The Reunion of Christendom and the Social Problem

Extract

May I confess at the beginning of my paper that I have no particular qualification for speaking about the social problem; but for a long time I have been interested in the problem of how Christendom can be reunited again, how all the separated religious bodies or organisations can be brought to a realization of the truth that the unity and authority of the Catholic Church were appointed by Our Lord, and that all Christians must some day return to them. I believe that the two problems are very closely connected, and that the ultimate solution of the social problem depends upon the extent to which a solution is found for the problem of the Reunion of Christendom.

I suppose we should all agree that the social problem is primarily an economic one. The modern industrial system has brought an enormous increase in production, but it has also brought about a dislocation between production and distribution. The primary economic problem is how to get rid of this paralyzing dislocation. But this primary economic problem brings in its train a whole host of moral problems, because many of the attempts to solve the economic problem involve actions and policies which in one way or another come into contact with the moral law. Thus we get the tremendous problem of the gradual dehumanization of human beings by the conditions of life and work which seem inseparable from much of our industrial civilization, and with it the attendant problems of birth-control, sterilization, euthanasia, and so on.