Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

In close connection with the preceding subject is the problem of inter-denominational or neutral associations.

The Terms of the Problem

As everyone knows, certain class associations like unions, beneficent associations, etc. can assume two different aspects. They can show themselves clearly Catholic or dilute their Catholic nature behind some merely temporal title. Which of the two attitudes should we prefer?

At least at first sight, the solution to the problem may seem complex. Each of these attitudes presents its own advantages and drawbacks.

On the one hand, works of a clear and official Catholic nature can develop a more declared, positive and thereby effective action. On the other hand, works with an entirely lay appearance at times draw more generous resources from authorities and private donors and are able to attain a greater scope, preventing the Catholic name from turning away people with anti-clerical prejudice and so on. Furthermore, their bylaws would not require being Catholic as a condition for membership. How to solve this problem? Which kind of organization should we prefer?

As can be seen, we are still faced here with the problem of the "common ground" tactic and the "apostolate of infiltration." We know people who take their liberalism in this matter to the extreme of preferring that Catholic unions not be founded so that Catholics can infiltrate Communist unions to try and convert their members.

The Solution

In light of the principles we exposed, the solution should be as follows:

1. It will always be better to found clearly Catholic works. Even if some serious losses should be sustained, the spiritual advantages would largely compensate those drawbacks. In this sense, the Holy Father Pius X wrote an outstanding letter to Count Medolago Albani. (1)

2. If it becomes absolutely impossible to found clearly denominational works due to some express legal device or to an almost complete lack of Catholic population in certain areas, social works without an official Catholic title may be founded with fruit.

3. In any case, all else being equal, to prefer neutral associations to officially Catholic ones is a telltale sign of a liberal and naturalistic mentality.

Indeed, this preference comes almost always from an immoderate zeal to solve mainly social problems of an economic nature and from a thirst for immediate and tangible achievements such as building large orphanages, asylums, hospitals and so on. The confessional character of the movement is sacrificed to these goals in the hope of obtaining greater financial support from certain circles. But the increase in temporal advantages results in the forfeiture of important spiritual ones. Confessional associations better favor the perseverance of the good and allow a more open and effective apostolate with sinners, heretics or infidels. Thus, as Pius XI said, material and transitory evils are remedied while spiritual and eternal evils—the most serious ones—are neglected.

No one can be thought so poor and naked, no one so infirm or hungry, as he who is deprived of the knowledge and grace of God, so there is no one who cannot understand that both the mercy and the rewards of God shall be given to him who, on his part, shows mercy to the neediest of his fellow-beings. (2)

We will mention a few more papal texts apt to enforce our opinion and thus complete the highly conclusive documentation already quoted.

Leo XIII said:

That is the reason why We have incessantly exhorted Catholics to enter these associations for bettering the condition of the laboring classes, and to organize other undertakings with the same object in view; but We have likewise warned them that all this should be done under the auspices of religion, with its help and under its guidance. (3)

Do not think, however, that "help" and "guidance" have only a symbolic meaning. In Catholic unions, for example, more than just economic matters should be taken care of. The Sacred Congregation of the Council recommends they should "effectively provide for a Christian education of all union members" and furthermore “they should organize week-long spiritual exercises with the purpose of imbuing union activity with the Christian spirit of charity, moderation and justice." (4)

Why spiritual exercises in labor unions? The answer is clear.

Those who preside over institutions whose aim is to promote worker welfare should remember that nothing is more adequate than Religion to guarantee the general welfare, concord and harmony among all classes, and that Christian charity is the best link among them. Those who intend to improve a worker’s wellbeing by helping him only to conquer the ephemeral and fragile goods of this world and neglect to nudge souls toward moderation through the affirmation of their Christian duties, would be doing a very poor job on behalf of worker welfare. (5)

Unless forced by necessity to do otherwise, Catholics ought to prefer to associate with Catholics, a course which will be very conducive to the safeguarding of their faith. (6)

These guidelines are so current that the Sacred Congregation of the Council, in a letter addressed to Most Rev. Achille Liénart, Bishop of Lille, France, on June 5, 1929, wrote:

The Sacred Congregation of the Council cannot help but notice that although the leaders of the association are professed Catholics, they in fact established their association as neutral. In this regard, it is well to remind them of what Leo XIII wrote: “Catholics ought to prefer to associate with Catholics, unless forced by necessity to do otherwise. This is a very important point for the safeguard of the Faith.” If it is not possible to form confessional employer's unions at the moment, the Sacred Congregation nevertheless deems it necessary to warn Catholic industrialists of their personal responsibility in the resolutions taken so they conform with Catholic morals and that the workers’ religious and moral interests are guaranteed or at least unharmed. Let them take special care to show Christian unions due regard by giving them a better, or at least equal treatment to that given openly a-religious and revolutionary organizations.

The Holy Father Pius X also developed the same doctrine:

Now, concerning workingmen's associations, even though their purpose is to obtain earthly advantages for their members, nonetheless those associations are to be most approved and considered as most useful for the genuine and permanent advantage of their members which are established chiefly on the foundation of the Catholic religion and openly follow the directives of the Church. We have repeated this declaration on several previous occasions in answer to question from various countries. Consequently, such so-called confessional Catholic associations must certainly be established and promoted in every way in Catholic regions as well as in all other districts where it can be presumed that they can sufficiently assist the various needs of their members. However, when there is a question about associations which directly or indirectly touch upon the sphere of religion and morality, it would not be permitted to foster and spread mixed organizations, that is, associations composed of Catholics and non-Catholics, in the areas just mentioned. Over and above other matters, in such organizations there are or certainly can be for our people serious dangers to the integrity of their faith and the due obedience to the commandments and precepts of the Catholic Church. (7)

There are cases in which collaboration between Catholics and non-Catholics is advisable: "For such a purpose, however, We would rather see Catholic and non-Catholic associations unite their forces through that new and timely institution known as the cartel." (8)

The Holy See demands that utmost precaution be taken in such collaboration. Its instructions in this sense are definitive. The abovementioned letter of the Sacred Congregation of the Council to Bishop Liénart reads:

For such understandings to be licit, four conditions are necessary: that they take place only in certain specific cases; that the cause they seek to defend is just; that the agreement be temporary; that all precautions be taken to avoid the dangers that can arise from such rapprochement.

This does not mean that in certain circumstances and "as long as such toleration does not cease to be appropriate or permissible by reason of new and changed conditions," (9) mixed professional associations cannot be tolerated; "necessary precautions, however, must be adopted in order to avoid the dangers which, as has already been mentioned, follow upon such associations.” (10)

What actually are the mixed associations that the Catholics can join?

These associations must avoid everything that is not in accord, either in principle or practice, with the teachings and commandments of the Church or the proper ecclesiastical authorities. Similarly, everything is to be avoided in their literature or public utterances or actions which in the above view would incur censure.

The Bishops, therefore, should consider it their sacred duty to observe carefully the conduct of all these associations and to watch diligently that the Catholic members do not suffer any harm as a result of their participation. (11)

While mixed associations can be tolerated as long as circumstances demand it, and Catholic ones are highly approved, the final word of the Church in this matter is:

On the one hand, no one could accuse of bad faith and, under such a pretext, bear ill will toward those who, while firmly defending the teachings and rights of the Church, nonetheless for good reasons have joined or wish to join mixed labor associations in those places where, under certain safeguards, ecclesiastical authority has permitted them in view of local conditions. On the other hand, it would likewise be most reprehensible to oppose or attack the purely Catholic associations (this type of association must, on the contrary, be supported and promoted in every possible manner), and to demand that the so-called intercredal associations be introduced and force their establishment on the grounds that all Catholic associations in every diocese ought to be set up along one and the same pattern. (12)

Summing up these principles and reaffirming them, the same Pontiff declared:

Say clearly that the mixed associations and the alliances with non-Catholics are permitted under certain circumstances, but that the predilections of the Pope are directed toward the unions of Catholics, who banning all human respect and closing their eyes to flattery or threats in the opposite sense, gather around the standard which, however combated as it may be, is the most beautiful of all, because it is the standard of the Church. (13)

It will never be enough to insist that the Church only tolerates neutral associations. Reinforcing everything he wrote, Pius X defined neutral associations as being only "not unlawful under precise conditions and guarantees, in specific countries and only because of particular circumstances." (14)

There lies the clear doctrine many times defined by the Holy See. Obviously, it implies the faculty of evaluating concrete circumstances, which inevitably gives many people an occasion to think they are entitled to claim that such circumstances are frequent among us.

For serene and impartial minds, the case is altogether different. "Roma locuta, causa finita est." (15) And the words of the Apostle never lose their value: "A man that is a heretic…avoid: Knowing that he, that is such an one, is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned by his own judgment." (16) This is the feeling that should dominate every true Catholic in this matter. How different is the obsessive desire to collaborate with the wicked often noticed in certain circles! Those who want to combine their efforts with those of infidels and under only one authority do so not because of exceptional situations but led by a wish, sometimes subconscious, to erase the dividing line between good and evil. They forget what the Apostle said:

Bear not the yoke with unbelievers. For what participation hath justice with injustice? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement had the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God, as God saith: “I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore, go out from among them, and be ye separate,” saith the Lord, “and touch not the unclean thing: and I will receive you, and I will be a Father to you; and you shall be my sons and daughters,” saith the Lord almighty. (17)

Notes:

1) Quoted in Part IV, chap. 1.

2) Pius XI, Encyclical Rerum Ecclesiae, Feb. 28, 1926, no. 14, at www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius11/P11REREC.HTM

3) Leo XIII, Graves de Communi, no. 12.

4) Letter of the Congregation of the Council to Most Rev. Liénart, Bishop of Lille, France, June 5, 1929.

5) Benedict XV, Letter to the Bishop of Bergamo, Mar. 11, 1920.

6) Leo XIII, Encyclical Longinqua, Jan. 6, 1895, no. 17, at www.vatican.va/holy_father/leo_xiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_06011895_longinqua_en.html

7) St. Pius X, Encyclical Singulari Quadam, Sept. 24, 1912, no. 4, at www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius10/p10lab.htm

8) Ibid., no. 5.

9) Ibid., no. 6.

10) Ibid.

11) Ibid., no. 7.

12) Ibid., no. 8.

13) St. Pius X, Allocution of May 27, 1914.

14) St. Pius X, Letter to Msgr. Piffl of the Popular Catholic Union of Vienna.

15) “Rome has spoken, the case is ended.”

16) Tit. 3:10-11.

17) 2 Cor. 6:14-18.

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