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PARTISAN REVIEW
make to explain the conduct of M. Maritain, as a French patricll.
Despite the spiritual negations of capitalist democracy, the latta
strength of true Catholic principles, which exist in a distortei
form even among the Christian heresies, has at this decimt
moment transformed the character of the culture and opened
Del
possibilities for a new Christendom. Overt or hidden, it is Catholi
principles, and
only
Catholic principles, which are the true
guar.
dians of the Christian birthright of mankind. The Church can
be
relied upon to combat totalitarianism.
And yet when M. Maritain wrote his Catholic apologia
f«
Allied victory in a "just war," he was not unacquainted with
the
Pastoral Letter of the Bishops of the Catholic Church of Germany
which said:
"In this decisive hour we admonish our Catholic soldiers
10
do their duty
in obedience to the Fuehrer
and be ready to sacrifice
their whole individuality. We appeal to the Faithful to join
iD
ardent prayers that Divine Providence may lead this war to blessed
success."
(New York Times,
Sept. 24, 1939.)
Will M. Maritain tell us once more that this is an actiOll
"produced within" the Church but "not involving" the Church?
Let us hope so, because since it involves a mystery it does nol
insult our intelligence and outrage our moral sensibilities as does
the answer he actually gives.
"It
is entirely understandable,"
he
writes in another issue of
Commonweal,
"that the bishops of the
countries at war should exhort their respective peoples to serve
their countries loyally." An evasion which lacks even subtlety.
Does
loyalty to one's country, then, demand loyalty to whatever "crimi.
nal dreamer" whose "lust for power and savage aggression" (the
words are M. Maritain's) orders them into battle? And have the
Catholic bishops merely exhorted the Faithful to be loyal?
They
speak of the duty of
obedience
Jo
the Fuehrer.
They speak of the
duty of
sacrificing their whole individualtiy
to him. But this is
precisely the kind of abominations which M. Maritain has con·
demned in the name of
the Church,
authentic Christianity, integral
humanism.
All this, according to M. Maritain, is entirely understandable;
and he adds that it is "naive" to be scandalized by it. What is
understandable? The war of the Allies, M. Maritain is convinced,
is a "just war," demonstrable as such by eternal Christian prin.