarnation, it is true, received its fullness of perfection and power from the sacrifice of Calvary; but dare we say that the years of hidden life at Nazareth were void of merit? Surely not; that would be blasphemy. No,
Quote:the secret life of the simple union of the two Natures in the divine Person is a vast series of wonders, whose scene is the house of Nazareth, but whose grandeur outshines that of all creation beside....Here was God adoring God. Here was a finite nature out of which infinite worship was streaming. Here was a created life which was in a most awful way a double of the Holy Trinity. (Faber, op. cit., 328, 331 of all cr)
Rerum Ecclesiae Gestarum
On the Foreign Missions, Pope Pius XI, February 18, 1926:
Quote:"Now what great store We set by the contemplative life...that by the foundation of monasteries, their stricter form of contemplative life may be introduced and widely spread in missionary territories, so likewise in season and out of season do We pray you, Venerable Brethren and your beloved sons, to interest yourselves therein, for it is marvelous what measure of heavenly graces such solitaries would call down upon your labors....Whence it is perfectly clear that our anchorites keeping unbroken the Rule and spirit of their Founder, and taking no part in the life of action, can be daily of no small help towards the success of your holy apostolate. So that if the superiors of such Orders give ear to your appeals and set up houses, wherever you may agree together that they should, they do a thing in the first place helpful to the salvation of a vast crowd of heathen and one which, in addition, will be acceptable and agreeable to Us beyond the bounds of belief." (A.A.S., Vol. 18, p. 78)
The Divine Contemplative
Our divine Savior did not limit this active power, the source of glory to God and of the world's salvation, to the few years of His earthly life; He continues it down the centuries in a twofold manner: through His real and through His mystical body, that is, in the Holy Eucharist and in the Church.
In the Holy Eucharist, despoiled of all, even of the accidents of His human nature, poorer even than when on the Cross, He continues in a true manner His contemplation and sacrifice; He lives only for prayer: "ever living to make intercession for us" (Heb. 7:25).
In the Church, which is His mystical body, He wills that each of the states of His mortal life should be reproduced in its entirety, otherwise the parallel would be incomplete. Now from what we have said above, the one that excels all the rest, the fountain, so to say, of all the others, is His state of contemplation, His self-immolation.
This, then, must be reproduced. But by whom? Principally by souls dedicated to a particular mode of life and giving themselves exclusively to penance and prayer. It is in continuing one of these states, the highest of our Lord's earthly life, by the strict observance of the evangelical counsels, that the contemplative orders find their reason for being. They take no part in the general government of the Church, nevertheless they belong to the essence of her constitution, and undoubtedly her divine Founder has given them their mission.
We speak here of the contemplative orders only. The proposition in a more general sense and extended to other religious institutes would cease to be true. St. Bernard says that the religious life is so much of the Church's essence that it began with it, or rather, the Church was begun by it, Qui primus fuit in Ecclesia, imo a quo coepit Ecclesia (Patr. Lat., t. 182. co1. 912. Cf. also, The Ideal of the Monastic Life, by Dom Germain Morin, 69,
Quote:"This then is our model, the life of the first Christians: the life which sprang up with the beginning of the Church, etc.").
We do not see them at work as corporate bodies in apostolic times, because then, in this particular, God's glory was served by the blood of the martyrs; that was sufficient witness for the visible continuation of Calvary. But when the era of the great persecutions came to an end, the blood-stained arena of martyrdom was exchanged for the unbloody martyrdom of the religious life. In the countless lauras of Egypt and Palestine, as later on, in the monasteries of the East; and later still in those of the West, men saw with wonder, the hidden Christ of Nazareth, the dying Christ of Golgotha living and dying over again.
For several centuries, all external ministry was forbidden to these contemplatives; it was an understood thing that nothing should be done to lessen the value of their penitential life or the power of their intercession. It is remarkable to notice that decay of discipline entered the monasteries only from the time, and to the extent that the monks, either out of necessity or from choice, were permitted to go forth and take part in the active ministry in imitation of those new religious orders which the needs of the time had produced to aid and supplement the work of the secular clergy.
Fr. Baker, in Sancta Sophia, (173, 1876 ed.) additionally notices:
Quote:No doubt there is that the decay of religion hath principally proceeded from this preposterous disorder, viz., that in most religious communities active spirits have got the advantage to possess themselves of prelatures and spiritual pastorships over the contemplative, though the state of religion was instituted only for contemplation.
In the 11th century, as a consequence of the great impulse given earlier by Charlemagne to popular education, of which the burden fell principally on the monasteries; and likewise, as a result of the disturbed state then of Christendom, the purely contemplative life had ceased to be practiced in the Church. Providence, however, to make it flourish anew, raised up one of those men of faith and genius who seem to be held in reserve through the centuries for the accomplishment of its mighty plans. This was St. Bruno (A.D. 1030-1101) the founder of the Carthusian order. The oft quoted saying, Cartusia nunquam reformata, quia nunquam deformata, the Carthusian order has never been reformed because never deformed, is substantially true, because it has remained true to the spirit of its foundation, has kept apart from all external activities and devoted itself absolutely and entirely to contemplation.
Contemplatives Are Active
We have deemed it necessary to show the solid foundation which theology and history lay for this question. The reason why it is sometimes discussed in a small-minded way is that it is viewed from one of its secondary aspects only. We may draw several conclusions.
The Carthusian monk is essentially contemplative. He reproduces and continues in the Church the hidden and suffering life of our Lord Jesus Christ. His cell is at one and the same time Bethlehem, where he begins a new life; Nazareth where his life of voluntary penance is passed in silence and obscurity; Calvary where obedience never ceases to offer him as a sacrifice on the cross which his observances and his Rule raise up for him; it is a Tabernacle where in union with the prayer of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament he fulfills St. Paul's great boast, "I fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh" (Col. 1:24).
In a word, he is an official suppliant and penitent offering to God one of the greatest glories that He can provide for Himself on this earth. At the same time, he works powerfully for his own salvation and that of his neighbor.
From this then, we may judge what is the excellence of a contemplative's activity, even though he exercises it only by prayer and penance; nay, just for that very reason. It is God's will for him, it is apostolic, universal in scope, and how efficacious!
Quote:A cloistered life among men may cover the whole earth with its activity, if it be a life of worship, while the conqueror, the statesman, or the man of letters have at most but a circle which they only influence partially and in which their influence is but one of many influences. (Faber, op. cit., 80)
A Carthusian who had formerly been a foreign missioner was once asked what he did in his cell.
Quote:"I am still a missionary," he replied. "Formerly, I could work only in a circumscribed area; now the whole world lies open to my zeal, and by prayer I can reach the furthest off savage in Africa or Oceania."
We may also compare it to the motors hidden away in the heart of some vast piece of machinery and communicating life to the whole. A French orator (Mgr. Turinaz, Bishop of Nancy) in answering the question, "What do these solitaries do, of what use are they?" compares them, not inaptly, to lightning rods warding off the shafts of divine anger from a guilty world. They are to the world at large what the ten just men, had they been found, would have been to the Cities of the Plain; indeed, were they to be lacking in the world, there is only too much reason to suppose that God's thunderbolts would fall on an unrepentant generation.
Montalembert wrote,
Quote:"I cannot imagine a finer subject than the history of prayer....If it was given to human pen to write it, that history should be the history of the monks....Thanks to them, prayer existed in the character of a permanent and public force, universally recognized and blessed by God and man" (Monks of the West [London: Nimmo, 1896] Vol. I, 32 ).
The Power of Intercession
You ask, what is it that gives contemplation its wonderful intercessory power, making it superior to every other created activity? It follows from what we have already said. In imitation of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose different states he reproduces, the contemplative offers his freedom, his talents, his entire person and life before the majesty of God's claims. He abandons himself without reserve to His good pleasure. In God alone he seeks light and guidance; He is the goal and rule of all he does. God never allows Himself to be outdone in generosity. He takes supreme delight in this self-abandonment, a source of so much glory to Him; and He repays it with wonderful graces.
With Dom Innocent Le Masson, General of the Carthusians in the 17th century, we may say that the contemplative is, in the best sense of the word, a courtier and intimate friend of God. Seated at His feet like Mary at Bethany, his adoration, worship and attendance are never intermitted. His prayer assumes the character of a holy boldness of intimacy, and God, Who loves that we should do violence to His mercy, holds open the treasury of His favors to him.
A further reason for his power of intercession is found in the very nature of contemplation, and in the forms of prayer employed by the contemplative. Contemplation is above all an affair of the heart, in its method it is widely different from discursive meditation, in which the intellect plays the largest part. Now, the intellect easily gets taken up with its own ideas; pride, at one and the same time, forms a hindrance and becomes a punishment.
The heart is humbler; in simplicity and uncalculating, without self-seeking, it goes to meet its Beloved. And when day and night, as a Carthusian does, it feeds its desires on the divine marrow found in the Holy Scriptures, and more especially in the psalms, a change comes over it; it becomes all on fire, and without reasonings darts forward to regions unknown to the intellect. Faith, worship, desires, all breathe forth in one outpouring of love; it is no longer mere prayer, but uplifting of the soul, fiery transports, impassioned flights that are the result, under the impulse of the Holy Spirit it wings its flight unhindered to God; an eagle flies less swiftly towards its prey. What need is there to say more? The heart abandons itself and throws itself upon God, and God in return gives Himself to the soul. It may gaze upon Him, lay hold of Him, threaten, aye disarm Him! He suspends the decrees of justice, and looks down upon the world with a smile of forgiveness. A child, then, may save a whole nation. (We are not here supposing extraordinary phenomena, such as ecstasy, which sometimes may accompany prayer, but those "ascensions" which tend to union, the normal goal of mental prayer.) Abraham, Moses and Onias in the old Testament are the visible proofs of this truth; and how many other instances are there not in the lives of the saints?
Monastic Prayer, the Great Weapon
Yes indeed, it is the day of active apostolate.
Quote:"We must fight, and he who deserts God's standard to hide himself in slothful selfishness is a traitor. We must fight, but reasonably, in a favorable position, and use good arms and wise tactics" (cf. The Contemplative Life in Its Apostolic Aspect [London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne], 17).
That is precisely what the contemplative does; whence we may understand how useful, how necessary in the mighty conflict with evil, is the contemplative's intercession whether exercised by Carthusian monk or nun, or other religious.
A fatal illusion may follow on the intoxication of excessive activity: more or less inexperienced souls persuade themselves that the salvation of society depends entirely on human means. Once started on this downward way, fatal blindness will supervene which will lay open the way for a defeat beyond repair. Quos vult perdere Jupiter dementat ("whom Jupiter wishes to destroy, he drives mad"). One suspects that the devil is only half afraid of active opposition. As an old campaigner, he even helps it on at times, much as a general allows the enemy to advance and come to grips, afterwards the more easily to surround them. For one good work started, he can set up ten in opposition, since he is more gifted with activity than all the active workers in the world taken together. And is it not true that amidst all the self sacrifice, the enthusiasm and devotion that active workers bring to the cause, there is a super abundance at the same time, of the human element? How many fair beginnings have ended in disappointment and worse, because of the petty jealousies and rivalries of those who persuade themselves that the success of God's work is bound up with their own personal success? Time wasted, good money thrown after bad, disunion amongst Catholics, all this and much more to a like effect is but too often the result of works of active apostolate.
What the devil really does fear, because he knows its marvelous power and because he has nothing to meet it with, is prayer and above all, monastic prayer, supported by penance and practiced with an intensity that arrives at contemplation. The chant of the Divine Office, the official prayer of the liturgy which has a twofold power according to the saying, Qui bene cantat, bis orat ("sung prayer is double prayer"). Here he recognizes his real enemy. His tactics against it, therefore, are ever the same: he tries to destroy the homes of prayer, or at least to introduce a relaxation in their discipline; he sets to work, to turn them from their purpose by attracting and attaching them to the employments of the active ministry, or by keeping back from them as much as possible the vocations that God intends for them. It is the devil's greatest gain when, under the pretext of employing one's zeal to better purpose, he is able to retain on the battlefield of active works some of those generous souls, keen in their spirit of devotion, who under wiser guidance as to the supernatural value of the contemplative life would unhesitatingly set out to scale those spiritual heights which their Rule sets before the Carthusian monk and nun or other contemplative religious.
Proportionate Need of Contemplative and Active Workers
In writing as we have done, we are far from wishing to throw the least discredit on the multiplicity of good works that are today set going so hopefully and with so much zeal. It is quite clear that they are necessary. If we need suppliants we must also have combatants. Let the religious and the priest alike, join hands with the laity; let him turn apostle, missioner, schoolmaster, hospitaller, newspaper editor even! Let him seize every opportunity of holding up the torch of faith for those that sit "in the valley of the shadow of death" (Ps. 22:4). The list of names of the standard bearers of the Church's social action in modern times is a long and honorable one, and no one will deny that their lives afford shining examples of self sacrifice and heroism. Contemplatives are foremost in giving hearty praise to all such enterprises as have ecclesiastical approval.
But at the same time we are faced by a twofold phenomenon which it would be childish to deny. On the one hand, the vastness of the effort expended; and on the other hand, the smallness of the visible result. Providence has its own ways, but here at least, the effect is not proportionate with its cause. May it not be because the volume of prayer demanded by God has not been forthcoming?
Let those given to the active life, whose battlefield is down in the plain, keep up the struggle without faltering. But if they wish for victory in the end, let them seek recruits who shall add to the number of hands raised up on the mountain in prayer for them. If only it might be possible to draw towards the purely contemplative life as it is led in the Charterhouse, a number of souls proportionate to that attracted by the needs of our day to institutes devoted to active work what a guarantee would there be of an earlier and more decisive victory; the tardy dawn of the long awaited Restoration would broaden out into full day.
The Restoration of All Things in Christ by Prayer
The conversion of our nation! How much more is included in that well worn phrase than is generally thought of. The Church's divine commission to preach the gospel to every creature is not fulfilled in shepherding this or that section of non-Catholics into Christ's fold. Her message is for all. She must convert her own wandering children as well; raise the fallen, rouse the slothful and hold the wayward. And as we gaze in expectation into the years immediately before us, whose heart will not quail before the gigantic nature of the task committed to her in saving the souls of the millions outside her borders! Some words of a well-known Jesuit writer, Fr. Joseph Rickaby, are as true today, or truer, than when penned some 25 years ago [c. 1895]. He spoke of England, but his words are applicable to the United States, to the work of American Catholics in this country before the Council, and contains warnings and applications to the post-Conciliar apostolate that we must all seriously consider. He says in The Month:
Quote:The prospect of the religious future of England...is very dark indeed. We poor English Catholics have "piped" and our countrymen have not "danced." Our learning, our controversy, our church-building, our schools, our publications, our societies, our preaching, our works of benevolence, all seem thrown away. They have not been useless to be sure; we have saved the few, and that is much: but on the solid mass of the nation we make no impression, nor seem likely to make any; and, compared with our failure, our successes go for little. It will be difficult for us to hold in the future such vantage ground as we have won and now possess.
The world is steeped in a spirit which is solvent of all Christianity; and there are signs manifest enough of the action of that spirit upon our people. It does not do to be too gloomy; but it is difficult to feel cheerful in thinking of the conversion of England, if one has any idea, as most of us have, of the tendencies of thought around us. But here comes in the second part of the text, "we have mourned and you have not lamented." We have not "mourned" half enough, to induce our country to "lament" their false religious position. The sin of England has been great for centuries and remains unexpiated, a bar to conversion.
We should have more conversions, if we did more penance to procure them. That is not a pleasant thing to think of. How can we fast and pray whose daily work suffers from our lack of time and strength to do it? There is comfort in the principle of the division of labor, and in those much reviled but still Catholic doctrines of vicarious expiation and communion of saints. We must have some of our number to go apart, and fast and pray and do penance for the rest of us, not certainly to excuse us in sin, not to cover our idleness and neglect of duty, not to exempt us from sorrow and contrition and such penance as God will require of us personally, but to draw down by their extraordinary penances that extraordinary mercy and those superabundant graces, without which this country never will be brought to God and to His Christ.
Thinking of this profound truth, one is filled with grief and resentment to hear the (contemplative) life...described as a 'useless and selfish life' even by Catholics, and by those Catholics of all others who should know better. Such is the utilitarian, naturalistic spirit of the age, that we cease to believe in any but the corporal works of mercy, and those spiritual works which have a direct natural efficacy. "To pray for the living and the dead," and to add fasting to the prayer of intercession, as Tobias did, does not strike us as so very necessary. Yet it may be just the one thing wanting to make the rest of our works efficacious (Vol. 96, 27).
With these considerations before us, we may ask ourselves again: What is the place of contemplatives in the Church Militant? And, what is their value in these troubled times? Shall we answer that their day has gone by? That in going aside from the battle to pray and watch and fast they are acting the part of deserters? Read what the venerable Fr. Baker wrote, when in his own day surely if ever his nation had need of active workers.
Those that are inexperienced may, and often do, call this (contemplation) a state of idleness and unprofitable cessation, as Martha complained against her sister Mary; but those that have attained to a taste of it know it to be the business of all businesses, as St. Bernard calls it....
Quote:Those inexpressible devotions which they exercise, and in which they tacitly involve the needs of the whole Church, are far more prevalent with God than the busy endeavors and prayers of ten thousand others, a few such secret and unknown servants of God are the chariots and horsemen, the strength and bulwarks of the kingdom and churches where they live.
(Sancta Sophia, 508, 1876 ed.).
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| Pre-55 Halloween & the Octave of All Saints |
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Posted by: kelley - 10-31-2026, 11:24 AM - Forum: The Liturgical Year
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Pre-55 Halloween & the Octave of All Saints
The Vigil and Octave of All Saints: Preparing for and Prolonging the Glory of Heaven
The Feast of All Saints on November 1 remains one of the great solemnities of the Catholic year. Yet what Catholics experience today is only part of the liturgical observance that existed before the reforms of the 1950s. Traditionally, the feast did not stand by itself. It was approached through a Vigil on October 31, historically observed with fasting and abstinence, and its celebration continued through an Octave ending on November 8. Thus, the Church surrounded the vision of heavenly glory with both penitential preparation and prolonged rejoicing.
The suppression of both the Vigil and the Octave in 1955 is especially instructive because it shows how the attempted reform changed more than the number of observances found in a Missal. Before the reform, October 31 prepared the faithful for the saints through penance, November 1 celebrated their triumph, November 2 turned the attention of the Church toward the faithful departed, and the days that followed continued beneath the influence of the All Saints Octave. The first portion of November therefore possessed a strongly eschatological character in which the Church Militant, the Church Suffering, and the Church Triumphant were placed before the faithful in remarkably close succession.
The story of the Vigil also shows that changes to the liturgical calendar and changes to fasting law did not always occur simultaneously. When the Vigil Mass and Office were abolished in 1955, the obligation of fasting attached to October 31 did not automatically disappear. For a short period, American Catholics could therefore still be bound to fast on a day whose liturgical Vigil had already been suppressed. This unusual situation helps illustrate how an ancient unity of liturgy and asceticism was gradually dismantled during the middle of the twentieth century.
The Development of the Feast, Vigil, and Octave
The roots of All Saints reach back to the ancient commemorations of the martyrs. Pope Gregory III, who reigned from 731 to 741, dedicated a chapel in St. Peter’s Basilica to all the saints and fixed its anniversary on November 1. Pope Gregory IV later extended the November observance throughout the Church. According to the historical account cited by the Catholic Encyclopedia, the Vigil appears to have been observed almost as early as the feast itself, while the Octave was added under Pope Sixtus IV in the fifteenth century.
The existence of both a Vigil and an Octave gave All Saints the same basic shape possessed by many of the Church’s greater observances. A Vigil provided preparation before the feast, while an Octave prolonged the celebration after it. This was not arbitrary multiplication. The older calendar treated the mysteries of the Faith as realities for which the soul should prepare and within which it should remain for some time afterward.
This arrangement was especially appropriate for All Saints. November 1 commemorates not merely the saints whose names appear in the Martyrology or whose feasts are kept during the year, but the countless souls who have attained the Beatific Vision and whose names are known only to God. The Collect asks that, through the merits of so many intercessors, God would grant the faithful an abundance of His mercy. The Feast of All Saints therefore directs the Catholic toward the end for which he was created: union with God in Heaven. It is entirely fitting that so great a feast should have possessed both penitential preparation beforehand and an octave afterward.
The Vigil of All Saints and the Traditional Fast
The Vigil of All Saints was historically more than an anticipatory Mass and Office. October 31 was also a day of fasting. The practice is ancient. The Synod of Seligenstadt in 1022 mentioned the fasts observed on the vigils of Christmas, Epiphany, feasts of the Apostles, the Assumption, St. Lawrence, and All Saints. These vigil fasts were part of the broader Catholic understanding that major feasts should often be approached by denying oneself beforehand.
The exact discipline varied considerably from place to place over the centuries, particularly before the universal codification of canon law. In Catholic territories of colonial America, the Vigil of All Saints regularly appeared among the obligatory fast days. In the United States around the beginning of the twentieth century, it remained one of the comparatively small number of vigils on which fasting was still required. The 1909 Catholic Encyclopedia, for example, listed the vigils of Christmas, Pentecost, the Assumption, and All Saints among the American fast days.
The 1917 Code of Canon Law further standardized the discipline. By then many older vigil fasts had already disappeared, but the Vigil of All Saints survived among only four vigils retaining a universal obligation of fasting: Pentecost, the Assumption, All Saints, and Christmas. That fact alone demonstrates the prominence still accorded to November 1. Long after Catholics had ceased being obliged to fast before many other ancient feasts, the Church continued to require penance before All Saints.
The spiritual logic is easy to understand. All Saints presents the final victory of grace in human souls, but the saints did not attain Heaven through a comfortable Christianity. They practiced mortification, resisted temptation, performed works of mercy, endured suffering, and persevered until death. The faithful were asked, however modestly, to imitate the spirit of self-denial by which the saints had cooperated with grace.
The First Mid-Century Weakening
The traditional fast began to weaken even before the liturgical Vigil itself was abolished. In the United States, the bishops standardized fasting and abstinence regulations in 1951. Under those rules, the Vigil of All Saints remained a fast day, but the abstinence requirement had been reduced. Meat could now be eaten at the principal meal, assuming it was not a Friday, making October 31 a day of partial rather than complete abstinence.
This distinction may appear minor to Catholics today, when the very concept of partial abstinence is almost unknown, but it represented another stage in a much longer relaxation of the Church’s fasting discipline. The Vigil still demanded one full meal and the restricted smaller meals allowed under the law of fasting, but the older complete abstinence from flesh meat had been mitigated.
Thus, on the eve of the great liturgical reforms of the 1950s, the Vigil of All Saints retained both its Mass and Office and its obligatory fast, but its penitential observance in the United States had already been weakened. The events that followed would go much further.
The Abolition of the Vigil in 1955
Pope Pius XII’s reform of 1955 substantially reduced the number of liturgical vigils in the Roman calendar. The decree Cum nostra hac aetate, issued by the Sacred Congregation of Rites on March 23, 1955, retained Christmas and Pentecost as privileged vigils and preserved only a handful of others as common vigils. The remaining vigils, including that of All Saints, were suppressed. The same reform eliminated the vigils of the Epiphany, the Immaculate Conception, and the feasts of nearly all the Apostles except Ss. Peter and Paul.
Consequently, the traditional Mass and Office of October 31 disappeared from the Roman calendar. Halloween, literally the eve of All Hallows, continued to retain its name in popular culture, but the Catholic liturgical observance from which that name derived had been removed.
The loss of a vigil is more significant than the elimination of an additional Mass formulary. A vigil gave a feast a threshold. The Church began directing the mind of the faithful toward the coming mystery before the feast itself arrived. In some cases that preparation was joyful; in others, including All Saints, it was explicitly penitential. The calendar thereby taught that the great celebrations of the Christian life should be approached deliberately rather than encountered abruptly.
The disappearance of the Vigil of All Saints weakened precisely this aspect of the feast. November 1 remained, but the day of preparation that had preceded it for centuries was no longer present liturgically.
When the Fast Outlived the Vigil
What happened next is one of the more interesting details in the history of the reform. Because the 1955 decree was liturgical in character, questions arose as to whether suppression of the Vigil also abolished the fasting and abstinence obligations attached to October 31.
The bishops of the United States sought clarification from Rome. In a response dated March 15, 1957, they were informed that the decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites concerned “simply the liturgical part of the day” and did not itself affect the obligations of fast and abstinence, which existed as penitential preparation for the following feast.
For a short period, then, the distinction between the two became unusually visible. Liturgically, the Vigil had ceased to exist; penitentially, the faithful could still be required to observe it. The Mass and Office were gone, but the fast remained because the canonical discipline had not been abolished by the liturgical decree.
The American bishops subsequently dispensed the faithful from both the fast and the partial abstinence attached to the Vigil of All Saints. The process was therefore gradual. Before the reforms, October 31 possessed a liturgical Vigil and a traditional fast with abstinence. In 1951, the American abstinence discipline was weakened. In 1955, the liturgical Vigil was abolished. After Rome clarified in 1957 that this had not automatically ended the penitential law, the American bishops dispensed the remaining obligation as well.
Within only a few years, what had been both a liturgical and ascetical preparation for All Saints had ceased to exist in ordinary Catholic practice.
The Octave of All Saints
The feast was diminished on its other side as well. Before 1955, All Saints possessed a Common Octave extending through November 8. Under the rubrics then in force, the days within the Octave, from the second through the seventh day, were Semidouble and yielded to Double and Semidouble feasts while taking precedence over Simple feasts. When a higher-ranking feast occurred, the Octave was ordinarily commemorated at Lauds, Mass, and Vespers, except when the rubrics excluded the commemoration for feasts of sufficiently high rank.
These details are important because they demonstrate that an octave was not necessarily eight uninterrupted repetitions of exactly the same Mass. The older calendar was capable of carrying several liturgical memories at once. On November 4, for example, St. Charles Borromeo could be celebrated while the Octave of All Saints remained present through its commemoration. The occurring saint and the larger mystery of the octave did not have to compete for exclusive possession of the day.
This layering was one of the characteristics of the pre-1955 calendar. The Church could celebrate an individual saint while still remembering the company of all the saints. The result was a liturgical year possessing considerably more texture than a calendar in which each date is expected to carry only one principal thought.
The Octave of All Saints also fit naturally into the character of November. November 1 celebrated the saints who had already attained Heaven. November 2 turned immediately toward the faithful departed who were still undergoing purification. The days afterward returned repeatedly to the saints through the Octave. Heaven and Purgatory were therefore not distant theological ideas but realities placed repeatedly before Catholics during the opening days of the month.
The Octave Day on November 8
The Octave reached its conclusion on November 8. The traditional Mass texts for the Octave Day are striking in their emphasis on martyrdom, suffering, and heavenly victory. The Introit calls upon God to remember the blood of His saints. The Epistle from Hebrews recalls those who “conquered kingdoms,” endured imprisonment and torture, and preferred suffering to abandoning the Faith. The Offertory declares that God is wonderful in His saints, while the Communion recalls those whom God tried “as gold in the furnace.”
These texts show how far the traditional observance was from a merely sentimental idea of sanctity. All Saints certainly rejoices in the innumerable company of the blessed, but the Church did not separate their glory from the suffering through which so many reached it. The Octave Day returned the faithful to the cost of discipleship and to the supernatural triumph accomplished by grace.
In this sense, the Vigil and the Octave complemented one another especially well. The Vigil imposed penance upon those still struggling on earth. The Octave celebrated those whose struggle had ended in victory. The entire structure placed the Christian life between those two realities: mortification here and glory hereafter.
The Suppression of the Octave
The Octave of All Saints disappeared in the same 1955 reform that abolished its Vigil. Cum nostra hac aetate reduced the Roman calendar to only three octaves: Easter, Pentecost, and Christmas. The Octaves of Epiphany, Corpus Christi, the Ascension, the Sacred Heart, the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption, Sts. Peter and Paul, All Saints, and the other universal and particular octaves were suppressed.
As discussed in the previous installment of this series, the abolition of most octaves represented a fundamental change in the Church’s treatment of liturgical time. A feast that had formerly remained before the faithful for eight days now ordinarily ended with the calendar date itself. All Saints provides a particularly clear example because the same reform removed both its preparation and its prolongation.
What the Older Structure Taught
The older observance of All Saints illustrates a principle that has appeared repeatedly throughout this series. The traditional Roman calendar did not simply communicate doctrines; it arranged time so that Catholics would live according to them. The Vigil and Octave of All Saints are a particularly beautiful example because they placed the whole supernatural purpose of Christian life before the faithful.
The October 31 fast reminded Catholics that there is no crown without the cross. The Feast of All Saints showed the result of perseverance in grace. All Souls immediately afterward reminded the faithful of those who had died in friendship with God but still required purification and the prayers of the Church. The continuing Octave then returned the mind repeatedly to the saints who had already reached the goal.
This was liturgical catechesis in the fullest sense. Without requiring a lecture, the calendar taught the Communion of Saints, the necessity of penance, the reality of Purgatory, the intercession of the blessed, and the Christian hope of Heaven. The faithful did not merely read these doctrines in a catechism. They encountered them through fasting, feasting, requiem prayers, commemorations, and the recurring texts of the Mass and Office.
The removal of the Vigil and Octave did not formally deny any of these teachings. But it did reduce the means by which those teachings were woven into the lives of ordinary Catholics.
Recovering the Traditional Observance
Catholics who follow or draw spiritual nourishment from the pre-1955 calendar can still recover much of this older pattern. October 31 can once again be treated as a day of voluntary fasting and abstinence in preparation for All Saints. The Litany of the Saints, spiritual reading from the lives of the saints, Confession, and attendance at Mass on November 1 are all appropriate ways to restore the specifically Catholic character of the day.
The Octave can likewise be remembered through November 8. The Collect of All Saints may be added to private prayers, families can read about different saints each day, and Catholics can consciously invoke the intercession of the Church Triumphant throughout the week. November is already traditionally devoted to the Holy Souls, and there is no contradiction in simultaneously remembering the blessed in Heaven. Rather, the older calendar demonstrates how naturally the two belong together.
None of these practices binds the faithful under present law, aside from attendance at Mass on All Saints Day. The restoration of the rest is valuable because they recover a spiritual principle that the older calendar expressed with particular clarity: the Church prepares for her greatest celebrations and does not abandon them as soon as the feast day ends.
The older Roman calendar gave All Saints more than a day because Heaven deserved more than a passing thought. It prepared for the saints through penance and continued to rejoice in them through an octave. Recovering that older pattern can help restore not merely a lost observance but a more Catholic understanding of life itself: the conviction that our present struggle is ordered toward eternal glory, that the saints have already reached what we seek, and that the whole purpose of our time on earth is to join them.
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| Unprecedented: Leo XIV to vote in US midterm elections |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-30-2026, 02:04 PM - Forum: Pope Leo XIV
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Unprecedented: Leo XIV betrays papacy by voting in US midterm elections
The news, confirmed by the Vatican, raises a serious question: why is an absolute monarch voting in an American election?
Fri Oct 30, 2026
(LifeSiteNews [adapted]) — The Holy See’s announcement that Pope Leo XIV — the first U.S. citizen to be elected to the papacy — has voted in the U.S. midterm elections by mail raises a serious question: why is an absolute monarch voting in an American election?
For the first time in the Church’s 2,000-year history, a pope has cast a ballot, betraying his sacred office as a Catholic monarch.
“Pope Leo XIV has exercised his right to vote as a United States citizen, whenever he was eligible to do so,” according to the Vatican statement. “In keeping with this long-standing practice of civic participation, he has submitted his mail-in ballot in Chicago.”
Michael Walsh, a British historian and author who has written books on the papacy, told CNN that Leo XIV is the first pope to vote in a democratic, secular election.
“I don’t think popes have ever voted in a democratic election before,” said Walsh.
“The Holy Father has also confirmed that, during his years of residence in Peru he exercised his right to vote whenever he was eligible to do so,” noted the statement. “The Holy Father expresses his belief in the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes.”
According to a report by the Chicago Sun-Times, which first broke the story, the chief of staff at the Will County Clerk’s Office confirmed that the Pope, who remains registered as Robert Prevost at a New Lenox, Illinois, address, requested a mail-in ballot on October 3.
Since 2000, Prevost has voted in five primary elections, requesting Democratic ballots twice and Republican ballots three times, according to Illinois State Board of Elections records.
Most recently he voted in the 2024 presidential election.
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| Bp. de Mallerais 1995 - Statesmanship of Christ the King |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-29-2026, 11:41 AM - Forum: In Defense of Tradition
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The Church and the World - The Statesmanship of Christ the King
by Bishop Tissier de Mallerais
If we do not love Christ's social reign, we will fall under the social reign of the devil.
We are convinced that the rejection of the Social Reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ by the nations is the cause of their ruin, or of the most serious disorders and of inextricable problems of the moral, political, social and economic order that no one can master today. We are conscious of the fact that the triumphant revolution is establishing a new world order on the ruins of the apostate nations, and this new order is essentially anti-christian. We observe that the conciliar Church co-operates in this work, while substituting for the religion of God-made-man, the cult of man making himself God. We should all be resolved as much as lies in us, to fight this satanic plan, which God may deign to dissipate with the breath of His mouth. Sons of the Catholic Church, adhering to the indefectible voice of the Spouse of Christ, we proclaim the absolute Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ over the human affairs, over societies and over nations.
1. Claims of Our Lord Jesus Christ to Universal Kingship
Our Lord Jesus Christ is necessarily King. By nature He possesses, inasmuch as He is man, the primacy of excellence and of perfection over every creature (Quas Primas [Q.P.] 533, Col. 1:15-17) and particularly the knowledge and power to rule and direct all human temporal affairs of His and His Father's glory. (Q.P. 540). So as not to empty the humiliation of the Cross, He is abstaining from practising His temporal Kingship Himself. In fact, Our Lord is also in possession of a spiritual and priestly, of a universal and victorious Kingship over all men so as to take them back through Him, the sole Head in the unity of the Mystical Body, the Catholic Church (Col. 1,18). This spiritual Kingship is spread out over temporal affairs to the degree that these serve Him to triumph over His enemies and to extend the Reign of Grace.
The Blessed Virgin Mary, His Mother and co-adjutrix in the work of Redemption, partakes in the Kingship of Christ (Pius XII, Ad Coeli Reginam) and disposes over hearts for it. "Regnum Christi per Regnam Mariae - The Reign of Christ, through the Reign of Mary."
2. Christ, foundation and restorer of the natural order
Man fallen from his native dignity by original sin (Roman Missal, Collect for Thursday of Passion Week) is only reinstated in that natural dignity by the spiritual Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ Who takes care of man's wounded nature only by lifting it to the supernatural dignity of the child of God (Summa I-II q. 109a2). Likewise, the natural order of human affairs (Pius XII, Summa Pontificatus 740) only receives its full solidity (Col. 1,17) and integrity on the unique foundation on which it behooves to be restored, i.e. on Christ in which it is ceaselessly to be done. It is only found in Christian civilisation, in the Catholic City.
3. Christ the supreme legislator
Christ the Man with the twofold claim of His birth and conquest through the Cross, in Whom are enclosed all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2,3) to Whom God has made over all power in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18) is given to men as sovereign legislator Whom they ought to obey (Q.P. 536) and as supreme judge from Whom they receive rewards and chastisements in this as well as in the next life. (Q.P. 537)
4. Universality of Christ's Reign
Christ's empire "does not extend exclusively over Catholic nations nor only over baptised Christians... it embraces equally and without exceptions all men, even strangers to the Catholic Faith (Q.P. 542). Our Lord however, only reigns effectively over nations whose leaders He baptised and whose constitutions He christianised (St Pius X, Allocution December 13, 1908).
The Reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ embraces all times, it embraces those who have need of Him, those that battled for Him, those who lived for Him and those who separated from Him. He proves that Christ is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end of history (Q.P. 562). His Kingship will be fulfilled on the last day when He will take spectacular vengeance on His enemies (Q.P. 569). The final and triumphant state will be found in the plenitude of glory of His saints and elect (Eph. 4:13).
5. About Our Lord's Social Reign
God has so constituted man that he cannot exist nor attain his temporal perfection without the cooperation of his fellow men (St Thomas, De Regno, Bk. 1 Ch. 1). This social nature of man thus has God for its author, so that societies no less than individuals are God's creatures (Philippe, Christ, King of Nations).
Our Lord Jesus Christ, by His natural primacy is thus as man, King of Societies, particularly King of families and of nations, and by His Kingship of Grace He governs them towards their supernatural end. (Q.P. 543)
6. The Primacy of the Common Good
Man being by nature part of all that goes with a well regulated multitude (St Thomas, 1. Ethics lec. 1 n4), he must necessarily align himself with society as to his end (II-II al q.64 a2), i.e. adapt and dispose his person to act in common with others, thus making up society and in which the person finds his temporal perfection (II-IIa1 q26 a3 and a2). Likewise, he must submit his particular interest to the common good, to wit, sacrifice his life for it (I-IIae q96 a4). Society being in effect but a unity of order and not a substantial unity (St Thomas 1 Ethics, lect 1 n. 5), the common temporal good is not separated from individuals, but it is their good, and it principally consists in a good and virtuous life (Rerum Novarum 303), to which everyone contributes his part (ibid). Moreover, the ultimate end of man is not a virtuous life but through this to arrive at eternal beatitude (St Thomas De Regno, Bk. 1, ch. 14 n.3). Thus the common temporal good is ordered indirectly to the Triune God (II-IIae q.83 a6), the common good of the city of the blessed, Liberalism and totalitarianism are anti-Christian (Pope Pius XI, Divini Redemptoris, no. 3). The individual as king dissolves the common good by the rights of man without God (Pius XI, Aliquantulum 1).
The deified State in turn confiscates the common good in the interest of the faction that is in power and this is slavery. Only the primacy of Christ the King, tearing away from State and individual their usurped crown can give to the common good its primacy and assure its authenticity (Pope Pius XII Allocution June 16, 1939).
7. King of Kings and Lord of Lords
All authority comes from God (Romans 13:1). Political authority does not come from the people but from God. Perhaps an election determines the person of the leader, but it does not confer authority. One decides by whom power must be exercised. Supreme temporal sovereignty belongs to Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords (1 Tim. 6:15), but since He abstains from exercising it Himself, He delegates temporal power to His human office holders, whether they be hereditary monarchs or elected presidents, who do command less in their own name than in the name and in place of the divine King (Q.P. 547). There is no choice between a modern democracy and Christ the King - long live Christ the King.
8. Sovereign Legislator
The law is "an ordinance of reason for the common good promulgated by him who has the care of the community (St Thomas I-IIae q. 90 a1). It is not the work of the human will, even if it is general (cf. Declaration of the Rights of Man) but a work of reason and the wisdom of the legislator. Civil law is destined to apply and make natural law more precise, i.e. human reason partakes in law (I-IIae q.91a2). It is a precious help for human freedom (Leo XIII Libertas 179-180). Our Lord Jesus Christ "by Whom kings reign and legislators decree what is just" (Pr 8,15) has confirmed natural law and promulgated the law of the Gospel (Matt. 5:17) so that human laws find their norm there. The Sovereign Legislator, Christ the King, is the only one to give peace to the nations, i.e. tranquility and order, the peace of Christ in the reign of Christ (Pius XI, Ubi Arcano).
9. King of Families
Both the Catholic City as well as the Church depend for their preservation and prosperity on fertile marriages (Pius XII Allocution to young spouses). Jesus Christ, King of Nations, is thus King of the family, the mother-cell of society (Pius XI Casti Connubi). He recalls that the State must not absorb but supplement what the family cannot do (Pius XI Allocution to the pupils of Mondragone). The Sovereign Legislator, Our Lord Jesus Christ, takes marriage back to its original sanctity and elevates it to the dignity of a sacrament (Casti Connubi 282). Through the voice of the Church, His Mystical Body, He recalls to souls the natural law, and through the instrument of civil legislation He imposes the law on the public life of the Catholic Community, the 'City', in what concerns procreation, reserved to marriage, the preservation of life, conjugal chastity (Pius XII Allocution to midwives), the unity and indissolubility of marriage; He condemns the contrary crimes, He promotes large families with all the virtues (Pius XII Allocution to young spouses), the glory of the Catholic Church where holy religious and priestly vocations flourish.
10. Master of Educators
Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Divine Master, is King of parents and educators, Master of teachers. He reminds the State that education of the child naturally belongs to those who have begotten it, i.e. to the parents (Pius XI Divini Illius Magistri 257). The family is therefore the prime educator and the State cannot arrange the education of children against the will of the parents (op. cit. 258). The family and the school however, must, in instructing and educating, respect the natural and divine law and only teach things that are true (Leo XIII Libertas 209).
Our Lord Jesus Christ confides to the Catholic Church the entire moral and supernatural truth (Pius XI Divini Illius Magistri 24) with the mission to teach all nations (Matt. 28:18). He endows it for that with an infallible magisterium (Pius IX Denz. 1683), with a sovereign authority and with an independence from all earthly power in the original source and exercise of its educative mission (Pius XI Divini Illius Magistri 247).
11. Church and State
What Christ the King is to the Catholic City, the Church, His Mystical Spouse, is in relation to the State. The Catholic Church being spiritual and supernatural, is the supreme society. She is a perfect spouse endowed by her divine Spouse with all the spiritual and temporal means to 'lead men to salvation' (Leo XIII Immortale Dei 134)
The Church and the State are independent and sovereign, each in its own domain (op. cit. 136), but by reason of the subordination of the State's end (the temporal common good) to the Church's end (eternal salvation), the State is indirectly subordinate to the Church which can intervene in the temporal order in the name of supernatural interests (op. cit. 137), and to require from the State protection (op. cit. 131) against the disturbers of the Catholic religion (Pius IX Quanta Cura 39).
Likewise, it behooves the State to protect the unanimity of the citizens in the true religion, an important element of the temporal common good (Card. Ottavianni - Proposition of the Schema on Church and State).
The public duty or office renders to Jesus, our King, public homage according to the cult of the Catholic religion (Q.P. 543, 569).
Finally, the State, according to the circumstances and the judgement of the Church, can tolerate the public exercise of dissident cults and legally guarantee that tolerance (Leo XIII, Immortale Dei 154). However, in principle, it cannot grant liberty to all cults without distinction (Pius VII, Pius IX, Leo XIII), nor admit the false principle of religious liberty. This would be an offence towards the divinity of the Church and towards the spiritual Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
12. The Christian political, social and economic order
The wisdom of the Angelic Doctor, the interventions of the popes, and the reflections of thinkers against the (French) Revolution release the general principles of the natural and Christian order.
Following are some aphorisms expressing these:
"Only the devil has need of universal suffrage." (Leo XIII Diuturum 105)
"Democracy presupposes civic virtue in all, the monarchy, prudence in one person only." (St Thomas I-II ae q 105 a1 and a3)
"The arrival of universal democracy is of no importance to the Church's actions in the world." (St Pius X, Our Apostolic Mandate 31, Instauratio Press edition)
"If the moment has not come for Jesus Christ to reign, the moment has not come for governments to endure." (Card. Pie, conversation with Napoleon III)
"The principle of subsidiarity [Pius XI Quadrigesimo Anno 38] (i.e. to favour private initiatives, the State only intervening to supply what private persons cannot do) prevents effective socialist control." (Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum 296)
"The principle of the common good does away with effective liberal control." (Quadrigesimo Anno 532, 534)
"Justice is the first of the charities." (Quadrigesimo Anno 523)
"Christian charity tempers the injustice of the unjust. The charity of the unjust is the height of injustice." and "The justice of the common good is the first justice." (St Thomas II IIae q58a5)
God says : "So as to be rich, multiply and subdue the earth."
The Devil says: "To be rich, be sterile and the earth as well."
There is no middle way. Either the social reign of the devil, or the Social Reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ the King is the unique hope of the nations. (Gen. 19:10) It is Him that they wait for in darkness, amidst the accumulated ruins of "two centuries of liberal culture." (The Ratzinger Report)
With our Holy Mother the Church, we proclaim that today as always, Our Lord Jesus Christ is the unique source of salvation, both of societies and of individuals (Q.P. 543), since for the material or spiritual, for the temporal as for the eternal, "there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)
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| Pope St. Pius X: Exhortations to Catholic Clergy |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-29-2026, 09:50 AM - Forum: Church Doctrine & Teaching
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Christian Order | August/September 2003
The following counsel, selected from personal and Pastoral letters, sermons, allocutions, encyclicals and discourses,
are extracted from Recipe for Holiness: St. Pius X and the Priest, Lumen Christi Press, 1959.
Exhortations to Catholic Clergy
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Holiness of Life
1. Who is the priest? He is the man of God who brings to souls enlightening truth, conquering love, edifying sanctity. He must show forth in himself the beauty of the God-Man Whom he represents.
His mere duty is not sufficient for a true priest. He needs something higher: sanctity. Jesus Christ requires a simple Christian life of the faithful but of the priest He asks a life of heroism. And, therefore, if Christian perfection is an ornament, a glory and a halo for any member of the faithful, for the priest it must be his normal way of life: a life of faith which helps him to discern the dark arms of the enemy, a life of hope which sustains and strengthens him in his daily struggles, a life of burning and inflaming charity, a life of angelic purity, of sacrifice, of a spirit of poverty, of meekness and of a patience which remains unmoved and unperturbed under the blows of the most atrocious injuries. It must be all this because the priest, raised aloft, must by the light of his example enlighten God's people and warm them with his fervour.
[From a sermon on the occasion of a First Mass when the Pope was Parish Priest of Salzano]
2. Of what use is knowledge if one's behaviour is not what it should be? For this reason, young levites, venerable priests, tread surefootedly on the path of ecclesiastical perfection, ordering your life and behaviour in such a way that in your bearing, your gestures, your walk, your conversation and in all other things you show forth nothing that is not holy and which does not waft the odour of sanctity.
[First Pastoral Letter to the clergy and people of the Diocese of Mantua, 18th March, 1885]
3. The priestly ministry which is not corroborated by authority and by a holy life is a complete failure.
[Pastoral Letter to the clergy and people of the Patriarchate of Venice, 5th September, 1894]
4. The priest must be a man of such irreproachable habits that the world may believe him to be a "divine man", a man whose virtue is superior to that of every other good Christian.
[Letter to Rev. Father Eugene, Provost of Paris, 25th April, 1904. (Acta Pii X, v. I, pp.248-249)]
5. To make Jesus Christ reign in the world, nothing is so necessary as the holiness of the clergy, because the faithful are impressed more by the example than by the word or by the learning and – as the old proverb says – they will always be as their priests are: *sicut sacerdos, sic populus*.
[Letter to Cardinal Peter Respighi, Vicar General, 5th May, 1904. (Acta, Pii X, v. I, p. 257)]
6. As we must be the light of the world by our doctrine, so by the example of our life we must be the salt of the earth (Matt. 5, 13-14). Only on this condition will we be loved by good people and respected even by our enemies.
[Allocution to the Bishops assembled at Rome for the fiftieth anniversary of the definition of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, 12th December, 1904. (Acta S. Sedis, ann. XXXVII, p.433)]
7. As the priesthood is a reflection of Christ's priesthood, priests must reproduce His virtues. They must be one with Jesus in affection, in feeling and in thought.
[Allocution to the students of the French Pontifical Seminary, Rome, 23rd February, 1905. (See: "Le St. Siege et le Seminaire Francais de Rome," p.77, Rome 1935)]
8. In his every action the priest must show himself a man of God, as the Apostle desires (Tim. 6, 11), and remember that on his example depends the destiny of his people. Jesus Christ Himself compares him to light and salt, to indicate (Matt. 5, 13-14) where his actions must lead him. But if he fails to confirm by the example of his life what he teaches by word of mouth, his ministry is useless.
Jesus Christ, Who made Himself the model of priests, first taught by deed and only later by word. For this reason, if the priest neglects holiness of life he cannot be the light of the world nor the salt of the earth, because where holiness is lacking there we find corruption.
[Exhortation to Catholic Clergy, 4th August 1908. (Acta Pii X, v. IV, pp. 239-240)]
9. There must be as big a gap between the life of the priest and the life of an average honest Christian, as there is between heaven and earth. Hence the priest must avoid not only serious sins but even the slightest sin, in conformity with the viewpoint of the venerable Fathers of the Holy Council of Trent who warn clerics and priests to avoid even slight faults because in them such faults would be serious [Twenty-second: De Reform., C.I. Session]: not serious in themselves but taking into consideration the priests and clerics who commit them, who are holy in an even more strict sense than the holy temples: *"Domum tuam decet sanctitudo"* (Psalm XCII, 5).
[Exhortation to Catholic Clergy, 4th August 1908 (ibid.)]
10. May unblemished living habits, which are the greatest glory of Christ's priesthood and the ornament which makes it honoured in the eyes of the world, thrive and shine forth among the clergy.
[Exhortation to Catholic Clergy, 4th August 1908 (ibid.)]
11. Ignorance or poverty of doctrine is something unworthy of a priest who must instruct the people in the law of God, but it is still more unworthy that a priest should exercise his ministry without having a care for holiness of life.
[Letter to the Bishops of Venezuela, 8th December, 1910. (Acta Ap. Sedis, IV, p.25)]
12. Everybody knows from experience that good living habits in the people are a consequence of holiness of life in the priests.
[Apostolic Constitution "Susceptus inde", 25th March, 1914. (Acta Ap. Sedis, VI, p.213)]
13. If the priest has at all times need of a decorous store of virtues and of virtues of a high order, in our times very much more is required because unfortunately the corruption of good habits has increased and become widespread out of all proportion. For this reason it is proper that a singular preeminence of virtue and strength should shine forth in the priest. Actually priests cannot live in solitude but, because of the very offices of their ministry, must come into contact with the people and this in the centres of the city where every passion is not only permitted but licentiously borne in triumph. And from this it is clear that in our day a priest's virtue must be so strong that he can defend himself courageously and emerge unharmed just as much from alluring enticements as from the danger of bad example.
[Pastoral Letter to the clergy and people of the Patriarchate of Venice, 5th September, 1894]
Means to Holiness
1. The priest must set apart every day a certain time for meditating eternal truth because, as he is in the midst of the world's seductions, he must be wary lest the snares of the infernal enemy be hidden even in the exercise of his ministry.
He must meditate so that with renewed vigour his mind and heart may resist the enticements of evil and draw from eternal truth those lights which are necessary in the exercise of his extremely difficult ministry in the care of souls.
[Exhortation to Catholic Clergy, 4th August, 1908 (Acta Pii X, v. IV, p.259)]
2. The priest must follow up his meditation by reading books of devotion and above all the divinely-inspired Books of Holy Scripture which are necessary if he is to preach the word of God in a worthy manner.
Nowadays many go astray because, instead of works of piety and the Divine Books, they prefer very different writings and papers which are sometimes full of poison because they contain hidden errors even though these may not be of a very serious nature.
[Exhortation to Catholic Clergy, 4th August, 1908 (Ibid.)]
3. Besides Mental Prayer and Spiritual Reading, the Examination of Conscience so much counselled by masters of the spiritual life is of considerable help in acquiring Christian virtues. For this reason every priest at the end of his day should recollect himself and ask judgement of his conscience. He should be a diligent self-examiner in order to know himself and see how and in what manner he has carried out his duties. He should present himself before his conscience as he would before a tribunal and weep over his sins.
[Exhortation to Catholic Clergy, 4th August, 1908 (Ibid.)]
4. We can preach it without fear of being contradicted, that the good priests of a Diocese, the priests who are exemplary and zealous in their duties, are those who withdraw from time to time in Spiritual Exercises in order to dedicate themselves to their sanctification and nourish themselves with words of life.
[Pastoral Letter to the Clergy of the Diocese of Mantua, 28th July, 1887]
5. For us priests there is always the danger that, being in the world for the purpose of reminding it of its depravation, we may become corrupted by its poison while we are trying to heal its wounds.
There is the risk that the spiritual infirmities which we see in others may diminish our idea of our own, and weaken the view which faith gives us of their enormity. There is the danger that we may compare ourselves with men of the world and think we are holy because we are less guilty, or perfect because we have less defects… [and so] the necessity of recollection is all the more pressing the more external the work we do. In the midst of so many distractions fervour must inevitably grow cold, the zest for piety must as a matter of course be diminished, the consequent languor must of necessity penetrate the soul a little at a time like a slow fever and destroy every principle of priestly life. To avoid all these disorders we have a powerful help in recollection and retreat… the only means of getting away from the miseries of life and making us grow in those virtues which must form the ecclesiastic's patrimony.
[Pastoral Letter to the Clergy of the Diocese of Mantua, 18th July, 1892]
Piety and Prayer
1. Priests, if you do not wish to be deceived and if you wish to keep an integral faith and doctrine, you must cultivate piety. The devout man keeps his passions under control, does not boast, does not become proud, and cultivates all the virtues which are the sources and masters of doctrine because, besides knowing that he cannot convince anyone with his teaching if this latter is not confirmed by the authority and innocence of his life, he receives the divine word with such reverence that he considers even the slightest alteration of it a horrible crime. We should be able to say of every priest what St. Gregory of Nazianzen said of his father: "Although second in learning, in piety he was the leader of the learned." [Orat. XVIII]
[Exhortation to Catholic Clergy, 4th August, 1908 (Acta Pii X, v. IV, p.248)]
2. The person who is not accustomed to speaking with God in the intimacy of prayer will never be able to speak efficaciously of the things which have to do with eternal life. No matter how learned and eloquent his words may be, if they lack the breath of prayer they cannot have the power of convincing and persuading. The word of God is dead on the lips of such a person because the sense of Christ is lacking in him.
[Exhortation to Catholic Clergy, 4th August, 1908 (Ibid.)]
Sacrifice
1. We did not enter the priesthood to have an easy life. We must work: that is our first duty.
To put it more clearly: to be priests is the same as to be men obliged to labour. The Apostles taught it by their examples: all priests full of the spirit of God have taught it: the Church teaches it…
We may suppose that in order to procure the salvation of souls we run the risk of losing our health and shortening our life. But is it not a glory to die of labour or while we are labouring when Jesus Christ with so much suffering died for us on the cross?
[Pastoral Letter to the clergy and people of the Diocese of Mantua, 25th May, 1899]
2. Some think that the glory of a priest should be made up entirely of outward activity. Overlooking almost entirely those virtues by which man is made perfect and which We call passive, they say that all his activity and study would contribute to the growth and exercise of the active virtues. It is really amazing how much falsehood and ruin this doctrine contains… It will not be out of place to consider that the exceptionally prudent Pontiff [Leo XIII] with good reason made mention of mortification which, in the words of the Gospel, we call denial of self, because in this maxim is contained the fortitude, the virtue and all the fruit of priestly ministry; whereas if this be neglected the priest's habits may offend the eyes and minds of the faithful. For if the priest strive for illegal gains, if he become involved in worldly affairs, if he give rein to flesh and blood, if he try to please men and trust in the persuasive ways of human wisdom, all this is the fruit of neglecting Christ's commandments and of refusing to accept the conditions laid down by Him: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me."
Obedience
If a priest wishes to have a very successful ministry, he should carry out punctually all the orders received without looking for others and he should not regret that he has not other occupations. In this way not only will he fulfill his duty but he will conquer his self-love, thus gaining a precious victory and the one most pleasing to God.
[Allocution to students and Professors of the Milan Major Seminary, 15th October, 1908 (Acta Pii X, v. IV, p.296)]
Charity
Priests, let that charity which seeks only the increase of God's glory shine forth always in you.
A multitude of miserable and unhappy ones together with legions of adolescents – dearest hope of the Church and of the country – surrounded by evil on all sides await the gift of your charity. Continue industriously not only to teach Catechism, which We wish once again to recommend warmly to you, but to make yourselves ever better deserving of society by word and work, comforting, healing, defending and purifying in order to win souls to Christ or bring them ever closer to Him.
As often happens, your charity will be met by hate, injury and calumny, but continue fearlessly in it… following the example of the Apostles… We are the children of the Saints whose names shine in the book of eternity and whose praises resound gloriously in Christ's Church: "Let us not stain our glory." [1 Macc. 9, 10]
[Exhortation to Catholic Clergy, 4th August, 1908 (Acta Pii X, v. IV, pp.260-261)]
Zeal
What is the duty of those who have been placed by God to rule His Church? What is the obligation of all those who have received from Heaven and accepted the sublime mission of saving souls? … If God has commanded everyone to have care of the eternal salvation of his brethren how much more He has commanded us priests.
The priests must announce truth. Hence those priests who think they are rendering a service to the Church and who with human prudence allow large concessions to false science under the fatal illusion of being able the more easily to win over erring ones, are making a serious mistake. Such people run the risk of losing their souls. Truth is one and indivisible, lasts for all eternity and is not subject to the vicissitudes of time. Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday today and down the centuries (Hebrews 13:8).
If there was a time in which human prudence seemed the only way of obtaining anything in a world which was unprepared to receive the doctrine of Jesus Christ, so repugnant to human passions and so opposed to the flourishing Roman and Greek civilization, that time was most certainly that in which the first preaching of the Christian faith took place.
The Apostles scorned that prudence because they know the designs of God Whom "it pleased to save, by the foolishness of our preaching, those who believed" [1 Cor. 1:21]. As always, so also today this foolishness is the virtue of God. The scandal of the Cross has furnished and always will furnish the most powerful and unconquerable weapon and, as has already happened, by this scandal and by this foolishness we shall gain the victory.
[First discourse in the Patriarchal Synod of Venice. (Constitutiones ab E.mo JOSEPHO Card. SARTO Metropolitanae-Ecclesiae Venetiarum Patriarcha in Synodo Diocesana ann. 1898 promulgatae, p.112. Venetiis 1898)]
Dignity and Propriety
In order never to be guilty of any disedifying act, the priest must regulate his actions, his movements and his habits in harmony with the sublimity of his vocation. He who on the altar almost ceases to be mortal and takes on a divine form, remains always the same even when he comes down from the holy hill and leaves the temple of the Lord. Wherever he is, wherever he goes, he never ceases to be a priest and the serious reasons which compel him always to be grave and becoming accompany him with his dignity everywhere.
Hence he must have that gravity which will ensure that his words, his bearing and his way of working arouse love, win authority and excite reverence, because the very reasons which oblige him to be holy make it a duty for him to show it by his outward acts in order to edify all those with whom he is obliged to come into contact. A composed and dignified exterior is a sort of powerful eloquence which wins souls in a much more efficacious manner than persuasive sermons. Nothing inspires greater confidence than an ecclesiastic who, never forgetting the dignity of his state, demonstrates in every situation that gravity which attracts and wins universal homage. If on the contrary he forgets, the holiness of the sacred character which he bears indelibly impressed and engraved on his soul, and if he fails to show in his outward conduct a gravity superior to that of certain men of the world, he causes his ministry and religion itself to be despised, because when gravity is wanting in the leaders the people lose respect and veneration for them.
If the faithless modern world has stripped the priest of that halo of veneration with which he was formerly crowned, it is more than necessary that in our times he should by his bearing win once again the people's respect for his high dignity and propriety. The more so because experience teaches us that the world, always unjust and full of malice, is shocked not only by the slightest failings it discerns in ecclesiastics but even by their most innocent actions whenever these do not bear the seal of that gravity which it has a right to expect of them.
Priests do not, therefore, give ear to worldly innovations whose profane maxims influence minds with arguments at variance with the teaching of the Church, and lead some boldly to accuse of ignorance those Fathers and Teachers whose sound and well-founded wisdom can never be replaced by the presumptuous pedantry of certain modern minds.
We recommend to you priestly gravity which condemns fickleness of thought, that fickleness by which certain persons are led to refuse contemptuously to listen to the teaching and experience of wise men, and are induced to allow themselves to be guided by foolish arguments, and the school of modern teachings which bring them to ruin.
We recommend to you that gravity which makes you love the yoke of discipline: that yoke whose dispositions are censured by some who yearn after an unlimited liberty free from subjection, who refuse to realise that discipline is the only means of avoiding the evil of rebellion against authority, and who thus deceive themselves because they have not a firm and resolute love of good.
Priests, do not forget that priestly gravity and propriety must characterise your ministry, whereas everything which tends towards secular habits, shows up the priest as vain and flighty in the eyes of the world which is perfectly able to discern the more respectable priests even from their outward bearing.
If these are the facts, will it ever be lawful – We ask you – for clerics and priests to take from worldly people the example of certain habits which lead them to abandon their dignity and propriety?
[Pastoral Letter to the Clergy of the Diocese of Mantua, 25th August, 1895]
Study
1. Nothing is so useful for the restoration of all things in Christ as the sound doctrine of the clergy wed to good example.
[Letter to Cardinal Respighi, Vicar General, 27th December, 1904 (Acta Pii X, v. I, p.421)]
2. Priests must be learned not only in Theology but in Philosophy, in Canon Law and in natural arts and sciences, especially in our day when an effort is made to use the conquests of science as a weapon against the Church, saying that the ancient wisdom of Catholic doctrine has finally run its course and that tomorrow science will be able to prove the truth of what today is considered false.
[Letter to Mons. L. Pechenard, Rector of the Catholic Institute of Paris, 22nd February, 1905 (Acta Pii X, v. II, pp.49-50)]
3. The priest must accompany holiness of life with study. The Church requires it and it is demanded by Christian people who wish to be instructed in the law of God by the words of the priest: "For the lips of the priest shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law at his mouth" [Malach 2:7].
[Encyclical "Acerbo nimis", 15th April, 1905 (Acta Pii X, v. II, p.75)]
Preaching
1. Listeners are not fond of long descriptions or flowery rhetoric such as were used occasionally in past times, but wish to be reminded of their duties and to meditate on the truths of faith. You need a good argument with a logical connection, not too long, well-ordered and suitably phrased.
[Letter to Father Luke of Padua, Capuchin and Apostolic Preacher, 13th January, 1909 (See: N. Vian, Lettere di S. Pio X, pp.345-346, Roma 1954)]
2. The principal source of our preaching must be Sacred Scripture, not interpreted, however, according to the private judgement of minds which in most cases are clouded by passion, but according to Church tradition and to the interpretation of the Fathers and Councils. The Creed, the Ten Commandments, the Precepts of the Church, the Sacraments, the virtues and vices, man's last end, the duties proper to each state and condition, should be the matters to which the preacher devotes his special attention.
Some preachers praise the benefits which the Christian religion procures for Society, but are silent about the duties to which men are bound. They praise only the charity of Our Lord and say nothing about His justice. Thus it happens that worldly people hear this sort of preaching and become convinced that, without changing anything in their lives, they can be Christians merely by saying: "I believe in Jesus Christ."
Such preachers do not seek the salvation of souls but rather what does not offend the ears of their listeners, and as long as the churches are full they are little concerned about the spiritual void in souls. Their only worry is to say what pleases and their eloquence is not sacred and apostolic but redolent of the law courts. What they seek is applause. Against such as they St. Jerome has these words: "When you teach in church you must not seek for the applause of the crowd but that they should weep: the tears of your listeners should be your praise."
The faithful are much better catered for by a simple homily and by the Parish Priest's explanation of the Catechism than by sermons which are not penetrated by the spirit of Christ.
[Encyclical "Pieni d'animo" to the Bishops of Italy, 28th July, 1906 (Acta Pii X, v. III. pp. 168-170)]
Social apostolate
1. The priest must keep himself aloof from every lay association even the most useful ones and even if he is moved by the best of intentions.
[Encyclical "Notre charge apostolique" to the French Bishops on the condemnation of the social democratic errors of the work "Sillon" by Mark Sagnier (Acta Ap. Sedis, II, p.632)]
2. We very much desire that the clergy, whose duty it is to form the people's conscience, should take an interest in social problems and charitable works but without losing themselves in the maze of varying viewpoints or letting themselves be deceived by the mirage of a false democracy and avoiding completely the emphatic rhetoric of the worst enemies of the Church and the people whose speeches are full of promises as impracticable as they are alluring.
They should know how to adapt the Christian spirit to the new needs created by the material evolution of contemporary society, but should remember that the Church has never betrayed the interests of the people with compromising alliances, that the true friends of the people are neither revolutionists nor innovators but traditionalists and that Jesus Christ never tolerated mistaken convictions in those who were misled no matter how sincere they seemed. Never has He inspired the humble with rebellious sentiments, never enticed the suffering with the vision of an illusory equality nor ever promised a kingdom in which suffering would be banished. He came into this world so that all men, united to Him in charity, might have peace and happiness in time and eternity but on condition that they accepted His teaching, practised virtue and listened to the teachings of His Church.
[Encyclical "Notre charge apostolique" (Ibid.)]
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