Gary Morella - Pope Bows to Liberty, Fraternity and Equality

Consequences of Vatican II

Pope Bows to Liberty, Fraternity and Equality as Ideals of the French Revolution

Gary L. Morella

A news report published August 14 by the Italian Journalism Agency (AGI) was entitled "Pope: I Bow to Freedom, Frathernity and Equality." The article reads:

When pope John Paul II got to France, he wanted to pay homage to the constitutive values of this country and in his first speech he linked its great Christian heritage "with the ideals coming from the French revolution: freedom, fraternity and equality. "

"In respect to each one's responsibilities and competences, the Catholic Church wants to offer to society its specific contribution for the building of a world in which the ideals of freedom, equality and fraternity can be the base of the social life in seeking for the common good," the Pope said.

In Lourdes, JPII: Church can work with the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity - AP, August 15, 2004

If the report above is accurate, we have a Pope who has embraced the creed of a revolution whose main intent was to destroy Catholicism.

Incredibly, Pope John Paul II bows to liberty, fraternity, and equality - the ideals of the French Revolution which practically destroyed Catholic France, according to this report. Is France better off now than it was under the reign of Saint Louis IX when there was no such thing as separation of Church and State and something called Christendom still existed? The Pope by his statement would seem to indicate that the answer is "Yes."

How can Catholicism be "linked" with the ideals of a revolution that wanted to eradicate Catholicism? Something cannot "be" and "not be" at the same time, which is the fundamental philosophic principle of non-contradiction. Hopefully what has occurred here is some overzealous reporting that is not accurate. But if it is accurate, Catholicism now sees nothing wrong with the French Revolution.

Contrast this with the statement of Pope Saint Pius X on freedom, fraternity, and equality in his apostolic letter to Le Sillon.

Le Sillon was a French Catholic movement which became tainted by ideas of the French Revolution. The Apostolic Letter Of St. Pius X was written to refute some of the movement's excesses. Note especially the strong refutations of the false ideas on liberty, equality, fraternity, the dignity of man, and what amounts to the "Civilization of Love," as well as the separation of Church and State, which has never been Catholic teaching.

Make a reality check by reading the clear condemnation of Pope Pius X:

"[S]uch is the theory, one could say the dream of the [French] Sillon; and that is what its teaching aims at, what it calls the democratic education of the people, that is, raising to its maximum the conscience and civic responsibility of every one, from which will result economic and political Democracy and the reign of justice, liberty, equality, fraternity. ...

"Now then! Distrust of the Church, their Mother, is being instilled into the minds of Catholic youth; they are being taught that after nineteen centuries She has not yet been able to build up in this world a society on true foundations; She has not understood the social notions of authority, liberty, equality, fraternity and human dignity" (Condemnation of Sillonism, 1910)

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Posted August 24, 2004

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