Pax Christ in Regno Christi

Extract

“Pax Christi in regno Christi.” It is difficult to make people realize the significance of this ideal even within the Catholic Church. But if we would propose this watchword to the outside world and make it a plank in the programme of Catholic Action, we shall meet with little more encouraging than a shrug of the shoulders, if not with positive rebuff. To many Catholics it is inconceivable that the Pope had in mind political peace between the nations, as well as religious peace based on the foundation of the common faith, when he proposed this watchword. They will not agree that Catholic doctrine and moral teaching should impose Christ’s command of peace as a duty upon the States of the world or that it has any political reference. To refute this error it must suffice to quote two papal pronouncements. Benedict XV writes in his Encyclical Pacem Dei (1920): “The command of Love among individuals found in the Gospels differs in no respect from that which should reign among States and peoples.” And the present Pope Pius XI declared in his first Encyclical: “It is a holy duty for peoples and governments to follow and use as a guide the teachings of Christ in both the internal and external aspects of their political life” (Ubi arcano, 1922). Nobody will underestimate the difficulties which lie in the way of a policy which is based on the principles of the Gospel. But the teaching of the Gospel, because it is opposed to the spirit of the world, is hard to follow always.