More Broken: Was Lex Anteinternet: Lex Anteinternet: It's broken. Or at least its fr...

Stranded semi tractors on the Happy Jack Road outside of Cheyenne.  Yes, my window is cracked.

Lex Anteinternet: Lex Anteinternet: It's broken. Or at least its fr...: A man, woman, their horse, and dog. Tanana, Alaska, prior to World War One. I published this item last week: Lex Anteinternet: It&#39...

So, last weekend the kids and I went deer hunting.

Deer season this year is very short for some reason, I don't know why, but it is. Or maybe it seemed that way as I had no opportunity to take a day off from work to go, and the kids of course had no opportunity to take a day off from university.  So I actually missed the better part of it before I even went out.

We didn't draw into limited area tags, so our options were limited to local general areas.  There's been some changes in them recently and the area that we generally go to, when we go to a general area, is antlered deer, three points or better, now.

I'm not a game biologist and I'm not a head hunter either, so I don't quite get the "antlered deer only" thing.  I probably should study up on it, but I don't get it.  Particularly in the area where I went which has been infested with Chronic Wasting Disease in recent years, and I'd think they'd want to cut the numbers of all deer down a bit. But, as noted, I'm not a game biologist so I can't say the reasoning isn't solid.

Anyhow, we headed out on Saturday and saw a lot of deer, and hiked a lot of ground, but we didn't see any bucks at all until the afternoon.  About that time, finally arriving after hours as the spot that I intended to check in the first place, we saw a single deer.

And quite a deer he was.  He looked like the deer on a bottle of Jägermeister, a German liqueur I've never tasted, in part because it's one of those odd liquors that in the United States is associated with stupid behavior.  But the label is impressive.

The label features a deer with a large rack with a cross in between its antlers.  The image recalls St. Hubert (which I knew) and St. Eustace, both of whom had profound religious conversions after encountering deer while hunting which had the image of the cross blazing between their antlers.

St. Hubert encounters the deer.

Or at least according to Wikipedia the image on the bottle honors St. Hubert and St. Eustace.  I suspect its only meant to recall St. Hubert, who would have been better known to Europeans in the 1930s when the liquer was first created.  St. Eustace is remembered more in the Eastern church and was a Roman general who converted after such an experience while hunting and who was ultimately martyred in 118.  

St. Hubert lived more recently, post Roman Empire, having been born in 656 and living until 727.  He was born in what is now southern France into a noble family, but was sent north to Paris at an early age.  Due to political turmoil, he was one of many who ended up it Metz as sort of a noble refugee and we need to keep in mind that France, as a solid political entity, didn't exist at the time. Anyhow, he married one Floribanne, daughter of Dagobert, Count of Leuven, and the couple had a son, Floribert, later the Bishop of Liege.  In this fluid political time, therefore, fate had taken Huber from Toulouse to Liège in an onward northern migration.

Hubert was not a religious man and that condition was amplified when his wife died giving birth to Floribert, a not uncommon fate for women at the time.  After that, Hubert took entirely to hunting in the Ardennes, living a solitary hunting life.  On a Good Friday, however when the faithful were gathering in Church in honor of that day (which is not a Holy Day of Obligation) he encountered a great stag and the it turned on him, cross between its horns, and spoke, saying:

Hubert, unless thou turn to the Lord, and lead a holy life, you shall quickly go down into hell.

It's hard to ignore a thing like that, to say the least, and Hubert dismounted from his horse and immediately, according to tradition, replied; "Lord, what would You have me do?", to which the reply came "Go and seek Lambert, and he will instruct you."  Hubert entered the priesthood and rose to the rank of Bishop of Liege, which he occupied until his death, at which point his priest son took over that position.  Both are saints.

According to the legend of his encounter, the deer also lectured St. Hubert on having higher regard for animals and engaging in human hunting practices, including taking old stags beyond their prime breeding years, and also to take sick or injured animals even if it meant passing up on a shot at atrophy.  There's more to it, but St. Hubert is accordingly still  held in high regard in Germany, Austria and France among hunters and ethical hunting principals taught in European hunting societies are attributed to him.

Anyhow, the deer was like that one depicted, but lacked of course the cross.  That would have been life altering to say the least, but at least day altering was the fact that I rose my rifle up, shot, and missed.

Now, I'm a good shot and this totally perplexed me, as did missing a second shot from a greater distance.  After all of this, I shot at a couple of rocks at varying distances to see if something had happened to my rifle's zero.  Nope, it was right on.

I have no idea what happened.  Suffice it to say it was frustrating.

We stayed out but never saw another buck deer.  Only does.

On the way in, when we hit the junction with 287, it was like a parade.  Vehicles coming home in the dark from UW's Homecoming Game.  Something I've never seen, not even when I lived in Laramie.

It was also getting a lot colder and it was clearly going to snow.

It wasn't in the morning, however, and therefore the plan to get up and attend the 8:00 a.m. Mass across town seemed a solid one.  "Across town" was now the required option as the Priest at our parish changed the Mass time at the downtown church from 8:00 to 9:00, also moving the 11:00 to 11:30. This is part of a demographic change I understand, but it also means that those of us long habituated to 8:00 (at one time it was 7:30) now have to find another parish.

On the way out of the church after Mass, it was snowing.  And on the road home, it was snowing heavily.  By the time I checked the WYDOT site, the roads in and out of Laramie had closed. They'd closed in fact pretty early.

This proved to be particularly problematic for my daughter who had academic matters at UW she could not miss.  By noon it appeared it was not going to change and I decided to head back out hunting (I don't mind hunting in bad weather), but Long Suffering Spouse informed me that "you better wait until you see what they're going to do", which amounted to an instruction not to leave in anticipation of having to do something.

Now, Long Suffering Spouse has a unique manner of speech in which, when she wants somebody to do something, or somebody to correct something they are doing, rather than address the person directly, she comments on "People".  For instance, rather than say "Please take out the garbage" or simply command "Take out the garbage", she'll say "People need to take out the garbage".  This is something she comes by naturally as a learned behavior and its not going to be possible to break it, but it can be baffling if you are in a group. When she directs the comment to "people", there's only one of the people who it's being addressed to and she knows who it is.  That's not so obvious to other people.

About 2:30 she came into a room where I was reading and somewhat dozing and announced that "If people need to really get to Laramie they may need to go to Cheyenne and up through Ft. Collins".  As a little earlier in the day the possibility if me driving my daughter to Laramie if the roads opened up was discussed, while allowing my son to wait until the next day, and as I was the only one in the room, it was pretty clear to me that I was the "people" and this meant, "You need to drive her to Laramie and should plan on going through Ft. Collins".  She then went out to shovel snow.

I addressed my daughter on the topic and she was wanting to go for the aforementioned reasons so she packed right up, we loaded up in the old Dodge diesel truck and turned it on.  Long Suffering Spouse then came to the driver's window and asked "what are you doing?"  I informed her we were leaving, just as she'd instructed, and she disclaimed having done that.  I dismissed it and we headed off.

That may seem odd, but part of the "People" line of speech can be accompanied, if there's a decision to be made, by a long deliberative process.  This gets into our Ninth Law of Behavior, but Long Suffering Spouse really likes to debate options prior to making a decision, and if at all possible, to have somebody else make them.  It's not uncommon for options to be presented, for me to make a decision, and then still find options being presented well after the decision has been made.

This is a process that makes people who have that inclination comfortable and its hardly unique to her.  I've had at least one employee who was so extreme on it that absolutely nothing the employee did wasn't subject to a request for input, no matter how minor it was.  That's not the case here, it's just her decision making style.

That style, however, doesn't lend itself to making decision that need to be made immediately and I simply dismissed her question as being the typical one we'd have, in which a decision has been made and now we're getting extra options. We even do this on the way to dinner when we eat out.  Options are presented, I'm asked to make the decision, I do, and then on the way there, additional options are added.  Given as it was 3:00 p.m. and I was off for a long ride down and back, I left before additional options could be added, as there did not appear to be any.

The roads down to Cheyenne weren't great, but they weren't horrible either.  By the time we got to Cheyenne the Happy Jack Road was open to local traffic only, but by my reasoning Laramie is local.  So we turned off to take it.

But not before a Highway Patrolman stopped me on I80 on the portion of the road where it was closing.  He whipped around with flashing lights so I pulled over.  He then announced on his bull horn that I couldn't stop on the side of the road.

I was only stopped on the side of the road as he'd pulled me over.  He never even got out of his patrol car.

Anyhow, we found Happy Jack Road, which I haven't been on for more than thirty years, and started up it.  The road was in excellent shape. . . until the top.

The ten or fifteen miles on the summit were horrific and were among the worst roads I'd ever been on.  But we made it to Laramie without incident after a white knuckler up on top.

By the time I made it to Laramie, 287 and 487 were open, so I headed home the normal way.  Roads weren't awful, even if stretches weren't great, and I made it home about 10:00 p.m., much earlier than I expected, but late for me.

It turned out I'd totally misinterpreted Long Suffering Spouse's "People" instruction and in fact she had only brought the topic up as an interesting topic of discussion with no intention whatsoever to send anyone off on such a trip.  Indeed, it turned out she was horrified the entire time and didn't think anyone should have hit the road at all.

I'd been up since about 3:00 a.m. and so when we got home, about dark, I was pretty tired.  That evening, however, my son suddenly recalled that he'd meant to tell me that there'd been a little water on the floor down at my mother's old house.  He attributed it to condensation from the water heater as the thermostat had been set low and it had turned cold.  I feared something else.

I was right.  The bottom of the gas water heater had rusted through.  This was confirmed the second I saw the water heater, which was at about 11:00 p.m.

In my son's defense, he hadn't experienced this before and he's been fortunate to grow up in a house with very few plumbing problems.  Thinking back it seems to me that our home when I was a kid was constantly afflicted with plumbing problems.  I suspect hat this is one of those areas in which the march of technology has made things much more reliable, as it has with automobiles.  When I was a kid, the man of the house working on plumbing at least once a year was pretty normal, and I'd experienced prior water heater failures.  Now, this is pretty rare.

It took us about two hours to get the tank drained and the water turned off.  The plumbers came the next day and installed a new one.

Going to bed at 1:00 a.m. doesn't mean I get to sleep in the next day and so it was off to work at the normal time. Before that, however, I got a text that our ceiling was leaking at work.

And indeed it was.

Very recently the air conditioning system was worked on and it was immediately and ocrrectly suspected that this had something to do with the leak.  The leak was quickly addressed once somebody came to work on it, but that wasn't until about 3:00 p.m.

So during the day, it became leakier.

It's now fixed.

On the way out of the building in the evening, which was on my way to an evening meeting I had scheduled, the young Asian woman who is always very friendly asked what the floor sheet on the elevator was for.  She's among the very best dressed people in the building and was wearing either a white fur or faux fur.  "Ceiling leak" I replied.  "Old building", she replied back in her very thick accent (I've never been really sure where she's actually from, I'd like to ask, but I don't want to appear rude in doing so).

Well maybe.  But sort of just one of those things, recently.

Laramie Wyoming. 1940 and Now.

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Main Street, now S 2nd St., downtown Laramie, Wyoming. March 1940. #laramie #wyoming #307 #thenandnow #history #uwyo . . Library of Congress

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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, released.

The iconic Western movie, of course.

It's a movie that I haven't reviewed yet (I guess this will have to suffice for the review), in spite of an effort here to catch movies of interest that are "period pieces", if you will, which all non fantasy movies set in the past are.

The 1969 movie is one of the best loved and best remembered western movies.  It took a much different tone in regard to Western criminals than the other major Western of the same year, The Wild Bunch.  I frankly prefer The Wild Bunch, which as I earlier noted is a guilty pleasure of mine, but I love this film as well.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a romanticized and fictionalized version of the story of the two Wyoming centered Western criminals who ranged over the entire state and into the neighboring ones.  In the film, which is set in the very early 1900s before they fled to Boliva, and which follows them into Bolivia, the two, portrayed by film giants Paul Newman (Butch) and Robert Redford (Cassidy), come across as lovable rogues, and barely rogues at that.  The film had a major impact at the box office and came in an era in which the frequently predicted "end of the Western movies" had already come.

The Hole In The Wall Gang, lead by (Robert LeRoy Parker) Butch Cassidy, far right, and Harry Lonabaugh (the Sundance Kid). This photograph was a stupid move and lead to their downfall.

So how accurate is it?

Well, pretty mixed. 

Even the Pinkerton Detective Agency allows that they are the two romanticized Western criminals, and there are quite a few romanticized Western criminals, are closest to their public image. They were intelligent men and got away with their depredations in part as there were locals who liked them well enough not to cooperate with authorities, although that was also true of much less likable Western criminals.  And the vast majority of characters in the film represent real figures who filled the roles that they are portrayed as having in the film.  So in that sense, its surprisingly accurate.

Where it really fails, of course, is in glossing over the fact that they were in fact violent criminals.  And as outlaws their history is both violent and odd for the era.  The Wild Bunch, the criminal gang with which they are most associated, was extremely loosely created, and people came and went, rather than there being just one single group of outlaws.  The Wild Bunch itself generally took refuge, when it needed to, in Johnson County's Hole in the Wall region (their cabin exists to this day) and perhaps because of this or because of several of them being associated with the Bassett sisters, the daughters of a local small rancher, their activities oddly crossed back and forth between pure criminality and association with the small rancher side of the conflict that lead to the Johnson County War.  This latter fact, once again, may have contributed to their image as lovable criminals, even though they themselves were not in the category of individuals like Nate Champion who were actual small cattlemen who were branded as criminals by larger cattle interest. The gang was, rather, made up of actual criminals.

So the depiction of them simply attacking the evil (in the film) Union Pacific is off the mark. They were thieves.  Just less despicable thieves than most.

They did go to Bolivia and their lives did end there, according to the best evidence.  The film accurately portrays their demise coming in the South American country even if it grossly exaggerates that end, persistent rumors of at least Butch's survival aside.

Material detail wise the film is so so.  This late 1960s movie came at a time at which a high degree in material details, a bar set by Lonesome Dove, hadn't yet arrived, so the appearance of things reflects the movie styles of the late 1960s more than the actual appearance of things in the early 1900s.  Arms, however, are correct as in this movie making era the tendency to try to stand out by showing unique items in use hadn't arrived.

All things being considered, it is a great Western and well worth seeing.  It belied the belief that the era of Westerns was over, and in some ways it recalls earlier sweet treatment of Western criminals who were supposed to be just wild boys at heart.  Nobody gets killed in the film until Butch and Sundance do at the bitter end, which contributes to that.  In reality, The Wild Bunch is likely a more realistic portray of Western criminals, but this is a great film.

A portrait

Sarah Gracie King Iselin, and son, October 24, 1919.

She was married to banker Andrian Selin, Jr., and was his second wife, the first having past away.  He'd outlive her as well, as she'd pass away in 1931.

The Clearance Dilemma

The 2007 Dodge in the high country.

I have a 2007 Dodge 3500 4x4.  It's the crewcab with a long box.

It's a great truck and I have no intention of trading it away any time soon, even though my wife feels that I should be trading it in, and even though there are a few valid reasons to do so.*  Indeed, I have no intention whatsoever of getting any new vehicles in the future whatsoever.

It's been a great truck.  It's had a few problems over the years, as they all do, but by and large, as a vehicle with 180,000 miles now on it, it's been remarkably trouble free.  As I'll post here shortly in another thread, it's also been a very safe one.  It preforms very well, in that context, on highway ice and snow, and I've had it on some dicey roads to say the least.  There are things that it doesn't compare favorably to in regard to newer trucks, but there are things it compares more favorably with, in my view.  For one thing, it has a standard transmission, something which is now a thing of the past with American full sized trucks. Automatics, the favorite of urban dwellers, have taken over.

But there's one thing.

As a very long, and stock, vehicle, it doesn't have the kind of clearance that I'd like.

Another 07 in a parking lot, photographed from the cab of my 07.  This one has about the perfect tire size in my view, and is leveled (not lifted) about 2".  It looks great and has better clearance than mine.  Of course, he isn't towing any stock trailers either.  I wish I'd run up and taken a photo of the tire size.

I've whacked rocks with the front differential and slightly dented it.  And I've high centered it on snow nearly annually.

I'm tempted to try to boost the clearance, and that would mean larger tires.

It came equipped with 265/70R17s, and I have an off road (that will also do highway) example of that on now.  That tire is 31.5" in width.  It will, as is, go up one tire size. Which gives you an additional .5" of clearance.

That's right.  One half inch.

Hmmm.

High lift 1983 Dodge crewcab on a used car lot. Didn't this lift go a bit too far?  But It looks like it does have good clearance.  It also has a full sized crew cab, something that isn't the case with the 07 for some odd reason. The box here appears to be a short box, which isn't what I'd want.  The tires on this truck are likely 35" tires, maybe 40".

On the other hand, there are off road tires that will fit 17" rims that are 35" in width. And that would give me an extra 1.5".  That doesn't sound like a lot, but it may be.

40" tires are also made for 17" rims, but I'm not going there.

The father of all modern 4x4 trucks, the first generation of the Dodge WC truck from World War Two.  These had great clearance, but this 1/2 ton model was also too high and prone to roll overs.

I'm tempted to go with 35" tires, but that means the tread width is also wider, which I really don't want if it starts to impact performance.  I like narrower tires over wider.  I don't want to float on wet roads or mud.

And some people claim that if you put 35" on, you need to lift the truck or put on a leveling kit. Others claim that isn't so.

Second model of World War Two WC 4x4 truck. This 3/4 ton truck was about perfect.

What would also be the case is that it would impact the gear ratio by making it higher.  My gearing is the lowest possible but that would effectively make both 5th and 6th gears overdrives.  A person can adjust this, I think, by changing the ring and pinion gears in the axles, but I hadn't planned on really doing that.

And of course it might mean that I'd need to lift it as well, or a leveling kit that also lifted the rear.  Modern trucks are canted forward on purpose, for fuel efficiency purposes, and a leveling  kit does just that.  It lifts, probably about 2" in this case, which would be fine, but that also means if you have a trailer on the rear, it's going to have its nose in the air.

All of which leads me to believe that maybe no more than one tire size bigger, if that.

Which really won't achieve much.

The two Dodges.

_________________________________________________________________________________

*It's starting to get some rust over a wheel well.  It has a crack on the body of the box.  My brother in law, who is a diesel mechanic by training, warns me that sooner or later it'll need some major engine work, as old as it is.  And it needs a selection of odds and ends repairs to really get it back into ship shape if I'm keeping it, and that's money into an old truck.

A Complete And Total Defeat

Turkey, a nation with a good, but 1970s vintage (maybe 80s vintage) military was able to enter northern Syria as we left, abandoning the Kurds to their fate.  Hence they took what amounts to either a Turkish/Kurdish/Syrian DMZ or what amounts to an expansion of their border south into Syrian Kurdistan thereby retaking a slice of land they last held in 1918.

And now they, the Syrian government, and Russia have entered into an agreement whereby the Russians will patrol the border with Turkey and will "clear" a border region 18 miles deep, with some exceptions, into Syrian Kurdistan.

The implications of this are vast.  It seems to signal the ongoing evolution of Turkey, under its current prime minister, into a rogue state that's increasingly aligned with enemies of the West.  It elevates Russia above its natural status into an increasingly important regional power broker.  And it's the open doorway for Damascus to regain the entire northern Syrian region, given that Syria and Russia are strange bedfellow allies.

As I've repeatedly noted here, I never thought the United States entering the Syrian civil war was a good idea in the first place, and that fact make me seem hypocritical here.  Had I had my way, the natural results of it would have been that Damascus would have won the civil war and be occupying the country all the way to its frontiers right now.  So doesn't this just do what my "If I were President" position would have done?

Not really.

For one thing, this day would have arrived much earlier and with much less bloodshed.  It wouldn't have elevated Syrian Kurdistan into a putative state, as has occurred, with which we allied, and then abandoned.  That latter fact would likely have meant that the incentive for increased YPK violence against Turkey would not have increased, as the Turkish action seems likely to do.  And while Russia would have been involved, as Syria's only ally, the victory wouldn't have elevated Russia's position in the region while decreasing our own, which has now very much occurred.

So the disaster enters a new stage, and not one pleasant to contemplate.  Moscow isn't going to put Russian troops into harms way for charitable purposes and there will be a price to pay for everyone, including Turkey.

All because we were short sighted when we entered, and even more short sighted when we left.

Librarian, Kentucky 1936.

The Telephonic Fifth Degree

Y:  This is Mr. Yeoman, is Mr. Vasilyevich in?

Receptionist:  Just a moment, I'll check.

Y:  Thank you.

Receptionist:  Can I tell him your name?

Y:  Um, Mr. Yeoman.

Receptionist:  And will he know the nature of the call?

Y:  Yes, I'm returning his call.

Receptionist:  Are you a client of his?

Y:  No, I'm the lawyer representing the guy his client is suing.

Receptionist:  And to what may I tell him this refers?

Y: (now agitated):  I think if he called me about it, he'll probably know.

Receptionist:  And how do you spell your name?

Y:  Y-e-o-m-a-n.

Receptionist:  Just a moment . . .

(Hold Music)



Receptionist:  I'm sorry, he just left for lunch.

Y:  At 10:30?

Receptionist:  Yes, he's hungry.

Y:  No wonder, every time I see him at a deposition he's on the no food diet.

Receptionist:  Can I leave him a message?

Y:  Well, he was calling me, tell him I called back.

Receptionist:  And can I tell him what the nature of the call was?

Syria. Leaving but not leaving, and it's all about the oil.

President Trump, in his recent abandonment of the Kurds, proclaimed that this was being done in order to fulfill a campaign promise of getting us out of foreign wars.  In essence, this appeal to the a very old conservative concept of isolationism was his reason for acting, he declared.

And it may have been. The concept that the United States should stay out of foreign wars and stay inside its own borders has been a very old one.  It dates back as a popular idea to the very founding of the country.  And it was a particularly popular idea in the pre World War Two Republican Party.  It lost the support of most people, including most Republicans, during that war, and indeed American isolationism is sometimes cited as a causal factor giving rise to the war.  I.e., by staying out of foreign affairs we stood by and allowed crises to develop until they came to visit us.

Trump seems to have always had the desire to pull out of Syria and was talked out of doing that last year. This year he did it.  If he was going to do it, it could have been done more gracefully, to be sure.  We won't go back over all of that as we've addressed it here earlier.

But what is remarkable is that we now learn that American troops are in fact not leaving Syria. They're just leaving this part of Syria. 

As earlier noted, I don't think we should have gotten into Syria in the first place, but now that we're in, I don't think we should have abandoned the Kurds. The Kurds, by the way, pelted departing American troops with tomatoes in a village the other day in order to express their contempt.  Those tomatoes can be regarded as landing on the entire nation, and deservedly so, if not deservedly so on the troops, who had nothing to do with the decision.

In informing the country that some Americans will remain, for the second time Trump linked all of this to oil.  The troops, he stated, remaining in Syria will "protect the oil".

Various U.S. administrations have been careful ever since first becoming involved in the Middle East not to link our presence there overtly to oil. Clearly, the reason the region is in the eye of any outsider has in part, and a very large part, to do with petroleum.  Without petroleum, much of the region would go unnoticed.

Which is not to say that everything is about the oil.  The American support for Israel has occasionally hurt the country fairly badly in terms of oil producing nations and Israel does not produce any oil, as a British government once pointed out to us.  And the rise of the radical Islam has caused us to take policy positions related solely to that. So it isn't all about the oil.

But President Trump has twice stated something suggesting that this is how he views it over the past couple of weeks.  I.e., he's an isolationist but sees our intervention as excused, at least in part, if it relates to oil.

And that view is emphasized by the fact that the United States is sending air defense troops to Saudi Arabia, a region which can darn well take care of its own air defense and doesn't need us to do it.  If withdrawing from the Kurds in Syria can be viewed as isolationist, putting troops into Saudi Arabia certainly is not.

All of this, of course, has made headlines, but perhaps Trump is just exceptionally open about how he views all of this.  He's opposed to Americans being in foreign wars no matter what their nature, it would appear, unless its directly tied to our economic well being.

That isn't how most people view it, however, including quite a few in the GOP.  We can't say by any means that people's reactions and views on this are uniformly consistent in how they were reached, but the recent moves here have not been popular, including with Republicans.

None of this seems to be having an immediate impact on the President, however.  Indeed, there's some suggestion that at this point in his administration the restraints that were present earlier have loosened to the point of disappearing.  That was a trend that has been developing for some time, but now seems fully here.  What that means we don't know.  Not even for the Kurds.

The election north of the border. The 2019 Canadian Election.

While the US, and much of the rest of the world, has been focused on the American election that's more than a month away, the Canadians just determined that they'd have an election. . . next month.

October 21, to be precise.

It's actually been pretty obvious that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was going to call an election from some time and his opponents have been campaigning for awhile.  None the less, this is calling the election early and some observers feel that Trudeau is in trouble.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Following Canadian elections is exceedingly difficult, and not just because the US news doesn't give them much press nor because they have a parliamentary system and we do not.  British elections or Irish elections are easier to follow.  Canadian elections are hard to follow in part because post 1970 Canadian culture has made them that way.

Post 1970s Canada has developed a consensus culture in which reaching a consensus and not being confrontational has taken in a premium.  Some would say that the premium has reached the level where it's actually detrimental.  It tends to mean that issues become highly obscure and even if Canadians grasp what they are, those on the outside cannot as you have to be on the inside to know them.  It also emphasizes the political left in peculiar ways as Canadians who hold opposite views to many of the platforms of the left tend to hold them simply internally as to not offer offense. There are signs, however, that this is ending.

Be that as it may, this definitely had a role in the last election as many Canadians were irate at Stephen Harper, but determining over what was nearly impossible.  I directly asked several Canadians I knew who were highly politically informed and never received a real answer.  You'd receive comments that he'd done things that were improper and maybe immoral, politically, but nobody was willing to ever say what they were. This contrasts remarkably with American politics in which people feel perfectly free to simply make stuff up.

So far this has been true, in spite of a bit of a shift in the wind that may possibly lead to windier weather.  Very few Canadians on the political inside who oppose Trudeau have come out so strongly against him that you really know, from here, what the issues are.  What is clear is that on the poltical right he's regarded to some degree as a cultural offense, and given his left leaning social nature, that position is fairly easy to discern. There are accusations as well that he hasn't lived up to his political promises and that he's been involved in political scandal, but again really knowing what the political scandal is, is really hard to discern outside Canada.

The front runner against him is Andrew Scheer of the Canadian Conservative Party.  As the name would indicate, Scheer is a political conservative.  He's 40 years old, making him younger that Trudeau.  They are Catholic co-religious but it's likely that Scheer holds more traditional and observant views than Trudeau.  Canadian conservationism has tended to focus on economic conservatism, but rumblings about Trudeau suggest that a conservative lead government would actually be moderately conservative, as opposed to Trudeau's left leaning government.

The same age as Scheer is candidate Jagmeet Singh, a lawyer from Ontario and a member of the Sikh religion who may be the coolest looking politician of all time.  Wearing the traditional Sikh turban and sometimes a bicycle lapel pin, he can't be ignored.  He's from the New Democratic Party, a Canadian social democrat party to the left of Trudeau's Liberal Party.

The Canadian Green Party is also contending for seats, lead by Elizabeth May (age 65). They're not going to take leadership, but they are trying to break out politically and they stand a fair chance of doing so, in my view.

This matters as in parliamentary systems the leadership is consolidated in the majority. The Greens won't take the majority, but the Conservatives need to worry about them as if the NDP, Greens and the Liberals are all returned in numbers smaller than the Conservatives, they can still form a government by way of a coalition "minority" government.  It's something that occurs fairly frequently in parliamentary systems.

For that same reason the Bloc Quebecois, lead by Yves-Francois Blanchet (age 54) also matters.  It'll be fighting for position against the Quebec Liberals, Conservatives and the NDP.  It will never form a majority for the purposes of running Canadian and indeed its implicit position prevents that from every occurring, but it can be a swing vote that really matters in forming a government.

Indeed, right now the Conservatives and the Liberals are neck and neck, and the election is clearly too close to call. That this is the case should worry Trudeau as he's on his first term and it shows that the bloom fell of the Liberal rose under his leadership pretty quickly.  Indeed, from the outside its hard to determine what the attraction ever was for the Trudeau in the first place, and a lot of it seems to be Harper fatigue combined with his personal appearance.  Having said that, because it is a parliamentary system, the election truly will be decided at the local level.

Both the Liberals and the Conservatives are polling aright about 33%. The NDP is at about 13% which means that both parties better be thinking of things to pitch to the social democrat part, something that will be a lot easier for the Liberals to do than the Conservatives.  The Greens are at about 10%, however, which means that if this holds the Liberals can take the government with the Greens and the Bloc Quebecois.

It'll be an interesting ride.  The suspicion is that the Liberals will prevail but that the Conservatives will give them a run for the money.  I suspect that if that's the case, that run will be a lot closer than even the pollsters, who think it will be close, suspect.  I don't think a Conservative government is likely, but it's not impossible.

Unlike the American one, it'll be mercifully short.

It'll also be a lot more youthful.  May, the Green candidate, is by far the oldest but would be youthful in the American context, being a good 11 years younger than the American Presidential front runner, Joe Biden.  All of three of the candidates that are the front runners are in their 40s with Trudeau the oldest at 45.  The Bloc Quebecois seems like an "old" party if you will, rooted in the Quebec of the 1970s, but its leader is 54, something that would be regarded as youthful in the American context.  This is all remarkable as Canadians of all political stripes seem to have moved beyond the Baby Boomer generation in their politics, while the US is strongly sticking with it.
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September 19, 2019

In one of the weird scandals of a certain type that has been in the news the past couple of years, Time magazine has released a photograph of Prime Minister Trudeau in "brown face".

According to Trudeau, the photograph, was taken at the time he was a teacher at a private school and he was dressed as Aladdin at an Arabian Nights themed event.

Trudeau issued an apology that has been well received but the episode has been used as an item to criticize Trudeau by all of his his opponents.  Trudeau has a made a point of being culturally sensitive and the 2001 photograph doesn't help that image.

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September 20, 2019

Well over the course of a day, the one incident became three, and now Prime Minister Trudeau has three incidents of racial makeup use to contend with, apparently one as a teacher, addressed above, one as a college student, and one as a high school student. The high school one was at a high school talent show.  I don't have the details on the college one.

There's really no telling how these incidents will impact the Canadian election, if at all.  They are racially insensitive and given Trudeau's age, these fit in the category of things which anyone should have been aware would be offensive at the time they were done.

But as recent events have shown, apparently in some places even fairly recently that wasn't the case. And with Trudeau there's certainly no evidence at all that he's racist.

So what this does is suggest that he's really superficial and more appearance than substance, something his critics have held all along.

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October 21, 2019

Well today's the big day.

As usual with things Canadian, there's been little news on the Canadian election down here, and hence I haven't reported on it for a month.

There's some recent speculation however that Scheer will pull ahead and replace Trudeau.

One thing that did rise up in the campaign late was some left wing panic regarding what appears to be rising conservatism, including cultural conservatism, in a country's whose post war emphasis on politeness had reduced discourse on cultural issues to the point of muzzling them.  It became apparent very late in the campaign that suddenly Canadian conservatives were unwilling to continue down that path and they starting speaking on these issues in public for this first time in years, or rather decades.  In turn, the left has tried to brand several, including Scheer, as religious extremist, by which they mean they're simply observant of their faiths.

Interestingly, this has resurfaced in an open way the old anti Catholic prejudice that exists in most English speaking countries in some form.  Scheer is Catholic and observant and the left, in branding him an extremist, basically is simply noting that he's open about his seriousness in regard to his faith, in comparison to Trudeau who is also Catholic but who meets their approval by not linking in his faith with his political views in any discernible fashion.  The new generation of younger Canadian conservatives (and all the Canadian candidates are much younger than the U.S. ones) can hardly be described as theocrats, but panic over the fact that they're suddenly willing to speak and be open about their views is causing the Canadian left to have heart palpitations in the same fashion that a conservative U.S. Supreme Court tends to in the United States.

At any rate, it should be an interesting day up north.

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October 22, 2019

And the result is. . . uncertain.

So uncertain, in fact, that the figures have changed as the final tallies come in.

But a result can seem to be predicted anyhow.

There are 338 seats in the Canadian House of Commons. As of 4 this morning NPR was reporting that Trudeau's Liberal Party had captured 157 of those seats, less than the 170 need to form a government on its own, while Reuters, more recently, was reporting that he'd taken 110 seats, which would be an electoral disaster for Trudeau.

We'll go with the Canadian National Post . . . for now, which noted:

Canadians headed to the polls on Monday to vote in the 2019 federal election. Justin Trudeau‘s Liberals will form a minority government despite the fact that Andrew Scheer‘s Conservatives won the popular vote. Jagmeet Singh’s NDP is expected to hold the balance of power. Elizabeth May‘s Greens didn’t do as well as expected, but the Bloc Quebecois had a strong night. Maxime Bernier‘s People’s Party of Canada didn’t win a single seat — including Bernier’s.

The Post also puts the Liberals at 157.

So, like several recent American elections, the country's chief executive finds himself out polled by his primary opponent.  In Trudeau's case, moreover, his party lost not only the popular vote, but majority control of parliament.

Because it is a parliament, however, that also means that he can still form a government and in this case the balance of power lies with a party to the left of his own, so Trudeau will go on to remain Prime Minister but Canada's already leftward government will be more so.  And while the Conservatives dramatically increased the number of seats they held, the Bloc Quebecois did as well, reprising the history of Trudeau's father in which as he became more unpopular the Parti Quebecois became more so.

So the results are as follows.

The Liberal Party, which had held 177 seats in Parliament now holds 157, a twenty seat decline.

The Conservative Party, which had held 95 seats, now holds 21, a 26 seat increase.

Bloc Quebecois, which had held 10 seats, now holds 32., a 22 seat increase.

The New Democratic Party, which had hoped to do well and which is to the left of the Liberal Party, did badly, but ends up as kingmaker.  It held 39 seats and now holds 24, a loss of 15 seats.

The Green Party, which pulled in 2 seats in the 2015 election, now has 3, an increase of one.

In terms of popular vote, country wide (which isn't how parliaments work, we'd note, in seating a government) the Liberals polled 5,915,950 votes while the Conservatives polled 6,155,662.  While that means that the Conservatives out polled the Liberals, as it has also been with some recent American elections, in real terms the two parties basically tied for the popular vote.  The New Democrats polled a respectable 2,849,214 votes and the Greens polled 1,162,360.  If we consider that the regional Bloc Quebecois polled 1,376, 135, the Green vote is put in a new light.

Indeed, if we consider the popular losing party argument made in the United States that small states unfairly have too much sway due to the way the power is electoral distributed, that argument is even more valid in Canada (and I"m not saying its valid), where the Greens get only 3 seats while the BC gets 32, with the difference between what they polled being inconsequential.  The National Post might be correct that the Bloc Quebecois had a strong night, and the Greens didn't, but their vote tally is pretty much the same.

Vote distribution wise, the spread is really telling:

Canadian votes by region and riding, by VulcanTrekkie45 from Wikipedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

As can be seen, the Liberals did well in strongly urban areas, Newfoundland and PEI, New Brunswick and the Canadian far north.  The Conservatives did well in the west. The New Democrats did well in the Canadian center, basically, and Pacific coast and also in the Canadian north.  And not too surprisingly the BC did well the only place it runs and cares about, Quebec.

Breaking down bit cities, Victoria British Columbia pulled to the far left and gave some seats to the Greens while liberal Toronto went solidly for the Liberals.  Other big cities went the way you'd expect, more or less, except that in at least Vancouver the Conservatives did better than I'd suppose.

Also looking at this, and while Canadians hate the analogy, their elections are starting to look more and more like American ones.  Basically the west is solidly conservative whereas the left depends on big cities, certain ethnicities, and the Pacific coast.  British Columbia, in that analogy, comes out as the California of the north, which it is becoming in more ways than one.  The Atlantic maritime provinces look a lot like New England, not as left as it may seem but not comfortable with the Conservatives quite yet, but starting to get that way.  The prairie provinces and the Rocky Mountain region vote just like the prairie states and the American upper Western ones.

These are just preliminary results and can change, but it's unlikely.  Therefore, what seems like to occur is that the Liberals, who lost 20 seats, and the New Democrats, who lost 15, will join together to allow Trudeau to be seated as a minority Prime Minister. So two parties that saw their support decline in the election still have sufficient seats, together, to form a government.  And in fairness, the Conservatives are the only conservative party in Canada and have nowhere else to go. So there's no combination of seats that puts them in power.

So, Trudeau will keep his chair as Prime Minister, although he's obviously one in trouble. All of the Canadian liberal parties except the Bloc Quebecois, which is really a regional party concerned with only one area, did badly.  When the left loses support in Canada, the votes go to the Conservatives except in Quebec, where they go to the Bloc Quebecois. So while Trudeau remains, he'll remain less effective and tainted by the fact that in order to remain in power, two declining parties needed to band together.  Having said that, the Canadian left remains the home for most Canadian voters.

"October 21, 1919" The Great Air Race Commences. At 11.44 a.m. the first of the six aircraft took off from Hounslow, England.

They were bound for Australia, which made sense as the race was sponsored by the Australian Prime Minister and one of the rules of the race was that all the crewmen had to be Australian.

We have already read about the US 1919 Air Derby, which was still ongoing on  this date as following aircraft continued to land. . . and crash (quite frequently with fatal results), and we posted on the 1919 Round the Rim flight, which was still going on, showing the level of air mania in the United States.  But air mania wasn't limited to the United States.  On this day six British Empire aircraft took off in a race of even more epic proportions.

The six aircraft were not all of one type, making this a technological test in addition to being an air race (the aircraft in the Air Derby weren't all of one type either).  These planes were sometimes a heavier, being bombers in part.  They included a Sopwith Wallaby, a Vickers Vimy, an Alliance P.2. A Blackburn Kangaroo, a Martinsyde Type A and an Airco DH.9. Both single engine and twin engine aircraft were in the race.

Summi Pontificatus

Delivered by Pope Piux XII, on this day in 1939.

 

Summi Pontificatus
On the Unity of Human Society
Pope Pius XII - 1939

To Our Venerable Brethren: The Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops, and Other Ordinaries in Peace and Communion with the Apostolic See.
Venerable Brethren; Health and Apostolic Benediction.
In the very year which marks the fortieth anniversary of the consecration of mankind to our Redeemer’s Most Sacred Heart, the inscrutable counsel of the Lord, for no merit of Ours, has laid upon Us the exalted dignity and grave care of the Supreme Pontificate; for that consecration was proclaimed by Our immortal predecessor, Leo XIII, at the beginning of the Holy Year which closed the last century.
2. And We, as a newly ordained priest, then just empowered to recite “I will go in to the altar of God” (Psalm xlii. 4), hailed the Encyclical Annum Sacrum with genuine approval, enthusiasm and delight as a message from heaven. We associated Ourselves in fervent admiration with the motives and aims which inspired and directed the truly providential action of a Pontiff so sure in his diagnosis of the open and hidden needs and sores of his day. It is only natural, then, that We should today feel profoundly grateful to Providence for having designed that the first year of Our Pontificate should be associated with a memory so precious and so dear of Our first year of priesthood, and that We should take the opportunity of paying homage to the King of kings and Lord of lords (I Timothy vi. 15; Apocalypse xix. 6) as a kind of Introit prayer to Our Pontificate, in the spirit of Our renowned predecessor and in the faithful accomplishment of his designs, and that, in fine, We should make of it the alpha and omega of Our aims, of Our hopes, of Our teaching, of Our activity, of Our patience and of Our sufferings, by consecrating them all to the spread of the Kingdom of Christ.
3. As We review from the standpoint of eternity the past forty years in their exterior events and interior developments, balancing achievements against deficiencies, We see ever more clearly the sacred significance of that consecration of mankind to Christ the King; We see its inspiring symbolism We see its power to refine and to elevate, to strengthen and to fortify souls. We see, besides, in that consecration a penetrating wisdom which sets itself to restore and to ennoble all human society and to promote its true welfare. It unfolds itself to Us ever more clearly as a message of comfort and a grace from God not only to His Church, but also to a world in all too dire need of help and guidance: to a world which, preoccupied with the worship of the ephemeral, has lost its way and spent its forces in a vain search after earthly ideals. It is a message to men who, in ever increasing numbers, have cut themselves off from faith in Christ and, even more, from the recognition and observance of His law; a message opposed to that philosophy of life for which the doctrine of love and renunciation preached in the Sermon on the Mount and the Divine act of love on the Cross seem to be a stumbling block and foolishness.
4. Even as the precursor of the Lord proclaimed one day to those who sought and questioned him: “Behold the lamb of God” (Saint John i. 29), in order to warn them that the desired of the nations (cf. Aggeus ii. 8), dwelt, though as yet unrecognized, in their midst, so, too, the representative of Christ addressed his mighty cry of entreaty: “Behold your King” (Saint John xix. 14) to the renegades, to the doubters, to the wavering, to the hesitant, who either refused to follow the glorious Redeemer, living ever and working in His Church, or followed Him with carelessness and sloth.
5. From the widening and deepening of devotion to the Divine Heart of the Redeemer, which had its splendid culmination in the consecration of humanity at the end of the last century, and further in the introduction, by Our immediate predecessor of happy memory, of the Feast of Christ the King, there have sprung up benefits beyond description for numberless souls — as the stream of the river which maketh the City of God joyful (Psalm xlv. 5). What age had greater need than ours of these benefits? What age has been, for all its technical and purely civic progress, more tormented than ours by spiritual emptiness and deep-felt interior poverty? May we not, perhaps, apply to it the prophetic words of the Apocalypse: “Thou sayest: I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing: and knowest not, that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” (Apocalypse iii. 17.)
6. Can there be, Venerable Brethren, a greater or more urgent duty than to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ (Ephesians iii. 8) to the men of our time? Can there be anything nobler than to unfurl the “Ensign of the King” before those who have followed and still follow a false standard, and to win back to the victorious banner of the Cross those who have abandoned it? What heart is not inflamed, is not swept forward to help at the sight of so many brothers and sisters who, misled by error, passion, temptation and prejudice, have strayed away from faith in the true God and have lost contact with the joyful and life-giving message of Christ?
7. Who among “the Soldiers of Christ” — ecclesiastic or layman — does not feel himself incited and spurred on to a greater vigilance, to a more determined resistance, by the sight of the ever-increasing host of Christ’s enemies; as he perceives the spokesmen of these tendencies deny or in practice neglect the vivifying truths and the values inherent in belief in God and in Christ; as he perceives them wantonly break the Tables of God’s Commandments to substitute other tables and other standards stripped of the ethical content of the Revelation on Sinai, standards in which the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount and of the Cross has no place?
8. Who could observe without profound grief the tragic harvest of such desertions among those who in days of calm and security were numbered among the followers of Christ, but who — Christians unfortunately more in name than in fact — in the hour that called for endurance, for effort, for suffering, for a stout heart in face of hidden or open persecution, fell victims of cowardice, weakness, uncertainty; who, terror-stricken before the sacrifices entailed by a profession of their Christian Faith, could not steel themselves to drink the bitter chalice awaiting those faithful to Christ?
9. In such dispositions of time and temperament, Venerable Brethren, may the approaching Feast of Christ the King, on which this, Our first Encyclical, will reach you, be a day of grace and of thorough renewal and revival in the spirit of the Kingdom of Christ. May it be a day when the consecration of the human race to the Divine Heart, which should be celebrated in a particularly solemn manner, will gather the Faithful of all peoples and all nations around the throne of the Eternal King, in adoration and in reparation, to renew now and forever their oath of allegiance to Him and to His law of truth and of love.
10. May it be for the Faithful a day of grace, on which the fire that Our Lord came to cast upon the earth will kindle with ever greater light and purity. May it be a day of grace for the lukewarm, for the weary, for the afflicted, that their heads, which have become faint, may give proofs of interior renewal and regeneration of spirit. May it be a day of grace also for those who have not known Christ or who have lost Him; a day when from millions of faithful hearts will rise to Heaven the prayer that “the Light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world” (Saint John i. 9) may make clear to them the way of salvation, that His grace may stir in the “troubled heart” of the wanderers a homesickness for things eternal, a homesickness that impels them to return to Him, Who from His sorrowful throne of the Cross thirsts for their souls also and Who is consumed by a desire to become for them, too, “the Way, and the Truth and the Life” (Saint John xiv. 6).
11. As, with a heart full of confidence and hope, We place this first Encyclical of Our Pontificate under the Seal of Christ the King, We feel entirely assured of the unanimous and enthusiastic approval of the whole flock of Christ. The difficulties, anxieties and trials of the present hour arouse, intensify and refine, to a degree rarely attained, the sense of solidarity in the Catholic family. They make all believers in God and in Christ share the consciousness of a common threat from a common danger.
12. We witnessed a consoling and memorable display of this Catholic solidarity, greatly intensified in such difficult circumstances — the serried ranks, the assurance, the resolution, the will to win — in those days when, with faltering step but with confidence in God, We took possession of the chair left vacant by the death of Our great predecessor.
13. We cherish the memory of the many testimonies of filial attachment to the Church and to the Vicar of Christ, and of the ovation so genuine, so enthusiastic, and so spontaneous accorded to Us on the occasion of Our election and coronation; and We gladly take this opportune occasion to address to you, Venerable Brethren, and to all who belong to the flock of the Lord, a word of sincere gratitude for that orderly manifestation of reverent love and of steadfast loyalty to the Papacy, in which one could see recognition of the God-given mission of the High Priest and of the Supreme Pastor.
14. For, We well know it, all those manifestations were not and could not have been addressed to Our poor person but to the singular and exalted office to which the Lord had raised Us. And though from that first moment We felt all the great weight of responsible cares inseparable from the supreme power given to Us by Divine Providence, it was a consolation to see that magnificent and tangible demonstration of the indissoluble unity of the Catholic Church rallying all the closer to the impregnable Rock of Peter, to form around it a wall and a bulwark as the enemies of Christ become bolder.
15. This same manifestation of world-wide Catholic solidarity and of supernatural brotherhood of peoples around their Common Father, seemed to Us all the richer in fair hopes in view of the tragic circumstances, both material and spiritual, of the moment. That memory has continued to comfort Us also in the first months of Our Pontificate in which We have already witnessed the toil, the anxiety, and the trials with which the path of the Spouse of Christ across the world is strewn.
16. Nor can We pass over in silence the profound impression of heartfelt gratitude made on Us by the good wishes of those who, though not belonging to the visible body of the Catholic Church, have given noble and sincere expression to their appreciation of all that unites them to Us in love for the Person of Christ or in belief in God. We wish to express Our gratitude to them all. We entrust them one and all to the protection and to the guidance of the Lord and We assure them solemnly that one thought only fills Our mind: to imitate the example of the Good Shepherd in order to bring true happiness to all men: “that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly” (Saint John x. 10).
17. But We must, in obedience to an inner prompting, make special mention of Our gratitude for the tokens of reverent homage which we have had from the Sovereigns, heads of States and Governments of those nations with which the Holy See is in friendly relations. Our heart is joyous especially at the thought that We can, in this first Encyclical directed to the whole Christian people scattered over the world, rank among such friendly powers Our dear Italy, fruitful garden of the Faith, which was planted by the Princes of the Apostles. For, as a result of the Lateran Pacts, her representative occupies a place of honor among those officially accredited to the Apostolic See. “The Peace of Christ restored to Italy,” like a new dawn of brotherly union in religious and in civil intercourse, had its beginning in these Pacts. We pray God that, in the serene atmosphere of that peace, He may pervade, revivify, strengthen and fortify the hearts of the Italian people, so close to Us, in the midst of which We live, with which We share the very air We breathe. We hope and trust that people, so dear to Our predecessors and to Us, may be faithful to its glorious Catholic tradition, and experience through the Divine Protection ever more that truth of the Psalmist: “Happy is that people whose God is the Lord” (Psalm cxliii. 15).
18. This happy new juridical and spiritual position which that achievement, destined to make an indelible mark in history, has secured and sealed for Italy and for the whole Catholic world, never appeared to Us so impressive in its unifying effects as when, from the lofty loggia of the Vatican Basilica, We opened and raised Our arms and Our hand for the first time in blessing over Rome — Rome, the Seat of the Papacy and Our own dear birthplace — over Italy reconciled with the Church, and over the peoples of the entire world.
19. As Vicar of Him Who in a decisive hour pronounced before the highest earthly authority of that day, the great words: “For this was I born, and for this came I into the world; that I should give testimony to the truth. Every one that is of the truth, hearest My voice” (Saint John xviii. 37), We feel We owe no greater debt to Our office and to Our time than to testify to the truth with Apostolic firmness: “to give testimony to the truth.” This duty necessarily entails the exposition and confutation of errors and human faults; for these must be made known before it is possible to tend and to heal them. “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free” (Saint John viii. 32).
20. In the fulfillment of this, Our duty, we shall not let Ourselves be influenced by earthly considerations nor be held back by mistrust or opposition, by rebuffs or lack of appreciation of Our words, nor yet by fear of misconceptions and misinterpretations. We shall fulfill Our duty, animated ever with that paternal charity which, while it suffers from the evils which afflict Our children, at the same time points out to them the remedy; We shall strive to imitate the Divine Model of shepherds, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, Who is light as well as love: “Doing the truth in charity” (Ephesians iv. 15).
21. At the head of the road which leads to the spiritual and moral bankruptcy of the present day stand the nefarious efforts of not a few to dethrone Christ; the abandonment of the law of truth which He proclaimed and of the law of love which is the life breath of His Kingdom.
22. In the recognition of the royal prerogatives of Christ and in the return of individuals and of society to the law of His truth and of His love lies the only way to salvation.
23. Venerable Brethren, as We write these lines the terrible news comes to Us that the dread tempest of war is already raging despite all Our efforts to avert it. When We think of the wave of suffering that has come on countless people who but yesterday enjoyed in the environment of their homes some little degree of well-being, We are tempted to lay down Our pen. Our paternal heart is torn by anguish as We look ahead to all that will yet come forth from the baneful seed of violence and of hatred for which the sword today ploughs the blood-drenched furrow.
24. But precisely because of this apocalyptic foresight of disaster, imminent and remote, We feel We have a duty to raise with still greater insistence the eyes and hearts of those in whom there yet remains good will to the One from Whom alone comes the salvation of the world — to One Whose almighty and merciful Hand can alone calm this tempest — to the One Whose truth and Whose love can enlighten the intellects and inflame the hearts of so great a section of mankind plunged in error, selfishness, strife and struggle, so as to give it a new orientation in the spirit of the Kingship of Christ.
25. Perhaps — God grant it — one may hope that this hour of direct need may bring a change of outlook and sentiment to those many who, till now, have walked with blind faith along the path of popular modern errors unconscious of the treacherous and insecure ground on which they trod. Perhaps the many who have not grasped the importance of the educational and pastoral mission of the Church will now understand better her warnings, scouted in the false security of the past. No defense of Christianity could be more effective than the present straits. From the immense vortex of error and anti-Christian movements there has come forth a crop of such poignant disasters as to constitute a condemnation surpassing in its conclusiveness any merely theoretical refutation.
26. Hours of painful disillusionment are often hours of grace — “a passage of the Lord” (cf. Exodus xii. 11), when doors which in other circumstances would have remained shut, open at Our Savior’s words: “Behold, I stand at the gate and knock” (Apocalypse iii. 20). God knows that Our heart goes out in affectionate sympathy and spiritual joy to those who, as a result of such painful trials, feel within them an effective and salutary thirst for the truth, justice and peace of Christ. But for those also for whom as yet the hour of light from on high has not come, Our heart knows only love, Our lips move only in prayer to the Father of Light that He may cause to shine in their hearts, indifferent as yet or hostile to Christ, a ray of that Light which once transformed Saul into Paul; of that Light which has shown its mysterious power strongest in the times of greatest difficulty for the Church.
27. A full statement of the doctrinal stand to be taken in face of the errors of today, if necessary, can be put off to another time unless there is disturbance by calamitous external events; for the moment We limit Ourselves to some fundamental observations.
28. The present age, Venerable Brethren, by adding new errors to the doctrinal aberrations of the past, has pushed these to extremes which lead inevitably to a drift towards chaos. Before all else, it is certain that the radical and ultimate cause of the evils which We deplore in modern society is the denial and rejection of a universal norm of morality as well for individual and social life as for international relations; We mean the disregard, so common nowadays, and the forgetfulness of the natural law itself, which has its foundation in God, Almighty Creator and Father of all, supreme and absolute Lawgiver, all-wise and just Judge of human actions. When God is hated, every basis of morality is undermined; the voice of conscience is stilled or at any rate grows very faint, that voice which teaches even to the illiterate and to uncivilized tribes what is good and what is bad, what lawful, what forbidden, and makes men feel themselves responsible for their actions to a Supreme Judge.
29. The denial of the fundamentals of morality had its origin, in Europe, in the abandonment of that Christian teaching of which the Chair of Peter is the depository and exponent. That teaching had once given spiritual cohesion to a Europe which, educated, ennobled and civilized by the Cross, had reached such a degree of civil progress as to become the teacher of other peoples, of other continents. But, cut off from the infallible teaching authority of the Church, not a few separated brethren have gone so far as to overthrow the central dogma of Christianity, the Divinity of the Savior, and have hastened thereby the progress of spiritual decay.
30. The Holy Gospel narrates that when Jesus was crucified “there was darkness over the whole earth” (Matthew xxvii. 45); a terrifying symbol of what happened and what still happens spiritually wherever incredulity, blind and proud of itself, has succeeded in excluding Christ from modern life, especially from public life, and has undermined faith in God as well as faith in Christ. The consequence is that the moral values by which in other times public and private conduct was gauged have fallen into disuse; and the much vaunted civilization of society, which has made ever more rapid progress, withdrawing man, the family and the State from the beneficent and regenerating effects of the idea of God and the teaching of the Church, has caused to reappear, in regions in which for many centuries shone the splendors of Christian civilization, in a manner ever clearer, ever more distinct, ever more distressing, the signs of a corrupt and corrupting paganism: “There was darkness when they crucified Jesus” (Roman Breviary, Good Friday, Response Five).
31. Many perhaps, while abandoning the teaching of Christ, were not fully conscious of being led astray by a mirage of glittering phrases, which proclaimed such estrangement as an escape from the slavery in which they were before held; nor did they then foresee the bitter consequences of bartering the truth that sets free, for error which enslaves. They did not realize that, in renouncing the infinitely wise and paternal laws of God, and the unifying and elevating doctrines of Christ’s love, they were resigning themselves to the whim of a poor, fickle human wisdom; they spoke of progress, when they were going back; of being raised, when they groveled; of arriving at man’s estate, when they stooped to servility. They did not perceive the inability of all human effort to replace the law of Christ by anything equal to it; “they became vain in their thoughts” (Romans i. 21).
32. With the weakening of faith in God and in Jesus Christ, and the darkening in men’s minds of the light of moral principles, there disappeared the indispensable foundation of the stability and quiet of that internal and external, private and public order, which alone can support and safeguard the prosperity of States.
33. It is true that even when Europe had a cohesion of brotherhood through identical ideals gathered from Christian preaching, she was not free from divisions, convulsions and wars which laid her waste; but perhaps they never felt the intense pessimism of today as to the possibility of settling them, for they had then an effective moral sense of the just and of the unjust, of the lawful and of the unlawful, which, by restraining outbreaks of passion, left the way open to an honorable settlement. In Our days, on the contrary, dissensions come not only from the surge of rebellious passion, but also from a deep spiritual crisis which has overthrown the sound principles of private and public morality.
34. Among the many errors which derive from the poisoned source of religious and moral agnosticism, We would draw your attention, Venerable Brethren, to two in particular, as being those which more than others render almost impossible or at least precarious and uncertain, the peaceful intercourse of peoples.
35. The first of these pernicious errors, widespread today, is the forgetfulness of that law of human solidarity and charity which is dictated and imposed by our common origin and by the equality of rational nature in all men, to whatever people they belong, and by the redeeming Sacrifice offered by Jesus Christ on the Altar of the Cross to His Heavenly Father on behalf of sinful mankind.
36. In fact, the first page of the Scripture, with magnificent simplicity, tells us how God, as a culmination to His creative work, made man to His Own image and likeness (cf. Genesis i. 26, 27); and the same Scripture tells us that He enriched man with supernatural gifts and privileges, and destined him to an eternal and ineffable happiness. It shows us besides how other men took their origin from the first couple, and then goes on, in unsurpassed vividness of language, to recount their division into different groups and their dispersion to various parts of the world. Even when they abandoned their Creator, God did not cease to regard them as His children, who, according to His merciful plan, should one day be reunited once more in His friendship (cf. Genesis xii. 3).
37. The Apostle of the Gentiles later on makes himself the herald of this truth which associates men as brothers in one great family, when he proclaims to the Greek world that God “hath made of one, all mankind, to dwell upon the whole face of the earth, determining appointed times, and the limits of their habitation, that they should seek God” (Acts xvii. 26, 27).
38. A marvelous vision, which makes us see the human race in the unity of one common origin in God “one God and Father of all, Who is above all, and through all, and in us all” (Ephesians iv. 6); in the unity of nature which in every man is equally composed of material body and spiritual, immortal soul; in the unity of the immediate end and mission in the world; in the unity of dwelling place, the earth, of whose resources all men can by natural right avail themselves, to sustain and develop life; in the unity of the supernatural end, God Himself, to Whom all should tend; in the unity of means to secure that end.
39. It is the same Apostle who portrays for us mankind in the unity of its relations with the Son of God, image of the invisible God, in Whom all things have been created: “In Him were all things created” (Colossians i. 16); in the unity of its ransom, effected for all by Christ, Who, through His Holy and most bitter passion, restored the original friendship with God which had been broken, making Himself the Mediator between God and men: “For there is one God, and one Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (I Timothy ii. 5).
40. And to render such friendship between God and mankind more intimate, this same Divine and universal Mediator of salvation and of peace, in the sacred silence of the Supper Room, before He consummated the Supreme Sacrifice, let fall from His divine Lips the words which reverberate mightily down the centuries, inspiring heroic charity in a world devoid of love and torn by hate: “This is my commandment that you love one another, as I have loved you” (Saint John xv. 12).
41. These are supernatural truths which form a solid basis and the strongest possible bond of a union, that is reinforced by the love of God and of our Divine Redeemer, from Whom all receive salvation “for the edifying of the Body of Christ: until we all meet into the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians iv. 12, 13).
42. In the light of this unity of all mankind, which exists in law and in fact, individuals do not feel themselves isolated units, like grains of sand, but united by the very force of their nature and by their internal destiny, into an organic, harmonious mutual relationship which varies with the changing of times.
43. And the nations, despite a difference of development due to diverse conditions of life and of culture, are not destined to break the unity of the human race, but rather to enrich and embellish it by the sharing of their own peculiar gifts and by that reciprocal interchange of goods which can be possible and efficacious only when a mutual love and a lively sense of charity unite all the sons of the same Father and all those redeemed by the same Divine Blood.
44. The Church of Christ, the faithful depository of the teaching of Divine Wisdom, cannot and does not think of deprecating or disdaining the particular characteristics which each people, with jealous and intelligible pride, cherishes and retains as a precious heritage. Her aim is a supernatural union in all-embracing love, deeply felt and practiced, and not the unity which is exclusively external and superficial and by that very fact weak.
45. The Church hails with joy and follows with her maternal blessing every method of guidance and care which aims at a wise and orderly evolution of particular forces and tendencies having their origin in the individual character of each race, provided that they are not opposed to the duties incumbent on men from their unity of origin and common destiny.
46. She has repeatedly shown in her missionary enterprises that such a principle of action is the guiding star of her universal apostolate. Pioneer research and investigation, involving sacrifice, devotedness and love on the part of her missionaries of every age, have been undertaken in order to facilitate the deeper appreciative insight into the most varied civilizations and to put their spiritual values to account for a living and vital preaching of the Gospel of Christ. All that in such usages and customs is not inseparably bound up with religious errors will always be subject to kindly consideration and, when it is found possible, will be sponsored and developed.
47. Our immediate predecessor, of holy and venerated memory, applying such norms to a particularly delicate question, took some generous decisions which are a monument to his insight and to the intensity of his apostolic spirit. Nor need We tell you, Venerable Brethren, that We intend to proceed without hesitation along this way. Those who enter the Church, whatever be their origin or their speech, must know that they have equal rights as children in the House of the Lord, where the law of Christ and the peace of Christ prevail.
48. In accordance with these principles of equality, the Church devotes her care to forming cultured native clergy and gradually increasing the number of native Bishops. And in order to give external expression to these, Our intentions, We have chosen the forthcoming Feast of Christ the King to raise to the Episcopal dignity at the Tomb of the Apostles twelve representatives of widely different peoples and races. In the midst of the disruptive contrasts which divide the human family, may this solemn act proclaim to all Our sons, scattered over the world, that the spirit, the teaching and the work of the Church can never be other than that which the Apostle of the Gentiles preached: “putting on the new, (man) him who is renewed unto knowledge, according to the image of him that created him. Where there is neither Gentile nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free. But Christ is all and in all” (Colossians iii. 10, 11).
49. Nor is there any fear lest the consciousness of universal brotherhood aroused by the teaching of Christianity, and the spirit which it inspires, be in contrast with love of traditions or the glories of one’s fatherland, or impede the progress of prosperity or legitimate interests. For that same Christianity teaches that in the exercise of charity we must follow a God-given order, yielding the place of honor in our affections and good works to those who are bound to us by special ties. Nay, the Divine Master Himself gave an example of this preference for His Own country and fatherland, as He wept over the coming destruction of the Holy City. But legitimate and well-ordered love of our native country should not make us close our eyes to the all-embracing nature of Christian Charity, which calls for consideration of others and of their interests in the pacifying light of love.
50. Such is the marvelous doctrine of love and peace which has been such an ennobling factor in the civil and religious progress of mankind. And the heralds who proclaimed it, moved by supernatural charity, not only tilled the land and cared for the sick, but above all they reclaimed, moulded and raised life to divine heights, directing it toward the summit of sanctity in which everything is seen in the light of God. They have raised mansions and temples which show to what lofty and kindly heights the Christian ideal urges man; but above all they have made of men, wise or ignorant, strong or weak, living temples of God and branches of the very vine which is Christ. They have handed on to future generations the treasures of ancient art and wisdom and have secured for them that inestimable gift of eternal wisdom which links men as brothers by the common recognition of a supernatural ownership.
51. Venerable Brethren, forgetfulness of the law of universal charity — of that charity which alone can consolidate peace by extinguishing hatred and softening envies and dissensions — is the source of very grave evils for peaceful relations between nations.
52. But there is yet another error no less pernicious to the well-being of the nations and to the prosperity of that great human society which gathers together and embraces within its confines all races. It is the error contained in those ideas which do not hesitate to divorce civil authority from every kind of dependence upon the Supreme Being — First Source and absolute Master of man and of society — and from every restraint of a Higher Law derived from God as from its First Source. Thus they accord the civil authority an unrestricted field of action that is at the mercy of the changeful tide of human will, or of the dictates of casual historical claims, and of the interests of a few.
53. Once the authority of God and the sway of His law are denied in this way, the civil authority as an inevitable result tends to attribute to itself that absolute autonomy which belongs exclusively to the Supreme Maker. It puts itself in the place of the Almighty and elevates the State or group into the last end of life, the supreme criterion of the moral and juridical order, and therefore forbids every appeal to the principles of natural reason and of the Christian conscience. We do not, of course, fail to recognize that, fortunately, false principles do not always exercise their full influence, especially when age-old Christian traditions, on which the peoples have been nurtured, remain still deeply, even if unconsciously, rooted in their hearts.
54. None the less, one must not forget the essential insufficiency and weakness of every principle of social life which rests upon a purely human foundation, is inspired by merely earthly motives and relies for its force on the sanction of a purely external authority.
55 Where the dependence of human right upon the Divine is denied, where appeal is made only to some insecure idea of a merely human authority, and an autonomy is claimed which rests only upon a utilitarian morality, there human law itself justly forfeits in its more weighty application the moral force which is the essential condition for its acknowledgment and also for its demand of sacrifices.
56. It is quite true that power based on such weak and unsteady foundations can attain at times, under chance circumstances, material successes apt to arouse wonder in superficial observers.
57. But the moment comes when the inevitable law triumphs, which strikes down all that has been constructed upon a hidden or open disproportion between the greatness of the material and outward success, and the weakness of the inward value and of its moral foundation. Such disproportion exists whenever public authority disregards or denies the dominion of the Supreme Lawgiver, Who, as He has given rulers power, has also set and marked its bounds.
58. Indeed, as Our great predecessor, Leo XIII, wisely taught in the Encyclical Immortale Dei, it was the Creator’s will that civil sovereignty should regulate social life after the dictates of an order changeless in its universal principles; should facilitate the attainment in the temporal order, by individuals, of physical, intellectual and moral perfection; and should aid them to reach their supernatural end.
59. Hence, it is the noble prerogative and function of the State to control, aid and direct the private and individual activities of national life that they converge harmoniously towards the common good. That good can neither be defined according to arbitrary ideas nor can it accept for its standard primarily the material prosperity of society, but rather it should be defined according to the harmonious development and the natural perfection of man. It is for this perfection that society is designed by the Creator as a means.
60. To consider the State as something ultimate to which everything else should be subordinated and directed, cannot fail to harm the true and lasting prosperity of nations. This can happen either when unrestricted dominion comes to be conferred on the State as having a mandate from the nation, people, or even a social order, or when the State arrogates such dominion to itself as absolute master, despotically, without any mandate whatsoever. If, in fact, the State lays claim to and directs private enterprises, these, ruled as they are by delicate and complicated internal principles which guarantee and assure the realization of their special aims, may be damaged to the detriment of the public good, by being wrenched from their natural surroundings, that is, from responsible private action.
61. Further, there would be danger lest the primary and essential cell of society, the family, with its well-being and its growth, should come to be considered from the narrow standpoint of national power, and lest it be forgotten that man and the family are by nature anterior to the State, and that the Creator has given to both of them powers and rights and has assigned them a mission and a charge that correspond to undeniable natural requirements.
62. The education of the new generation in that case would not aim at the balanced and harmonious development of the physical powers and of all the intellectual and moral qualities, but at a one-sided formation of those civic virtues that are considered necessary for attaining political success, while the virtues which give society the fragrance of nobility, humanity and reverence would be inculcated less, for fear they should detract from the pride of the citizen.
63. Before Us stand out with painful clarity the dangers We fear will accrue to this and coming generations from the neglect or nonrecognition, the minimizing and the gradual abolition of the rights peculiar to the family. Therefore We stand up as determined defenders of those rights in the full consciousness of the duty imposed on Us by Our Apostolic office. The stress of our times, as well external as internal, material and spiritual alike, and the manifold errors with their countless repercussions are tasted by none so bitterly as by that noble little cell, the family.
64. True courage and a heroism worthy in its degree of admiration and respect, are often necessary to support the hardships of life, the daily weight of misery, growing want and restrictions on a scale never before experienced, whose reason and necessity are not always apparent. Whoever has the care of souls and can search hearts, knows the hidden tears of mothers, the resigned sorrow of so many fathers, the countless bitterness of which no statistics tell nor can tell he sees with sad eyes the mass of sufferings ever on the increase; he knows how the powers of disorder and destruction stand on the alert ready to make use of all these things for their dark designs.
65. No one of good-will and vision will think of refusing the State, in the exceptional conditions of the world of today, correspondingly wider and exceptional rights to meet the popular needs. But even in such emergencies, the moral law, established by God, demands that the lawfulness of each such measure and its real necessity be scrutinized with the greatest rigor according to the standards of the common good.
66. In any case, the more burdensome the material sacrifices demanded of the individual and the family by the State, the more must the rights of conscience be to it sacred and inviolable. Goods, blood it can demand; but the soul redeemed by God, never. The charge laid by God on parents to provide for the material and spiritual good of their offspring and to procure for them a suitable training saturated with the true spirit of religion, cannot be wrested from them without grave violation of their rights.
67. Undoubtedly, that formation should aim as well at the preparation of youth to fulfill with intelligent understanding and pride those offices of a noble patriotism which give to one’s earthly fatherland all due measure of love, self-devotion and service. But, on the other hand, a formation which forgot or, worse still, deliberately neglected to direct the eyes and hearts of youth to the heavenly country would be an injustice to youth, an injustice against the inalienable duties and rights of the Christian family and an excess to which a check must be opposed, in the interests even of the people and of the State itself.
68. Such an education might seem perhaps to the rulers responsible for it, a source of increased strength and vigor; it would be, in fact, the opposite, as sad experience would prove. The crime of high treason against the “King of kings and Lord of lords” (I Timothy vi. 15; cf. Apocalypse xix. 6) perpetrated by an education that is either indifferent or opposed to Christianity, the reversal of “Suffer the little children to come unto me” (Saint Matthew xix, 14), would bear most bitter fruits. On the contrary, the State which lifts anxiety from the bleeding and torn hearts of fathers and mothers and restores their rights, only promotes its own internal peace and lays foundations of a happy future for the country. The souls of children given to their parents by God and consecrated in Baptism with the royal character of Christ, are a sacred charge over which watches the jealous love of God. The same Christ Who pronounced the words “Suffer little children to come unto me” has threatened, for all His mercy and goodness, with fearful evils, those who give scandal to those so dear to His heart.
69. Now what scandal is more permanently harmful to generation after generation, than a formation of youth which is misdirected towards a goal that alienates from Christ “the Way and the Truth and the Life” and leads to open or hidden apostasy from Christ? That Christ from Whom they want to alienate the youthful generations of the present day and of the future, is the same Christ Who has received from His Eternal Father all power in Heaven and on earth. He holds in His omnipotent Hand the destiny of States, of peoples and of nations. His it is to shorten or prolong life: His to grant increase, prosperity and greatness.
70. Of all that exists on the face of the earth, the soul alone has deathless life. A system of education that should not respect the sacred precincts of the Christian family, protected by God’s holy law, that should attack its foundations, bar to the young the way to Christ, to the Savior’s fountains of life and joy (cf. Isaias xii. 3), that should consider apostasy from Christ and the Church as a proof of fidelity to the people or a particular class’s word: “They that depart from thee, shall be written in the earth” (Jeremiah xvii. 13).
71. The idea which credits the State with unlimited authority is not simply an error harmful to the internal life of nations, to their prosperity, and to the larger and well-ordered increase in their well-being, but likewise it injures the relations between peoples, for it breaks the unity of supra-national society, robs the law of nations of its foundation and vigor, leads to violation of others’ rights and impedes agreement and peaceful intercourse.
72. A disposition, in fact, of the divinely sanctioned natural order divides the human race into social groups, nations or States, which are mutually independent in organization and in the direction of their internal life. But for all that, the human race is bound together by reciprocal ties, moral and juridical, into a great commonwealth directed to the good of all nations and ruled by special laws which protect its unity and promote its prosperity.
73. Now no one can fail to see how the claim to absolute autonomy for the State stands in open opposition to this natural way that is inherent in man — nay, denies it utterly — and therefore leaves the stability of international relations at the mercy of the will of rulers, while it destroys the possibility of true union and fruitful collaboration directed to the general good.
74. So, Venerable Brethren, it is indispensable for the existence of harmonious and lasting contacts and of fruitful relations, that the peoples recognize and observe these principles of international natural law which regulate their normal development and activity. Such principles demand respect for corresponding rights to independence, to life and to the possibility of continuous development in the paths of civilization; they demand, further, fidelity to compacts agreed upon and sanctioned in conformity with the principles of the law of nations.
75. The indispensable presupposition, without doubt, of all peaceful intercourse between nations, and the very soul of the juridical relations in force among them, is mutual trust: the expectation and conviction that each party will respect its plighted word; the certainty that both sides are convinced that “better is wisdom, than weapons of war” (Ecclesiastes ix. 18), and are ready to enter into discussion and to avoid recourse to force or to threats of force in case of delays, hindrances, changes or disputes, because all these things can be the result not of bad will, but of changed circumstances and of genuine interests in conflict.
76. But on the other hand, to tear the law of nations from its anchor in Divine law, to base it on the autonomous will of States, is to dethrone that very law and deprive it of its noblest and strongest qualities. Thus it would stand abandoned to the fatal drive of private interest and collective selfishness exclusively intent on the assertion of its own rights and ignoring those of others.
77. Now, it is true that with the passage of time and the substantial change of circumstances, which were not and perhaps could not have been foreseen in the making of a treaty, such a treaty or some of its clauses can in fact become, or at least seem to become unjust, impracticable or too burdensome for one of the parties. It is obvious that should such be the case, recourse should be had in good time to a frank discussion with a view to modifying the treaty or making another in its stead. But to consider treaties on principle as ephemeral and tacitly to assume the authority of rescinding them unilaterally when they are no longer to one’s advantage, would be to abolish all mutual trust among States. In this way, natural order would be destroyed and there would be seen dug between different peoples and nations trenches of division impossible to refill.
78. Today, Venerable Brethren, all men are looking with terror into the abyss to which they have been brought by the errors and principles which We have mentioned, and by their practical consequences. Gone are the proud illusions of limitless progress. Should any still fail to grasp this fact, the tragic situation of today would rouse them with the prophet’s cry: “Hear, ye deaf and ye blind, behold” (Isaias xlii. 18). What used to appear on the outside as order, was nothing but an invasion of disorder: confusion in the principles of moral life. These principles, once divorced from the majesty of the Divine law, have tainted every field of human activity.
79. But let us leave the past and turn our eyes towards that future which, according to the promises of the powerful ones of this world, is to consist, once the bloody conflicts of today have ceased, in a new order founded on justice and on prosperity. Will that future be really different; above all, will it be better? Will treaties of peace, will the new international order at the end of this war be animated by justice and by equity towards all, by that spirit which frees and pacifies? Or will there be a lamentable repetition of ancient and of recent errors?
80. To hope for a decisive change exclusively from the shock of war and its final issue is idle, as experience shows. The hour of victory is an hour of external triumph for the party to whom victory falls, but it is in equal measure the hour of temptation. In this hour the angel of justice strives with the demons of violence; the heart of the victor all too easily is hardened; moderation and farseeing wisdom appear to him weakness; the excited passions of the people, often inflamed by the sacrifices and sufferings they have borne, obscure the vision even of responsible persons and make them inattentive to the warning voice of humanity and equity, which is overwhelmed or drowned in the inhuman cry. “Vae victis, woe to the conquered.” There is danger lest settlements and decision born in such conditions be nothing else than injustice under the cloak of justice.
81. No, Venerable Brethren, safety does not come to peoples from external means, from the sword which can impose conditions of peace but does not create peace. Forces that are to renew the face of the earth should proceed from within, from the spirit.
82. Once the bitterness and the cruel strifes of the present have ceased, the new order of the world, of national and international life, must rest no longer on the quicksands of changeable and ephemeral standards that depend only on the selfish interests of groups and individuals. No, they must rest on the unshakable foundation, on the solid rock of natural law and of Divine Revelation. There the human legislator must attain to that balance, that keen sense of moral responsibility, without which it is easy to mistake the boundary between the legitimate use and the abuse of power. Thus only will his decisions have internal consistency, noble dignity and religious sanction, and be immune from selfishness and passion.
83. For true though it is that the evils from which mankind suffers today come in part from economic instability and from the struggle of interests regarding a more equal distribution of the goods which God has given man as a means of sustenance and progress, it is not less true that their root is deeper and more intrinsic, belonging to the sphere of religious belief and moral convictions which have been perverted by the progressive alienation of the peoples from that unity of doctrine, faith, customs and morals which once was promoted by the tireless and beneficent work of the Church. If it is to have any effect, the reeducation of mankind must be, above all things, spiritual and religious. Hence, it must proceed from Christ as from its indispensable foundation; must be actuated by justice and crowned by charity.
84. The accomplishment of this task of regeneration, by adapting her means to the altered conditions of the times and to the new needs of the human race, is an essential and maternal office of the Church. Committed to her by her Divine Founder, the preaching of the Gospel, by which is inculcated to men truth, justice and charity and the endeavor to implant its precepts solidly in mind and conscience, is the most noble and most fruitable work for peace. That mission would seem as if it ought to discourage by its very grandeur the hearts of those who make up the Church Militant. But that cooperation in the spread of the Kingdom of God which in every century is effected in different ways, with varying instruments, with manifold hard struggles, is a command incumbent on everyone who has been snatched by Divine Grace from the slavery of Satan and called in Baptism to citizenship of the Kingdom of God.
85. And if belonging to it, living according to its spirit, laboring for its increase and placing its benefits at the disposition of that portion of mankind also which as yet has no part in them, means in our days having to face obstacles and oppositions as vast and deep and minutely organized as never before, that does not dispense a man from the frank, bold profession of our Faith. Rather, it spurs one to stand fast in the conflict even at the price of the greatest sacrifices. Whoever lives by the spirit of Christ refuses to let himself be beaten down by the difficulties which oppose him, but on the contrary feels himself impelled to work with all his strength and with the fullest confidence in God. He does not draw back before the straits and the necessities of the moment but faces their severity ready to give aid with that love which flees no sacrifice, is stronger than death, and will not be quenched by the rushing waters of tribulation.
86. It gives Us, Venerable Brethren, an inward strength, a heavenly joy, for which We daily render to God Our deep and humble thanks, to see in every region of the Catholic world evident signs of a spirit which boldly faces the gigantic tasks of our age, which with generous decision is intent on uniting in fruitful harmony the first and essential duty of individual sanctification, and apostolic activity for the spread of the Kingdom of God. From the movement of the Eucharistic Congresses furthered with loving care by Our predecessors and from the collaboration of the laity formed in Catholic Action towards a deep realization of their noble mission, flow forth fountains of grace and reserves of strength, which could hardly be sufficiently prized in the present time, when threats are more numerous, needs multiply and the conflict between Christianity and anti-Christianism grows intense.
87. At a moment when one is forced to note with sorrow the disproportion between the number of priests and the calls upon them, when one sees that even today the words of Our Savior apply: “The harvest indeed in great, but the laborers are few” (Saint Matthew ix. 37; Saint Luke x.2), the collaboration of the laity in the Apostolate of the Hierarchy, a collaboration indeed given by many and animated with ardent zeal and generous self-devotion, stands out as a precious aid to the work of priests and shows possibilities of development which justify the brightest hopes. The prayer of the Church to the Lord of the Harvest that he send workers into his vineyard (cf. Saint Matthew ix. 37; Saint Luke x.2) has been granted to a degree proportionate to the present needs, and in a manner which supplements and completes the powers, often obstructed and inadequate, of the priestly apostolate. Numbers of fervent men and women of youth obedient to the voice of the Supreme Pastor and to the directions of their bishops, consecrate themselves with the full ardor of their souls to the works of the apostolate in order to bring back to Christ the masses of peoples who have been separated from Him.
88. To them in this moment so critical for the Church and for mankind go out Our paternal greeting, Our deepfelt gratitude, Our confident hope. These have truly placed their lives and their work beneath the standard of Christ the King; and they can say with the Psalmist: “I speak my words to the King” (Psalm xliv. 1). “Thy Kingdom come” is not simply the burning desire of their prayer; it is besides, the guide of their activity.
89. This collaboration of the laity with the priesthood in all classes, categories and groups reveals precious industry and to the laity is entrusted a mission than which noble and loyal hearts could desire none higher nor more consoling. This apostolic work, carried out according to the mind of the Church, consecrates the layman as a kind of “Minister to Christ” in the sense which Saint Augustine explains as follows: “When, Brethren, you hear Our Lord saying: where I am there too will My servant be, do not think solely of good bishops and clerics.” You too in your way minister to Christ by a good life, by almsgiving, by preaching His Name and teaching to whom you can. Thus every father should recognize that it is under this title that he owes paternal affection to his family. Let it be for the sake of Christ and for life everlasting, that he admonishes all his household, teaches, exhorts, reproves, shows kindness, corrects; and thus in his own home he will fulfill an ecclesiastical and in a way an episcopal office ministering to Christ, that he may be for ever with Him” (on The Gospel according to Saint John, tract 51, n. 13).
90. In promoting this participation by the laity in the apostolate, which is so important in our times, the family has a special mission, for it is the spirit of the family that exercises the most powerful influence on that of the rising generation. As long as the sacred flame of the Faith burns on the domestic hearth, and the parents forge and fashion the lives of their children in accordance with this Faith, youth will be ever ready to acknowledge the royal prerogatives of the Redeemer, and to oppose those who wish to exclude Him from society or wrongly to usurp His rights.
91. When churches are closed, when the Image of the Crucified is taken from the schools, the family remains the providential and, in a certain sense, impregnable refuge of Christian life. And We give thanks to God as We see that numberless families accomplish this, their mission, with a fidelity undismayed by combat or by sacrifice. A great host of young men and women, even in those regions where faith in Christ means suffering and persecution, remain firm around the Throne of the Redeemer with a quiet, steady determination that recalls the most glorious days of the Church’s struggles.
92. What torrents of benefits would be showered on the world; what light, order, what peace would accrue to social life; what unique and precious energies would contribute towards the betterment of mankind, if men would everywhere concede to the Church, teacher of justice and love, that liberty of action to which, in virtue of the Divine Mandate, she has a sacred and indisputable right! What calamities could be averted, what happiness and tranquillity assured, if the social and international forces working to establish peace would let themselves be permeated by the deep lessons of the Gospel of Love in their struggle against individual or collective egoism!
93. There is no opposition between the laws that govern the life of faithful Christians and the postulates of a genuine humane humanitarianism, but rather unity and mutual support. In the interests of suffering mankind, shaken to the depths both materially and spiritually, We have no more ardent desire than this: that the present difficulties may open the eyes of many to see Our Lord Jesus Christ and the mission of His Church on this earth in their true light, and that all those who are in power may decide to allow the Church a free course to work for the formation of the rising generation according to the principles of justice and peace.
94. This work of pacification presupposes that obstacles are not put to the exercise of the mission which God has entrusted to His Church; that the field of this activity is not restricted, and that the masses, and especially youth, are not withdrawn from her beneficent influence.
95. Accordingly We, as representatives on earth of Him Who was proclaimed by the Prophet “Prince of Peace” (Isaias ix. 6) appeal to the rulers of the peoples, and to those who can in any way influence public life, to let the Church have full liberty to fulfill her role as educator by teaching men truth, by inculcating justice and inflaming hearts with the Divine Love of Christ.
96. While the Church cannot renounce the exercise of this, her mission, which has for its final end to realize here below the Divine plan and to “re-establish all things in Christ, that are in heaven and on earth” (Ephesians i. 10) her aid, nonetheless, is shown to be indispensable as never before, now that sad experience teaches that external means and human provisions and political expedients of themselves bring no efficacious healing to the ills which affect mankind.
97. Taught precisely by the sad failure of human expedients to stave off the tempest that threatens to sweep civilization away, many turn their gaze with renewed hope to the Church, the rock of truth and of charity, to that Chair of Peter from which, they feel, can be restored to mankind that unity of religious teaching and of the moral code which of old gave consistency to pacific international relations.
98. Unity, towards which, so many, answerable for the destiny of nations, look with regretful yearning as they experience from day to day the vanity of the very means in which once they had placed their trust! Unity, the desired of those many legions of Our sons who daily call upon “The God of Peace and of love” (II Corinthians xiii. 11). Unity, the hope of so many noble minds separated from Us, who yet in their hunger and thirst for justice and peace turn their eyes to the See of Peter and from it await guidance and counsel!
99. These last are recognizing in the Catholic Church principles of belief and life that have stood the test of 2,000 years; the strong cohesion of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, which in union with the Successor of Peter spends itself in enlightening minds with the teaching of the Gospel, in guiding and sanctifying men, and which is generous in its material condescension towards all, but firm when, even at the cost of torments or martyrdom, it has to say: “Non licet; it is not allowed!”
100. And yet, Venerable Brethren, the teaching of Christ, which alone can furnish man with such solid bases of belief as will greatly enlarge his vision, and divinely dilate his heart and supply an efficacious remedy to the very grave difficulties of today — this and the activity of the Church in teaching and spreading that Doctrine, and in forming and modeling men’s minds by its precepts, are at times an object of suspicion, as if they shook the foundations of civil authority or usurped its rights.
101. Against such suspicions We solemnly declare with Apostolic sincerity that — without prejudice to the declarations regarding the power of Christ and of His Church made by Our predecessor, Pius XI, of venerable memory, in his Encyclical Quas Primas of December 11, 1925 — any such aims are entirely alien to that same Church, which spreads it maternal arms towards this world not to dominate but to serve. She does not claim to take the place of other legitimate authorities in their proper spheres, but offers them her help after the example and in the spirit of her Divine Founder Who “went about doing good” (Acts x. 38).
102. The Church preaches and inculcates obedience and respect for earthly authority which derives from God its whole origin and holds to the teaching of her Divine Master Who said: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” (Saint Matthew xxii. 21); she has no desire to usurp, and sings in the liturgy: “He takes away no earthly realms who gives us the celestial” (hymn for Feast of Epiphany). She does not suppress human energies but lifts them up to all that is noble and generous and forms characters which do not compromise with conscience. Nor has she who civilizes the nations ever retarded the civil progress of mankind, at which on the contrary she is pleased and glad with a mother’s pride. The end of her activity was admirably expressed by the Angels over the cradle of the Word Incarnate, when they sang of glory to God and announced peace to men of good will: “Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will” (Saint Luke ii. 14).
103. This peace, which the world cannot give, has been left as a heritage to His disciples by the Divine Redeemer Himself: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you” (Saint John xiv. 27); and thus following the sublime teaching of Christ, summed up by Himself in the twofold precept of love of God and of the neighbor, millions of souls have reached, are reaching and shall reach peace. History, wisely called by a great Roman “The Teacher of Life,” has proved for close on two thousand years how true is the word of Scripture that he will not have peace who resists God (cf. Job ix. 4). For Christ alone is the “Corner Stone” (Ephesians ii. 20) on which man and society can find stability and salvation.
104. On this Corner Stone the Church is built, and hence against her the adversary can never prevail: “The gates of hell shall not prevail” (Saint Matthew xvi. 18), nor can they ever weaken her! Nay, rather, internal and external struggles tend to augment the force and multiply the laurels of her glorious victories.
105. On the other hand, any other building which has not been founded solidly on the teaching of Christ rests on shifting sands and is destined to perish miserably (cf. Saint Matthew vii. 26, 27).
106. Venerable Brethren, the hour when this Our first Encyclical reaches you is in many respects a real “Hour of Darkness” (cf. Saint Luke xxii. 53), in which the spirit of violence and of discord brings indescribable suffering on mankind. Do We need to give assurance that Our paternal heart is close to all Our children in compassionate love, and especially to the afflicted, the oppressed, the persecuted? The nations swept into the tragic whirlpool of war are perhaps as yet only at the “beginnings of sorrows” (Saint Matthew xxiv. 8), but even now there reigns in thousands of families death and desolation, lamentation and misery. The blood of countless human beings, even noncombatants, raises a piteous dirge over a nation such as Our dear Poland, which, for its fidelity to the Church, for its services in the defense of Christian civilization, written in indelible characters in the annals of history, has a right to the generous and brotherly sympathy of the whole world, while it awaits, relying on the powerful intercession of Mary, Help of Christians, the hour of a resurrection in harmony with the principles of justice and true peace.
107. What has already happened and is still happening, was presented, as it were, in a vision before Our eyes when, while still some hope was left, We left nothing undone in the form suggested to us by Our Apostolic office and by the means at Our disposal, to prevent recourse to arms and to keep open the way to an understanding honorable to both parties. Convinced that the use of force on one side would be answered by recourse to arms on the other, We considered it a duty inseparable from Our Apostolic office and of Christian Charity to try every means to spare mankind and Christianity the horrors of a world conflagration, even at the risk of having Our intentions and Our aims misunderstood. Our advice, if heard with respect, was not however followed and while Our pastoral heart looks on with sorrow and foreboding, the Image of the Good Shepherd comes up before Our gaze, and it seems as though We ought to repeat to the world in His name: “If thou . . . hadst known . . . the things that are to thy peace; but now they are hidden from thy eyes” (Saint Luke xix. 42).
108. In the midst of this world which today presents such a sharp contrast to “The Peace of Christ in the Reign of Christ,” the Church and her faithful are in times and in years of trial such as have rarely been known in her history of struggle and suffering. But in such times especially, he who remains firm in his faith and strong at heart knows that Christ the King is never so near as in the hour of trial, which is the hour for fidelity. With a heart torn by the sufferings and afflictions of so many of her sons, but with the courage and the stability that come from the promises of Our Lord, the Spouse of Christ goes to meet the gathering storms. This she knows, that the truth which she preaches, the charity which she teaches and practices, will be the indispensable counselors and aids to men of good will in the reconstruction of a new world based on justice and love, when mankind, weary from its course along the way of error, has tasted the bitter fruits of hate and violence.
109. In the meantime however, Venerable Brethren, the world and all those who are stricken by the calamity of the war must know that the obligation of Christian love, the very foundation of the Kingdom of Christ, is not an empty word, but a living reality. A vast field opens up for Christian Charity in all its forms. We have full confidence that all Our sons, especially those who are not being tried by the scourge of war, will be mindful in imitation of the Divine Samaritan, of all these who, as victims of the war, have a right to compassion and help.
110. The “Catholic Church, the City of God, whose King is Truth, whose law love and whose measure eternity” (Saint Augustine, Ep. CXXXVIII. Ad Marcellinum, C. 3, N. 17), preaching fearlessly the whole truth of Christ and toiling as the love of Christ demands with the zeal of a mother, stands as a blessed vision of peace above the storm of error and passion awaiting the moment when the all-powerful Hand of Christ the King shall quiet the tempest and banish the spirits of discord which have provoked it.
111. Whatever We can do to hasten the day when the dove of peace may find on this earth, submerged in a deluge of discord, somewhere to alight, We shall continue to do, trusting in those statesmen, who before the outbreak of war, nobly toiled to avert such a scourge from the peoples; trusting in the millions of souls of all countries and of every sphere, who call not for justice alone but for love and mercy; above all, trusting in God Almighty to Whom We daily address the prayer: “in the shadow of thy wings will I hope, until iniquity pass away” (Psalm lvi. 2).
112. God can do all things. As well as the happiness and the fortunes of nations, He holds in His hands human counsels and sweetly turns them in whatever direction He wills: even the obstacles are for His Omnipotence means to mould affairs and events and to direct minds and free wills to His all-high purposes.
113. Pray then, Venerable Brethren, pray without ceasing; pray especially when you offer the Divine Sacrifice of Love. Do you, too, pray, you whose courageous profession of the Faith entails today hard, painful and not rarely, heroic sacrifices; pray you, suffering and agonizing members of the Church, when Jesus comes to console and to heal your pains, and do not forget with the aid of a true spirit of mortification and worthy practice of penance to make your prayers more acceptable in the eyes of Him Who “lifteth up all that fall: and setteth up all that are cast down” (Psalm cxiv. 14), that He in His mercy may shorten the days of trial and that thus the word of the Psalmist may be verified: “Then they cried to the Lord in their affliction: and he delivered them out of their distresses” (Psalm cvi. 13).
114. And you, white legions of children who are so loved and dear to Jesus, when you receive in Holy Communion the Bread of Life, raise up your simple and innocent prayers and unite them with those of the Universal Church. The heart of Jesus, Who loves you, does not resist your suppliant innocence. Pray every one, pray uninterruptedly: “Pray without ceasing” (Thessalonians, v. 10).
115. In this way you will put into practice the sublime precept of the Divine Master, the most sacred testament of His Heart, “That they all may be one” (Saint John xvii. 21) that all may live in that unity of faith and of love, from which the world may know the power and efficacy of Christ’s mission and of the work of His Church.
116. The early Church understood and practiced this Divine Precept, and expressed it in a magnificent prayer; do you associate yourselves with those sentiments which answer so well to the necessities of the present hour: “Remember, O Lord, Thy Church, to free her from all evil and to perfect her in Thy love, and sanctify and collect her from the four winds into Thy Kingdom, which Thou has prepared for her, because Thine is the power, and the glory for ever” (Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles, C 10).
117. In the confidence that God, the Author and Lover of Peace, will hear the supplications of the Church, We impart to you all as a pledge of the abundance of Divine Grace, from the fullness of Our paternal heart, the Apostolic Benediction.