‘Russia will spread her errors…’



 

 

‘Russia will spread her errors…’ Fr David Watt

 

This Fatima prophecy is traditionally and appropriately referred to the spread of Communism. ‘The People’s Flag is deepest red’ – yes, red for the blood of the untold millions murdered under Communist tyranny. However, we should not assume that ‘Russian errors’ are limited to those who belong to, or are controlled by, Communist parties.

 

Communism is simply an extreme form of a more general movement which seeks a massive increase in the extent to which societal problems are regarded as the responsibility of the State rather than other collectives or individuals; furthermore, whether or not this is put on paper, the solutions to those problems are to be formulated without any reference to God and His Law.

 

It is for this reason that we see leftist movements, worldwide, excelling in the promotion of every abomination under the sun: abortion, euthanasia, sterilization, contraception, transgenderism, and same-sex “marriage”.

 

Here it may be interjected that support for such horrors is not limited to the Left. That is tragically true, and here in Australia we even had a Liberal Prime Minister – nominally Catholic! – glorying in the arrival of same-sex “marriage” under his watch. Nevertheless there does seem to be a general tendency for the Left to be markedly more zealous in its antagonism to Divine Law. For instance, the Australian Labor Party has officially supported abortion on demand since – appropriately enough! – 1984.

 

In a way leftists are logical because ‘no-one can serve two masters’, so there is no room for God as He actually is, if they are to play God, eg by making decisions of life and death. Hence the quasi-religious fervour with which leftist devotees dedicate themselves to “building a better world”. As G.K. Chesterton pointed out, people have to believe in something; if not in the One True God, it will be in some substitute.

 

One of the Divine Attributes is Power and so – once again logically – leftists wish to arrogate that; for instance by handing over to control of the government matters which, for thousands of years, have been regarded as outside its purview. So pervasive is this tendency that it affects even the more conservative parties. For example, here in Australia we have become accustomed to the ‘nanny State’ assuming responsibility for the monetarily disadvantaged, via a Robin Hood policy of ‘robbing the rich to give to the poor’.

 

By contrast, in the Church we have always had the ‘principle of subsidiarity’ (cf. eg Gaudium et spes 1622), exemplified in the lives of sainted kings and queens. They were far more concerned for the poor than any leftist could be, and indeed served them with their own hands. Thus they led by example, rather than crippling their subjects with taxation, so as to make welfare the responsibility of the State.

 

It is largely because of leftists and their agenda – to some extent pursued, as I say, even by non-leftist parties – that Western countries have racked up such astronomical levels of debt, the cost of which, ironically enough, bears heaviest on those who are less prosperous – precisely the purported protégés of the Left.

 

It might be possible, consonant with Church Tradition, to implement a Robin Hood policy to the extent of imposing heavier taxes on the sale of luxury items. However, the income tax system that we have here in Australia, for example, is ridiculously complicated, onerous, and discouraging of initiative. The sinister result of such a system is that – on the grandest of scales – it is an occasion of sin. Due to the perfectly understandable desire to slough off or at least minimize such an unjust burden, people are tempted – and tempted severely - to lie.

 

In the light of all the above, there is, for me, a real moral problem in a Catholic supporting, for example, the Australian Labor Party (and as for the Greens, they make Labor seem righteous by comparison; cf. Ezechiel 16:51). It is only a prima facie problem and potentially defeasible. For instance, in 1998, when the West Australian Parliament voted to allow murder of the unborn, a few Labor MPs actually distinguished themselves with their eloquence against abortion. So if one knew that the Labor member in one’s electorate were possessed of such intestinal fortitude as to oppose his own Party policy on this issue, one could possibly vote for him, even as a Catholic.

 

That would, however, be a special case. The more common occurrence would be having to vote, with no information on where the candidates are likely to stand on grave moral matters, other than the parties to which they belong. Here, I submit, it would be wrong for a Catholic to vote Labor (unless, say, the only other candidate were a Green!). In other words, it would actually be a sin, unless the voter were invincibly ignorant of the wrongness of his action. Not a mortal sin, but a sin nevertheless. In traditional terms, it is formal cooperation in all the evil espoused by Labor; the most recent example, in those Australian States where they form the government, being their support – sometimes successfully - for legislation to allow ‘assisted dying’, i.e. assisted killing. 1984 again!

 

Part of the problem here is inertia. For although the Catholic Church is for everyone - that is what Catholic means - it is historically undeniable that most of its members have not been wealthy. ‘The poor have the Good News preached to them’. It is understandable therefore, that from of old, Catholics have tended to support parties such as Australian Labor, which allegedly are for ordinary, working people. However, as Labor – and similar parties around the world – have become more and more anti-Catholic in their policies, tragically Catholic voting has not changed accordingly. My old friend Fr Brian Harrison OS, far better informed on such matters than myself, tells me that Obama - the most pro-abortion President in American history, and by a wide margin – would never have come to power, but for the Catholic vote. Because he was the candidate for the Democratic Party – roughly equivalent to our Labor in Australia.

 

To be sure, there have been a few Catholics, such as B.A. Santamaria in Australia, who have changed with the changed and increasingly anti-Catholic policies of leftist parties; however, their message does not seem to have percolated through to the masses. To a very considerable extent, Catholic voters in Australia and elsewhere are caught in a ‘time warp’, still supporting purportedly populist parties as if they had not been becoming progressively more “progressive” – particularly in being counter-Catholic.

 

This time warp is aided and abetted by the notion that the Church should not embroil herself in politics. As so often, this error is an exaggeration of a truth. St John XXIII (Ad Petri Cathedram, 29 June 1959) reiterated the traditional dictum In necessariis unitas; in dubiis libertas; in omnibus caritas. So the Church should not embroil herself in matters beyond her brief, where Catholics are free to hold diverging opinions. However, where there is a clear issue – political or otherwise - regarding faith or morals, the Church not only can but should speak out. Catholics have the right to be told – and to be told from the pulpit - which political parties are most distinguishing themselves in odio fidei. Of the major political parties here in Australia, that would be Labor and the Greens.

 

By the same token, those having the ‘cure of souls’ have the right and indeed the duty to provide their flock with such information. Any attempt on the part of higher authority to muzzle such a priest on the grounds that he is “meddling in politics” would itself be meddlesome and therefore invalid. St Thomas Aquinas is merely enunciating the Tradition of the Church when he says that an unjust law is no law, but rather an act of violence (ST I,II q.96 art.4). There is no legislating against the immemorial tradition that exists, not indeed of meddling in politics, but of involvement in those political questions which touch on the salvation of souls.

 

As the Truth said, ‘the children of this world are wiser than the children of light’. So we often find leftists far more cunning and determined in opposing God, than Catholics are in proposing Him.

May this change!