Ecumenism: Destroyer of Nations
Our Lord, on the day of His Ascension into Heaven, gave to the Apostles what the Greeks call “the Great Commission”: “Go therefore, and teach ye all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the consummation of the world.”1 These words of Our Lord constitute the very mission of the Catholic Church: to make disciples amongst all nations, to give them the sacraments, and to govern them by the laws of grace which Our Lord has given us.
The many different peoples to whom the apostles and their successors would be sent would become great nations upon receiving the doctrine and grace of Our Lord. The rough and brutal rulers of pagan lands, in receiving baptism, not only received grace in abundance but also received a civilising order, a solid foundation for their rule. When the civil power receives and promotes the doctrine of Christ, the abundance of God’s blessings flows upon the land and its rulers. When God is not honoured and His Church hindered, however, rather than being helped in their mission, grief and desolation soon overwhelm even the strongest of empires.
Modern society prides itself on being “independent” in religious matters. In pursuit of the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity, it believes that the state or civil constitution ought to be “neutral” with regard to religion. This idea is given the nebulous term “religious freedom,” that is to say, the guarantee of the exercise of any religion no matter its form. According to this modern vision, individuals in the modern state can have any religious beliefs so long as they do not interfere with the public order. Fundamentally put, the laws of the land should not be influenced by any particular religion but rather they should accept them all. The ideal modern state is one that is “indifferent” to religion, or more properly, that has no official religion.
However, this entire project, which is called the modern order of democratic societies, is based on completely false principles. Men quite simply are not created equal. They are not equal with regard to their economic or social status, nor in their physical talents. They are not even created with equal opportunities, for each person is often drastically limited by circumstances given to him by nature that are beyond his control. Each child enters this world drastically dependent on others for his mere survival. The very fabric of society even depends on some of the members telling others what to do since not everything can be done by everybody. Thus the very notion of fraternity is antithetical to what we call civilisation since civilisation requires a division of labor and responsibilities. The modern state is, of its very nature, destroying the foundations upon which it must be built.
There is simply no such thing as a state or government that is “indifferent” to religion. The state will always have some set of rules that govern behaviour. Some actions are tolerated, others are rewarded and even others are punished. What is permitted or prohibited in society is a fundamentally religious and moral question since it touches upon the common good of society and describes what the state expects of its citizens. Public policy towards behaviour is the necessary and obvious statement of what the state considers as conditions of good living and what makes people ethical and moral. This public policy can be completely illogical and even self-destructive, but it exists nonetheless. In fact, there would be no government without it. To say that the state has no “official religion” is actually a lie. It always shows its religion by the laws it promulgates, by what it considers acceptable or unacceptable, just like any religious organisation does. The official religion might not be very coherent and based upon completely false principles, but nonetheless, there is always a religion that the state promotes even if it pretends otherwise.
Modern “religious liberty” has as its natural consequence the complete destruction of the civil order and even of what we call civilisation. If we take the principle to its logical extreme, it means that we should not lock up the murderer or punish the thief. Every thief will give some justification for his actions, and every murderer will give some rationalisation for his behaviour. These justifications and reasons constitute a sort of religious conviction. Should not we accept these reasonings and justifications? If we take the notion of indifferentism to its conclusion, then there is no reason to punish such persons. If all religions are to have the same rights, by what means can we refuse Satanists access to the public square? If the state remains indifferent to all religious expressions, even child sacrifice will soon have the permission and even funding of the state. In claiming not to have an official religion, the state essentially gives itself over to the worship of devils and perverts.
Our Lord tells us to give to Caesar the things that appertain to Caesar, and to God the things that are God's. Caesar himself must answer to God for the laws he promulgates and enforces, for the wicked that he did not punish and for the innocent whom he has harmed. He simply has no authority to impose upon us an order that is against God.
Lest we be infected with this toxic fume of error permeating all of civil society, we must remind ourselves often that we are obliged to worship God as God Himself has revealed to us. We have no right to worship God falsely, nor to provide false rationalisations for our wretched behaviour. We are obliged to profess the truth not only privately, but especially publicly. We may have to tolerate those in error since we lack the means to remove the error entirely. However, by no means do we have the right to promote those who do wrong. We must pray for our countries that they become more and more Christian, professing the one name by which we can be saved,2 to whom every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.3