Chapter VI
The Meaningful Contribution of the
Nobility and Traditional Elites to the Solution of the Contemporary
Crisis
The Teaching of Pius XII
Having seen the legitimacy and necessity
of the existence of traditional elites, we shall now present
Pius XII's teachings on how these elites should act as leaders
of society through the qualities and virtues proper to them.
Indeed, they have no right to exempt themselves from this
responsibility.
1. Christian Virtue:
The Essence of Nobility
Today's noble should be, above all, a
man in whom spiritual qualities shine. Christian virtue
and the Christian ideal are part of the very essence of
nobility.
Lift your gaze and keep it fixed on the
Christian ideal. All those upheavals, those evolutions
and revolutions, have left it untouched. They can do nothing
against what is the inner essence of true nobility, that
which aspires to Christian perfection, the same that the
Redeemer pointed to in the Sermon on the Mount. Unconditional
loyalty to Catholic doctrine, to Christ, and to His Church;
the ability and the will to be also models and guides
for others.... You must present to the world,
even to the world of believers and of practicing Catholics,
the spectacle of a faultless conjugal life, the edification
of a truly exemplary domestic hearth.1
Pius XII then calls the nobility to a holy
intransigence.
You must build a dike against every infiltration,
into your home and your circles, of ruinous ideas, pernicious
indulgences and tolerances that might contaminate and
sully the purity of matrimony and family. Here
indeed is an exemplary and holy enterprise, well suited
to ignite the zeal of the Roman and Christian nobility
in our times.2
a. The spiritual
qualities of the contemporary noble
To overcome the grave obstacles that hinder
the perfect fulfillment of his duty, a member of the nobility
or traditional elites should be a man of valor. This is
what the Vicar of Jesus Christ expects of him.
Therefore, what We expect of you is above
all a strength of soul that even the harshest trials cannot
vanquish; a strength of soul that should make you not
only perfect soldiers of Christ for yourselves, but also,
as it were, instructors and supporters for those who might
be tempted to doubt or give in.
What We expect of you is, secondly, a
readiness to act that is not daunted nor discouraged by
any anticipation of sacrifice that might be required for
the common good; a readiness and a fervor that, in making
you swift to carry out all your duties as Catholics and
citizens, should keep you from falling into an apathetic,
inert "abstentionism," which would be a grievous
sin at a time when the most vital interests of religion
and country are at stake.
What We expect of you, lastly, is a generous
adhesion—not under your breath and for the mere
sake of formality, but from the bottom of your hearts
and carried out without reservation—to Christian
doctrine and the Christian life, to the precept of brotherhood
and social justice, the observance of which cannot fail
to ensure you spiritual and temporal happiness.
May this strength of soul, this fervor,
this brotherly spirit guide every one of your steps and
reaffirm your path in the course of the New Year, which
has been so uncertain in its birth and almost seems to
be leading you toward a dark tunnel.3
The Pontiff develops these concepts even
more in his allocution of 1949.
All are in need of strength of soul,
but especially so in our times, in order to bear the suffering
bravely, to overcome life's difficulties victoriously,
to constantly perform one's duty. Who does not have some
reason for suffering? Who does not have some cause for
sorrow? Who does not have something to fight for? Only
he who surrenders and flees. Yet your right to surrender
and flee is much less than that of others. Suffering and
hardship today are commonly the lot of all classes, all
social stations, all families, all persons. And if a few
are exempt, if they swim in superabundance and enjoyment,
this must spur them to take the miseries and hardships
of others upon themselves. Who could find contentment
and rest, who, rather, would not feel uneasy and ashamed,
to live in idleness and frivolity, in luxury and pleasure,
amid almost universal tribulation?
Readiness to act. In this moment
of great personal and social solidarity, everyone must
be ready to work, to sacrifice oneself, to devote oneself
to the good of all. The difference lies not in the fact
of obligation, but in the manner of fulfilling it. Is
it not true that those who have more time and more abundant
means at their disposal should be more assiduous and more
solicitous in their desire to serve? In speaking of means,
We are not referring only nor primarily to wealth, but
to all the gifts of intelligence, culture, education,
knowledge, and authority, which fate does not grant to
certain privileged individuals for their exclusive advantage
or to create an irremediable inequality among brothers,
but rather for the good of the whole social community.
In all that involves serving one's neighbor, society,
the Church and God, you must always be the first. Therein
lies your true rank of honor, your most noble preeminence.
Generous adhesion to the precepts
of Christian doctrine and the Christian life. These
are the same for all, for there are not two truths, nor
two laws; rich and poor, big and small, noble and humble,
all are equally expected to submit their intellects through
faith in the same dogma, their wills through obedience
to the same morals. Divine justice, however,
will be much more severe toward those who have been given
more, those who are better able to understand the sole
doctrine and to put it into practice in everyday life,
those who with their example and their authority can more
easily direct others onto the road of justice and salvation,
or else lose them on the fatal roads of unbelief and sin.4
These last words show that the Pontiff
does not accept a nobility or a traditional elite that is
not effectively and unselfishly apostolic. A
nobility living for profit and not for Faith, without ideals
and like the bourgeois (in the pejorative sense sometimes
attributed to this word), is not a true nobility but a mere
corpse thereof.5
b. Aristocratic
chivalrousness: a bond of charity
The effective and enduring possession
of these virtues and spiritual qualities naturally breeds
chivalrous and distinguished manners. Does a noble, gifted
with such qualities and manners, constitute an element of
division among the social classes?
No. Far from being a divisive factor,
a well-understood aristocratic chivalrousness is truly an
element of union that gracefully penetrates the relationships
between the nobles and the members of the other social classes
with whom they deal because of their occupation or activities.
This chivalrousness maintains
the distinction of classes "without confusion or disorder,"6
that is, without egalitarian leveling. Quite the contrary,
it establishes friendly relations among them.
2. The Nobility
and the Traditional Elites as Guides of Society
The spiritual qualities and chivalrous
manners that derive from Christian virtues qualify the noble
to exercise the mission of guiding society.
a. Guiding society:
a form of apostolate
Today's multitudes need competent guides.
The numberless, anonymous multitude is
easily provoked to disorder; it surrenders blindly, passively,
to the torrent that carries it away or to the whims of
the currents that divide and divert it. Once
it has become the plaything of the passions or interests
of its agitators, as of its own illusions, it is no longer
able to take root on the rock and stabilize itself to
form a true people, that is, a living body with limbs
and organs differentiated according to their respective
forms and functions, yet working all together for its
autonomous activity in order and unity.7
It is the responsibility of the nobility
and the traditional elites to guide society, thereby accomplishing
a brilliant apostolate.
You could well become this elite. You
have behind you an entire past of age-old traditions that
represent fundamental values for the healthy life of a
people. Among these traditions, of which you are rightfully
proud, you number religiousness, the living and working
Catholic faith, as the most important of all. Has history
not already cruelly proved that any human society without
a religious foundation rushes inevitably toward its dissolution
and ends up in terror? In emulation of your ancestors,
you should therefore shine in the eyes of the people with
the light of your spiritual life, with the splendor of
your unshakeable faith in Christ and the Church.
Among these traditions is also the inviolate
honor of a profoundly Christian conjugal and familial
life. In all countries, or at least in those of Western
civilization, there rises now a cry of anguish about marriage
and the family, a cry so piercing it is impossible not
to hear it. Here too, with your exemplary conduct you
must put yourselves at the head of the movement for the
reform and restoration of the domestic hearth.
And among these same traditions you also
count that of acting for the people, in all the facets
of public life to which you might be called, as living
examples of an unwavering performance of duty, as impartial,
disinterested men who, free of all inordinate lust for
success or wealth, do not accept a post except to serve
the good cause, courageous men unafraid of losing favor
from above, or of threats from below.
Lastly, among these traditions there
is also the calm, loyal attachment to all that which experience
and history have validated and consecrated, that spirit
unmoved by restless agitation and blind lust for novelty
so characteristic of our time, but also wide open to all
social needs. Deeply convinced that only the doctrine
of the Church can provide an effective remedy to the present
ills, set your hearts upon paving the way for Her, without
reservations or selfish suspicions, with words and with
works, and especially by guiding, in the administration
of your estates, true model businesses from an economic
as well as social point of view. A true gentleman never
lends his participation to enterprises that can only sustain
themselves and prosper at the expense of the common weal
and to the detriment and ruin of persons of modest condition.
On the contrary, he will put his virtue at the service
of the small, the weak, the people—of those who,
practicing an honest trade, earn their daily bread by
the sweat of their brow. Only thus will you be truly an
elite; thus will you fulfill your religious and Christian
duty; thus will you nobly serve God and your country.
May you then, beloved Sons
and Daughters, with your great traditions, with care for
your progress and your personal, human, and Christian
perfection, with your loving good works, with the charity
and simplicity of your relations with all the social classes,
may you then strive to help the people reestablish themselves
on the foundation stone, to seek the kingdom of God and
His justice.8
b. How the nobility
should exercise its mission of leadership
In the exercise of this directive mission,
the nobility should bear in mind that there is a vast variety
of leadership functions.
In an advanced society like
our own, which will have to be restored and reordered
after the great cataclysm, the responsibilities of the
leaders are rather diverse: the leader is the man of State,
of government, the politician; the leader is the worker,
who, without resorting to violence, threats, or insidious
propaganda, but through his own worth, is able to gain
authority and standing among his peers; the leaders are
all those in their respective fields, the engineer, the
jurist, the diplomat, the economist, without whom the
material, social, and international world would go adrift;
the leaders are the university professor, the orator,
the writer, all of whom aim at molding and guiding spirits;
the leader is the military officer who infuses the hearts
of his soldiers with a sense of duty, service, and sacrifice;
the leader is the doctor carrying out his mission of restoring
health; the leader is the priest who directs souls onto
the path of light and salvation, providing them assistance
for advancing safely along that road.9
The nobility and the traditional elites
must participate in the leadership, not just of one sector
of society, but of any worthy sector, and always with a
traditional and proper spirit and in a thorough way.
And what, in this multitude of leaderships,
is your place, your function, your duty? It presents itself
in dual form: the personal function and duty of every
one of you individually, and the function and duty of
the class to which you belong.
Personal duty requires that you, with
your virtue and diligence, endeavor to become leaders
in your professions. Indeed, we all know well that today
the youth of your noble class, aware of the dark present
and the even more uncertain future, are fully convinced
that work is not only a social duty, but also a personal
guarantee of livelihood. And We use the word professions
in its broadest, most comprehensive sense, as we had occasion
to point out last year—that is, technical or humanistic
professions, but also political and social activities,
intellectual occupations, works of every sort: the prudent,
vigilant, hard-working administration of your property,
your lands, following the most modern and tested methods
of cultivation, for the material, moral, social, and spiritual
good of the peasants or other populations who live on
them. In every one of these situations you must make every
effort to succeed as leaders, whether because
of the trust placed in you by those who have remained
faithful to the wise and still living traditions, or because
of the mistrust of so many others, which you shall have
to overcome by winning their esteem and respect, by dint
of excelling in everything in the positions in which you
find yourselves, in the activities you pursue, regardless
of the nature of the position or the form of the activity.10
More precisely, the noble should transmit
to everything he does the relevant human qualities that
his tradition affords him.
In what, then, should this excellence
of life and action consist, and what are its principle
characteristics?
It manifests itself above all in the
perfection of your work, whether it be technical, scientific,
artistic, or anything else. The work of your hands and
your spirits must bear that imprint of distinction and
perfection that cannot be acquired from one day to the
next, but rather reflects a refinement of thought, of
feeling, of soul, and of conscience, inherited from your
forebears and ceaselessly nurtured by the Christian ideal.
It also shows itself in what can be
called humanism, that is, the presence, the intervention
of the complete man in all the manifestations of his activities,
even if specialized, in such a way that the specialization
of his ability should never hypertrophy, should never
atrophy, never becloud the general culture, just as in
a musical phrase the dominant should never break the harmony
nor burden the melody.
It is also made manifest in the dignity
of one's entire bearing and conduct—a dignity that
is not imperious, however, and that, far from emphasizing
distances, only lets them appear when necessary to inspire
in others a higher nobility of soul, mind, and heart.
Lastly, it manifests itself
above all in the sense of lofty morality, or righteousness,
honesty, and probity that must inform every word and every
deed.11
Aristocratic refinement, so inherently
worthy of admiration, would be useless and even harmful
were it not based on a higher moral sense.
An immoral or amoral society that no
longer distinguishes between right and wrong in its conscience
or in its outward actions, that no longer feels horror
at the sight of corruption but rather makes excuses for
it, adapts to it indifferently, woos it with favors, practices
it with no misgivings or remorse, indeed parades it without
blushing, thereby degrading itself and making a mockery
of virtue, is on the road to ruin....
True nobility is another matter altogether:
In social relations it lets shine a humility filled with
greatness, a charity untouched by any egotism or concern
for one's own interest. We are not unaware
of the tremendous goodness, gentleness, devotion, and
self-abnegation with which many, and many among your number,
have in these times of endless suffering and anguish bent
down to aid the unfortunate and have been able to radiate
about themselves the light of their charitable love, in
all its most progressive and efficacious forms. And this
is another aspect of your mission.12
"Humility filled with greatness:"
What an admirable expression, so opposed to the vain style
of the jet set and to the vulgarity of today's supposedly
democratic and modern manners, lifestyles, and way of being!
c. Elites with
a traditional upbringing are profound observers of reality
A noble, gifted with a profoundly traditional
spirit, can find in the experience of the past that lives
in him the means to understand current issues better than
many other people. Far from being on the fringes of reality,
he is a subtle and profound observer of it.
There are ills in society, just as there
are ills in individuals. It was a great event in the history
of medicine when one day the famous Laennec, a man of
genius and faith, anxiously bending over the chests of
the sick and armed with the stethoscope he had invented,
performed auscultation, distinguishing and interpreting
the slightest breaths, the barely audible acoustic phenomena
of the lungs and heart. Is it not perhaps a social duty
of the first order and of the highest interest to go among
the people and listen to the aspirations and malaise of
our contemporaries, to hear and discern the beatings of
their hearts, to seek remedies for common ills, to delicately
touch their wounds to heal them and save them from the
infection that might set in for want of care, making sure
not to irritate them with too harsh a touch?
To understand and love in Christ's charity
the people of your time, to give proof of this understanding
and love through actions: This is the art and the way
of doing that greater good that falls to you, doing it
not only directly for those around you, but also in an
almost limitless sphere. Then does your experience become
a benefit for all. And in this area, how
magnificent is the example set by so many noble spirits
ardently and eagerly striving to bring about and spread
a Christian social order!13
Moved by Faith, the authentic and, therefore,
genuinely traditional aristocrat, while preserving himself
as such, can and must love the people, over whom he should
exercise a truly Christian influence.
d. The authentically
traditional aristocrat: an image of God's providence
But, someone might ask, will not the nobility
belittle itself by assuming today's leadership posts? And
will its love of the past not constitute an obstacle to
the exercise of present activities? In this respect Pius
XII teaches:
No less offensive to you, and no less
damaging to society, would be the unfounded and unjust
prejudice that did not hesitate to insinuate and have
it believed that the patricians and nobles were failing
in their honor and in the high office of their station
in practicing and fulfilling their duties and functions,
placing them alongside the general activity of the population.
It is quite true that in ancient times the exercise of
professions was usually considered beneath the dignity
of nobles, except for the military profession; but even
then, once armed defense made them free, more than a few
of them readily gave themselves over to intellectual works
or even manual labor. Nowadays, of course, with the changes
in political and social conditions, it is not unusual
to find the names of great families associated with progress
in science, agriculture, industry, public administration,
and government—and they are all the more perceptive
observers of the present as well as confident and bold
pioneers of the future, since with a steady hand they
hold firm to the past, ready to take advantage of the
experience of their ancestors but quick to be wary of
the illusions and mistakes that have been the cause of
many false and dangerous steps.
As custodians, by your own choosing,
of the true tradition honoring your families, the task
and honor of contributing to the salvation of human society
falls to you, to preserve it from the sterility to which
the melancholy thinkers jealous of the past would condemn
it and from the catastrophe to which the reckless adventurers
and prophets dazzled by a false and mendacious future
would lead it. In your work, above you and as it were
within you, there shall appear the image of Divine Providence
which with strength and gentleness disposes and directs
all things toward their perfection (Wis. 8:1), as long
as the folly of human pride does not intervene to thwart
its designs, which are, however, always above evil, chance,
and fortune. By such action you, too, shall
be precious collaborators of the Church, which, even amid
the turmoil and conflict, never ceases to foster the spiritual
progress of nations, the city of God on earth in preparation
for the eternal city.14
e.The aristocracy's
mission among the poor
One aspect of the traditional elites'
participation in the direction of society is their educational
and charitable action. This is admirably described by Pius
XII.
But, like every rich patrimony, this
one brings with it some very strict duties, all the more
strict as this patrimony is rich. There are two above
all:
1) the duty not to squander such treasures,
to pass them on whole, indeed increased, if possible,
to those who will come after you; to resist, therefore,
the temptation to see in them merely the means to a life
of greater ease, pleasure, distinction and refinement;
2) the duty not to reserve these assets
for yourselves alone, but to let them generously benefit
those who have been less favored by Providence.
The nobility of beneficence and virtue,
dear Sons and Daughters, was itself conquered by your
ancestors, and bearing witness to this are the monuments
and houses, the hospices, asylums, and hospitals of Rome,
where their names and their memory bespeak their provident
and vigilant kindness to the needy and unfortunate. We
are well aware that in the Patriciate and the Roman Nobility
this glory and challenge to do good, inasmuch as they
have been in a position to do good, has not been lacking.
Yet at this present, painful hour, in which
the sky is troubled by watchful, suspicious nights, your
spirit, while maintaining a noble seriousness, indeed
a lifestyle of austerity that excludes all trifles and
frivolous pleasures, which for every genteel heart are
incompatible with the spectacle of so much suffering,
feels all the more keenly the urge for charitable works
impelling you to increase and multiply the merits you
have already achieved in the alleviation of human misery
and poverty.15
3. The Absent Leaders—The
Harm of Their Absence
a. Absenteeism
and omission: sin of the elites
Unfortunately, not a few members of the
nobility and the traditional elites have a tendency to isolate
themselves from contemporary life. Imagining themselves
to be protected from the uncertainties of life by a secure
patrimony and absorbed in memories of bygone days, some
of them estrange themselves from real life. They shut themselves
off from the outside world and let the days and years elapse
in a careless, quiet life with no definite earthly objective.
Search for their names in apostolic works,
in charitable activities, in diplomacy, in academia, in
politics, in the arts, in the armed forces, in the financial
world. It will be in vain. Save for some exceptions, they
will be absent. Even in social life, where it would be natural
for them to shine, their role is at times null. We may even
witness the situation of a country, province, or city where
everything happens as if they did not exist.
Why this absenteeism? The cause lies in
a mixture of qualities and defects. If we were to examine
closely the lifestyle of these elites, more often than not
we would find it dignified, honest, even exemplary, because
it is inspired by noble reminiscences of a profoundly Christian
past. This past, however, seems not to have any meaning
except for themselves. They cling to it with exacting obstinacy
and alienate themselves from contemporary life. They
do not perceive that among those reminiscences, there are
elements that are no longer applicable to our day.16
Nevertheless, that past still holds certain
values, inspirations, propensities, and directives that
could favorably and deeply influence the "very different
lifestyles" of the "new chapter [that] has begun."17
This precious ensemble of spiritual, moral,
cultural, and social values—of great importance both
in the public and private spheres—is tradition, a
life born of the past to lead the future. Upholding the
permanence of tradition, the nobility and the analogous
elites should exercise a profound and co-directive action
of presence in society for the common good.
b. The absence
of leaders: a virtual complicity
One thus comprehends even better the moral
irresponsibility implicit in the omissions of the perpetually
absent elites.
Less difficult, on the other hand, is
the task of determining, from the various options open
to you, what should be your mode of conduct.
The first of these modes
of conduct is unacceptable: that of the deserter, of him
who was incorrectly called the "emigré
à l'intérieur";18
it is the abstention of the angry, resentful man who,
out of spite or discouragement, makes no use of his qualities
or energies, participates in none of his country's and
his epoch's activities, but rather withdraws—like
Achilles in his tent, near the swift-moving boats, far
from the battles19—while the destinies
of the fatherland are at stake.
Abstention is even less appropriate when
it is the result of an indolent, passive indifference.
Indeed, worse than ill humor, worse than spite and discouragement,
would be nonchalance in the face of a ruin into which
one's own brothers, one's own people, were about to fall.
In vain would it attempt to hide behind the mask of neutrality;
it is not at all neutral; it is, like it or not, complicit.
Each light snowflake falling softly on the mountain's
slope and adorning it with its whiteness plays its part,
while letting itself be dragged along, in turning the
little clump of snow that breaks away from the peak into
the avalanche that brings disaster to the valley, crushing
and burying peaceful homes. Only the solid mass, which
is one with the rock of the foundation, can victoriously
resist and stop the avalanche, or at least diminish its
destructive course.
In this same way the man who is just
and firm in his desire for good, the man of whom Horace
speaks in a famous ode (Carmen Secularae, III,
3), who does not let himself be moved in his unshakeable
thought by the furor of the citizens who give criminal
orders nor by the tyrant's menacing scowl, but remains
undaunted, even should the universe crumble over his head:
"si fractus inlabatur orbis, impavidum ferient
ruinae." Yet if this just and strong man is
a Christian, he will not content himself with standing
erect and impassive amid the ruins; he will feel duty-bound
to resist and prevent catastrophe, or at least to limit
its damage. And if he cannot contain its destructive force,
he will be there again to rebuild the demolished edifice,
to sow the devastated field. That is what your conduct
should rightly be. It must consist—without
having to renounce the freedom of your convictions and
your opinions on human vicissitudes—in accepting
the contingent order of things such as it is, and in directing
its efficiency toward the good, not of a specific class,
but of the entire community.20
With these last words the Pope insists
on the principle that, as long as it fulfills its duty,
a traditional elite benefits the whole social body.
4. Another Way to
Shirk One's Mission: To Allow Oneself to Be Corrupted and
Debased
The nobility and the traditional elites
can also sin against their mission by allowing themselves
to deteriorate through impiety and immorality.
The French high society of the eighteenth
century was one tragic example of this, among so many
others. Never was a society more refined, more elegant,
more brilliant, more fascinating. The most varied pleasures
of the mind, an intense intellectual culture, a very refined
art of pleasure, and an exquisite delicacy of manners
and language predominated in that outwardly so courtly
and gracious society, and yet everything in it—books,
stories, images, furniture, clothing, hair-styles—encouraged
a sensuality that penetrated one's veins and one's heart,
and even marital infidelity scarcely surprised or scandalized
anyone anymore. Thus did that society work
toward its own downfall, rushing headlong toward the abyss
it had dug out with its own hands.21
When they become corrupt like this, the
nobility and the traditional elites exert a tragically destructive
action upon society, which should see in them an example
and an incentive for the practice of virtue and goodness.
In the contemporary crisis, they therefore have the duty
of making reparation for their destructive action in the
past and at present.
History is forged principally by the elites.
Because of this, if the action of the Christian nobility
in the past was highly beneficial, the paganization of the
nobility was one of the sources of the catastrophic contemporary
crisis.
It is useful, however, to recall that
this movement toward unbelief and irreligion found its
starting point not from below but from above, that is
to say, in the ruling classes, in the upper tiers of society,
the nobility, the thinkers and philosophers. We do not,
mind you, mean all the nobility, much less the Roman nobility,
which has greatly distinguished itself for its loyalty
to the Church and to this Apostolic See—and the
eloquent and filial expressions We have just heard are
yet another luminous demonstration thereof—but rather,
the nobility of Europe in general. Does one not clearly
perceive in the Christian West in the last few centuries
a spiritual evolution which, horizontally and vertically,
breadthwise and lengthwise, so to speak, has been progressively
undermining and demolishing the Faith, leading to that
devastation visible today in the multitudes of men without
religion or hostile to religion, or at least animated
and confused by a profound and ill-conceived skepticism
toward the supernatural and Christianity?
The vanguard of this evolution was the
so-called Protestant Reformation, during whose vicissitudes
and wars a large part of Europe's nobility broke away
from the Catholic Church and appropriated her possessions.
But unbelief properly speaking spread in the age that
preceded the French Revolution. Historians note that atheism,
even in the guise of deism, had become widespread at that
time in high society in France and elsewhere; belief in
a God who was Creator and Redeemer had become, in that
world given over to all the pleasures of the senses, something
almost ridiculous and unseemly for cultivated minds avid
for novelty and progress. In the greater number of the
salons of the greatest and most refined ladies, where
the most arduous questions of religion, philosophy, and
politics were tossed about, literati and philosophers,
champions of subversive doctrines, were considered the
finest, most eagerly sought ornaments of those worldly
meeting-places. Impiety was fashionable in the high nobility,
and the writers most in vogue would have been less audacious
in their attacks on religion if they had not enjoyed the
approval and incitement of the most elegant high society.
Not that all the nobility and all the philosophers set
their sights on the immediate de-Christianization of the
masses. On the contrary, religion was supposed to remain,
for the simple people, as a means of governance in the
hands of the State. They, however, felt themselves and
thought themselves to be above faith and its moral precepts,
a policy that very quickly proved to be deadly and shortsighted,
even when considered from a purely psychological perspective.
With inexorable logic, the people, powerful in goodness
and terrible in evil, always know how to draw practical
conclusions from their observations and judgments, however
well-founded or mistaken they may be.
Take the history of civilization
of the last two centuries: It clearly reveals and demonstrates
the damage to the faith and morals of nations wrought
by bad examples being set and handed down from above,
the religious frivolity of the upper classes, the open
intellectual struggle against the revealed truth.22
5. For the Common
Good of Society: Preferential Option for the Nobility in
the Field of Apostolate
Much is said about the apostolate on behalf
of the masses and its corollary, preferential action in
favor of their material needs. But it is important not to
be one-sided in this matter and never to forget the great
importance of the apostolate to the elites and, through
them, to the whole social body. It is likewise necessary
never to lose sight of the importance of a related apostolic
preference for the nobles. In this way, with great benefit
to social concord, a preferential option for the poor will
be harmoniously complemented by a preferential option for
the nobles and for the analogous elites. Pius XII states:
Now, what conclusion
are we to draw from these lessons of history? That today
salvation must begin there, at the place where the perversion
had its origin. It is not in itself difficult to maintain
religion and sound morals in the people when the upper
classes set a good example and create public conditions
that do not make a Christian education immeasurably onerous,
but rather promote it as something sweet and to be imitated.
Is your duty not the same, beloved Sons and Daughters,
you who, by the nobility of your families and the offices
you often hold, belong to the ruling classes? The great
mission which to you and to very few others has been assigned—that
is, first to reform and perfect private life in yourselves
and in your homes, and then to apply yourselves, each
in his place and in his share, to bring forth a Christian
order in public life—does not admit postponement
or delay. It is a most noble mission, rich with promises,
especially at a moment when, in reaction to a devastating,
demoralizing materialism, a new thirst for spiritual values
has been emerging in the masses, and minds are opening
up to religious things, in a move away from unbelief.
These developments allow one to hope that the lowest point
of spiritual decline has by now been left behind. To
all of you, therefore, falls the glory, by the light and
appeal of good examples raising themselves above all mediocrity,
of working together to make these initiatives and aspirations
to religious and social good achieve their happy fulfillment.23
The specific apostolate
of the nobility and of the traditional elites continues,
therefore, to be of the greatest importance.
_________________
1 RPN
1952, p. 458.
2 Ibid.
3 RPN
1948, pp. 423-424.
4 RPN
1949, pp. 346-347.
5 In this
regard, see Saint Charles Borromeo's homily in Nobility
and Analogous Traditional Elites, Documents IV, 8.
6 RPN
1945, p. 277.
7 RPN
1946, p. 340; See Chapter
III.
8 Ibid.,
pp. 341-342.
9RPM 1945,
pp. 274-275.
10 Ibid.,
pp. 275-276.
11 Ibid.,
p. 276.
12 Ibid.,
pp. 276-277.
13 RPN
1944, pp. 180-181.
14 Ibid.,
pp. 181-182.
15 RPN
1941, pp. 364-365.
16 "A
page of history has been turned; a chapter has ended. A
period has been placed, indicating the end of a social and
economic past" (RPN 1952, p. 457).
17 Ibid.
18 "Emigrant
to the countryside": The Pontiff borrows the French
political expression of the 1830s used to designate the
nobles who left Paris after the accession of the Duke of
Orleans to the throne as "King of the French."
Not agreeing with his accession, in which they saw a revolutionary
usurpation, these nobles went to live in their respective
castles in the countryside.
The expression highlights the contrast
between the attitude of these aristocrats, who "emigrated"
without leaving the national territory, and their predecessors
of 1789, who preferred to rally outside the country, in
order to prepare an attack against the French Revolution.
19 According
to the narration in Homer's Iliad, Achilles, the
most famous hero of the Trojan War, enraged with Agamemnon,
the leader of the Greek army, withdrew to his tent, thus
nearly causing the loss of the war.
20 RPN
1947, pp. 368-369.
21 RPN
1945, pp. 276-277.
22 RPN
1943, pp. 358-360.
23 Ibid,
pp. 360-361. |
