His Most Progressive Holiness to the Peoples of the World
Comments on the Christmas, 1944 Radio Message of Pius XII
Christmas Eve, 1944, like that of 2023, fell on a Sunday. Pius XII begins by lamenting the current state of the world, convulsing in the horrors or the destructive war. He blames nobody but those who initiate "Wars of Aggression". And he beholds the solution: "To an ever-increasing number of noble souls there comes the thought, the will, ever clearer and stronger, to make of this war, this universal upheaval, a starting point for a new era of far- reaching renovation, the complete reorganization of the world... is it to be wondered at if the tendency towards democracy is capturing the peoples and winning a large measure of consent and support from those who hope to play a more efficient part in the destinies of individuals and of society?"
What is to be wondered at, dear reader, is that the Roman Pontiff could have such an abysmal view of the history of the last century and a half. What is to be wondered at is that this pontiff did not see the current horrors (the war raging in 1944) as the culmination of two centuries of rebellion against Godly order. Pope Pius XII seems to have forgotten that these horrors started with the American Revolution of 1776, and the French Revolution of 1789, and progressed through the Napoleonic Wars, the Revolutions of 1848, the Italian Wars of Succession, the Franco Prussian War, the Spanish-American War, the Sino-Russian War, and World War One, along with a bevy of lesser conflicts. He also seems to have forgotten that rising with the tide of war has been the Freemasonic Ritual of the Voting Booth, Campaigns, and Political Parties. One does wonder if Pius XII is not here promoting the Masonic Ideal of a New World Order under a One World Government.
Meanwhile, in a haunting prelude to the Second Vatican Council, this pontiff will broach the subject of Human Dignity. He begins by declaring that "Christmas is the feast of human dignity". He laments that humanity "has descended and fallen into chaos and into the denial of its own dignity." He goes on to declare that "taught by bitter experience, [men] are more aggressive in opposing the concentration of dictatorial power that cannot be censured or touched, and call for a system of government more in keeping with the dignity and liberty of the citizens." Again, "if, then, on this feast day which commemorates both the benignity of the Incarnate Word and the dignity of man (both in its personal and social aspects), We direct our attention to the problem of democracy..."
The Tenor of this speech will become increasingly Freemasonic. Witness the following: "In a people worthy of the name, the citizen feels within him the consciousness of his personality, of his duties and rights, of his own freedom joined to respect for the freedom and dignity of others. In a people worthy of the name all inequalities based not on whim but on the nature of things, inequalities of culture, possessions, social standing—without, of course, prejudice to justice and mutual charity—do not constitute any obstacle to the existence and the prevalence of a true spirit of union and brotherhood. On the contrary, so far from impairing civil equality in any way, they give it its true meaning; namely, that, before the state, everyone has the right to live honorably his own personal life in the place and under the conditions in which the designs and dispositions of Providence have placed him." Notice the total lack of reference to eternity.
"As against this picture of the democratic ideal of liberty and equality in a people's government by honest and far-seeing men, what a spectacle is that of a democratic state left to the whims of the masses: Liberty, from being a moral duty of the individual becomes a tyrannous claim to give free rein to a man's impulses and appetites to the detriment of others. Equality degenerates to a mechanical level, a colorless uniformity, the sense of true honor, of personal activity, or respect for tradition, of dignity—in a word all that gives life its worth— gradually fades away and disappears. And the only survivors are, on the one hand, the victims deluded by the specious mirage of democracy, naively taken for the genuine spirit of democracy, with its liberty and equality; and on the other, the more or less numerous exploiters, who have known how to use the power of money and of organization, in order to secure a privileged position above the others, and have gained power."
Of course, Pius XII cannot give one example where a "democracy of virtuous men" has triumphed over "democracy over the whims of the masses". That is because Pius XII is postulating here a Pelagian chimera. He seems to have forgotten the miserable state of fallen men with his utopian dream of men advancing in virtue and able to concoct a perfect state that will lead man to the "workers' paradise". Of necessity, evil men are often more cunning than the virtuous, as per the words of Our Lord Jesus Christ: "...for the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light." Therefore, to act as though men, on their own terms, can forge a more perfect order than the wise monarchs of old, is folly.
To be sure, Pius XII will posit a most firm foundation for his ideal democracy: "The democratic state, whether it be monarchical or republican, should, like any other form of government, be entrusted with the power to command with real and effective authority. The absolute order itself of beings and purposes, which shows that man is an independent person, namely the subject of inviolable duties and rights, who is the source and end of his own social life, comprises the state also as a necessary society endowed with authority, without which it could neither exist nor live. And if men, using their personal liberty, were to deny all dependence on a superior Authority possessing coercive power, they could by this very fact cut the ground from under their own dignity and liberty—by violating, that is, the absolute order of beings and purposes."
He goes further: "And since that absolute order, in the light of right reason, and in particular of the Christian Faith, cannot have any other origin than in a personal God, our Creator, it follows that the dignity of man is the dignity of the moral community willed by God, the dignity of political authority is the dignity deriving from its sharing in the authority of God."
And of course, here this Wolf absolutely agrees. But then, just one short paragraph later, Pius XII is going to navigate back into difficult waters: "Only a clear appreciation of the purposes assigned by God to every human society, joined to a deep sense of the exalted duties of social activity, can put those in power in a position to fulfill their own obligations in the legislative, judicial and executive order with that objectivity, impartiality, loyalty, generosity, and integrity without which a democratic government would find it hard to command the respect and the support of the better section of the people."
In all this vagary no explicit mention of the purpose of political society- the safeguarding of the family, the institutional church, and the moral law- is mentioned. Men here appear to be regarded as mere individuals, each striving to "live his personal life" whatever exactly that means.
And now the wishes of the pope and of the Masonic Lodges are going to merge: "But how far will the representatives and pioneers of democracy be inspired in their deliberations by the conviction that the absolute order of beings and purposes, of which We have repeatedly spoken, comprises also, as a moral necessity and the crowning of social development, the unity of mankind and of the family of peoples? On the recognition of this principle hangs the future of the peace. No world reform, no peace guarantee can abstract from it without being weakened and without being untrue to itself. If, on the other hand, this same moral necessity were to find its realization in a society of peoples which succeeded in eliminating the structural defects and shortcomings of former systems, then the majesty of that order would regulate and inspire equally the deliberations of that society and the use of its instruments of sanction.
"For this reason, too, one understands why the authority of such a society must be real and effective over the member states, in suchwise, however, that each of them retain an equal right of its own sovereignty. Only thus will the spirit of sane democracy be able to pervade the vast and thorny ground of foreign relations."
In other words, not the Catholic Church, but a "United Nations" will be the ultimate arbiter of the peace.
For Pius XII, this is an absolutely necessity: "There is a duty, besides, imposed on all, a duty which brooks no delay, no procrastination, no hesitation, no subterfuge: It is the duty to do everything to ban once and for all wars of aggression as legitimate solution of international disputes and as a means towards realizing national aspirations."
Pius XII would have done much better telling the World that the war was a punishment for sins, and the true way to peace was through the recitation of the Most Holy Rosary and Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Instead, he wished to echo his predecessor, Pius XI, the Pope of Catholic Inaction.
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us. You are our only hope!