Dominican College of San Rafael - Firebrand Yearbook (San Rafael, CA)

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Unless the Lord build the city, they labor in vain that build it . The last two Popes, Pius XI and Pius XII, have repeatedly sought to inspire the lay people of the Church to help in the task of winning back the world. They have pleaded for Catholics not only to live good lives, but more: to unite in a movement which would bring many souls to the Lord. This movement is Catholic Action, which is defined by Pope Pius XI as the organized participation of the laity in the apostolate of the hierarchy . Pope Pius XII not only echoes the pleas of his predecessor for the Christianization of environments, but he also endeavors to make the peace-makers remember that there is a God, and that man was given certain natural rights by God. Until the leaders realize that man is at the basis of all their problems, and until each peace-maker ' s idea of man harmonizes with that of his fellow leader, there will be no foundation for any real peace. The leaders also must feel that the control of the atomic bomb, the jurisdiction of certain advantageous lands, and so on, must be a secondary consideration to the protection of man in the enjoyment of his God-given natural rights. We, as children of God, should not sit back while so many of our brothers are suffering at the hands of insincere or incompetent peace-makers. 123

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CRISIS IN CHRISTENDOM THE WORLD today has reached a crisis. Christ is a remote figure to most people; He stands in the shadow of two thousand years, and does not influence our lives. The lack of the truly Christian spirit has made almost every environment, whether it be school, office, factory, or home, incomplete and poor. Most people live as if there were no God. They seek worldly pleasures, trying to find happiness; they do not realize that real happiness comes from knowing and loving God. Paganism is settling on the world, clogging up the pores of humanity. Religion is looked upon as something to be ashamed of, or at least never to be mentioned. It is considered unethical to remind men how religious principles should affect their politics, their big business, and all other affairs of state. Every- where worldly customs, principles, and institutions are flourishing, and they are so common and expected that most people do not even recognize them as vicious. Racial and national prejudices, hatred of enemies, selfishness, sensual pleasure are a few evi- dences of the lack of Christian charity in the world. This shattered world can not be rebuilt through politics or diplomacy alone, but through the power of God and His Church. In the Psalms of David we read. 122

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Christ died for all men without exception, and we should pray to Him to give us the peace-makers. How similar this sounds to the theories expressed by Saint Augustine in the fifth century, and how analogous is the condition of the world at that time compared to now. The social dualism in Saint Augus- tine ' s time was a violent antithesis of two opposing orders: the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world, Babylon; the present age and the future age; the imperial society of the past and the Christian so- ciety to come. Although these two worlds met and intermingled physically, there was no spiritual as- sociation between them. The Christians, while ming- ling with Babylon, had to recognize the external order of the earthly state which was to the advantage of both ; yet there was no true bond of spiritual fellow- ship or common citizenship between the members of the two societies. In The City of God Saint Augustine warns the people of the fifth century, as Pope Pius XII cautions us fourteen centuries later, about a false peace: The true peace, which is complete and eter- nal, Heaven ' s perfect peace, belongs, however, to the Christians only, now in prospect, then in possession . . . and, whereas there is now but an imperfect rest for the citizen of the worldly city, there will then be a perpetual unrest and continual disquiet. . . . 124