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Show LAY ACTIVITY. Pius X Warns Italian Leaders Not to Transgress Limits. For a hundred years the oueslion of the extent of permissible lay activity in Church affairs has been a burning question. The late Pope sought to define de-fine its limits. The present Pope de-. I termined to follow in the footsteps of his illustrious predecessor, and began his pontificate with appeals to the laity to .rally around the standard of I Christian democracy. It seems the j teaching of the late encyclicals have been misunderstood in Italy, where they at first received a most enthusiastic enthu-siastic adhesion: so much so, in fact, that last week Pius X. issued a warn-I warn-I ing to the leaders of the party, and ! laid dow n certain principles which they would have to observe in future if they would avoid serious collision with the Church. When that splendid galaxy of Catholic Cath-olic ehajnpions appeared in France in the first quarter of the last century, de Lumiiienais, ltcordaire and Mon-talembert. Mon-talembert. Christian democracy was ushered upon the earth. The last named was a. layman of a too venturesome venture-some integrity: the first was a priest with a mind of fire and a heart of ice; the one between was a saint of (rod. The three -collaborated . a scheme for lay participation in the .struggle of the Church independence' in France, made all the more necessary by the general discredit in w hich the high-born .clergy . of the country was held. Their championship cham-pionship brpught joy to the Church of France, and consolation to the Sovereign Sover-eign Pontiff. But the j-fy and the consolation con-solation were short lived. De Lam-menais Lam-menais was condemned and apostatized. aposta-tized. Montalembert wavered a long time, and was saved from the fate of his friend bv travel and a study of the life of St. Elizabeth. L,eoorda:re alone held his ground, and to the day of his death he spoke and acted as the priest of God and the obedient child of the Church. Montalembert said he was not a theologian, nor a philosopher, but a student of the ethics of Christian society. so-ciety. He thought the laity could claim this field as their ow n. Man was master mas-ter in his own house: the people were supreme in the state. .-Ml practical questions in -both spheres belonged to the domain of the free lay activity. All this- is true; but man is not an automaton, auto-maton, either iii the home or in the stale He is a man. and all his deliberate de-liberate acts are human and responsible respon-sible There are no indifferent acts or conscious iTan That means that in t all his movements he is subject to the j moral lay. And the church is the in-1 in-1 terpreter of the moral law. From this it is-clear that the layman oari never get entirely away from the church; the sphere of the laity may be distinct, but it can never be separate or independent-of clerical supervision. - Men like de Laiimienais' have 'thought to build up a philosophy of social and political life, that would matre the in- j terference of the theologian wholly un- i necessary. They might as well try to ! formulate a philosophy of private conduct. con-duct. Man is essentially theologic. He Is not capable" of a philosophic sin. There is no Puch sin. The philosopher, as the term was understood at the beginning of the last century, is a monstrosity of the mind: a man with reason, but without a conscience: a human owl who would fain work in all night; a miped who would move on all fours. As man is in his private life theologic; so is he in public and political politi-cal life. It is a failure to recognize tills great truth that br.iught such sorrow to the Catholics of France and made an apostate of de Lammenaip. It is persistent per-sistent disregard to this great fact that has brought a portion of the Catholic laity of Italy into temporary disfavor at the Vatican. Hot heads resent the holy father's paternal correction as an unwarranted invasion of the right? of the laity and an unnecessary constraint con-straint on their freedom of action. A rudder is not a check on the speed of the ship: it only accelerates her progress prog-ress by safeguarding her from deviation. devia-tion. Western Watchman. |
