PARTISAN REVIEW
but well polished. When I arrived, he was counting small notes and
ranging them in bundles in a basket. "The
alms."
he said. "They are
meager."
One of the first things he told me was that he wished he knew
more about American democracy. The question was not quite clear
to him. He had been told that for the Americans democracy finally
rests on education. But what was the basis of education then? How
could there be education without a supreme truth binding together
the teacher, the pupil, and the society in which they lived?
"I don't know about America," he went on. "But I do know
about the kind of democracy we are supposed to have over here.
It's an imposture: the lie you have to tell in order to succeed. The
biggest lie of all is Christian Democracy, a contradiction in terms.
At the opposite end, there are the Communists. The Communists are
pursuing their own anti-Christian aim; but they do have a notion
of authority. It is quite normal that they should exploit confusion
in order to get Evil. You cannot say that they are lying. It is their
faith itself which is imposture, the Error of our time. The other
parties, however, are pitiful. For most of them, the lie they call
'democracy' is just a way of groping. Through confusion on to more
confusi~n.
In between lies this hapless country, 'a vessel without pilot
in a mighty storm.' "
I told him that his bitterness was surprising to me. I should have
thought that a Catholic would feel rather hopeful in Italy. The
Church had never, for the last eighty years, been so politically and
economically strong. And the Christian Democrats might prove a
useful expedient after all. Why object to them on the grounds of
logic?
He had a tired smile:
"Diplomacy. I know, I know. The trouble is that it is not an
adequate answer. Diplomacy might be necessary in high places, but
you can't give diplomatic answers to people who come to you for
advice and comfort. You have to ·take chances, and open your heart
to them. The people are distressed. They find it more and more dif–
ficult to be Christians in a society which becomes less and less Chris–
tian every day. They are the prey of economic and political anxiety.
They want to know what to do
now.
It is only by giving them
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