5 Religious Orders

In addition to the vast machinery of religious administration in Christian and non-Christian countries, there is another great machinery which, although not so well known, is nevertheless of the greatest importance in furthering the spiritual and political powers of the Catholic Church. It is formed by the various religious and semi-religious Orders which are dependent upon the Holy See and whose task is primarily that of consolidating and penetrating every stratum of society in all parts of the world, the dominion of the Catholic Church.

There are some religious Orders devoted exclusively to religious contemplation; there are others whose purpose is to educate youth, to specialize in learning, to deal with charity or hospitals, to influence social issues, and so on. They have monasteries, convents, schools, missions, papers, and property in practically every Christian country, in addition to being spread, like the missions, all over the globe. Many of them, in fact, work for the missions.

There are numerous religious Orders, for men as well as for women. They form a silent but very busy and efficient army of the Catholic Church. This is not the place for a detailed examination of their particular activities, and we shall only point out some of the main characteristics of the Jesuits, who, undoubtedly, come first among many famous Orders, like the Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, etc. We take the example of the Jesuits because they are closely connected with the strengthening of Papal authority in the world. Indeed, the primary cause for the creation of the Order was the need for special soldiers and defenders of the absolute theocracy of the Papacy. Ignatius Loyola, an exsoldier of fortune, imparted his military spirit to the new Order. He made of it a fighting company and called it the Company of Jesus, just as a company of soldiers sometimes takes the name of its General.

Of the various vows, that of obedience was considered the most important: complete, absolute, unquestionable, blind, non-critical obedience to the orders of the society, a complete surrender of individual thought and judgment, an absolute abandonment of freedom. In a letter to his followers at Coimbra, Loyola declared that the General of the Order stands in the place of God, without reference to his personal wisdom, piety, or discretion; that any obedience which falls short of making the superior’s will one’s own, in inward affection as well as in outward effect, is lax and imperfect; that going beyond the letter of command, even in things abstractly good and praiseworthy, is disobedience, and that the “sacrifice of the intellect” is the third and greatest grade of obedience, well pleasing to God, when the inferior not only wills what the superior wills, but thinks what he thinks, submitting to his judgment, so far as it is possible for the will to influence and lead. (H. G. Wells, Crux Ansata.)

The formula of the final Jesuit vow is:

“I promise to Almighty God, before His Virgin Mother and the whole heavenly host, and to all standing by; and to thee, Reverend Father General of the Society of Jesus, holding the place of God, and to thy successors, Perpetual Poverty, Chastity and Obedience; and according to it a peculiar care in the education of boys according to the form contained in the Apostolic Letters of the Society of Jesus and in its Constitution.”

This is the significant petition presented to the Pope by a small group of the first Jesuits, for the election of the General of the Order. The General―it said:―

“…. should dispense offices and grades at his own pleasure, should form the rules of the constitution, with the advice and aid of the members, but should alone have the power of commanding in every instance, and should be honoured by all as though Christ himself were present in his person. Thus in the order of the Jesuits, obedience takes the place of every motive or affection; obedience, absolute and unconditional, without one thought or questions as to its object or consequences.” (Ranke’s History of the Popes.)

The Jesuit:―

“… with the most unlimited abjuration of all right of judgment, in total and blind subjection to the will of his superiors, must be resigned himself to be led, like a thing without life―as the staff, for example, that the superior holds in his hand, to be turned to any purpose seeming good to him.” (Ranke’s History of the Popes.)

In this way the General became an absolute dictator, comparable only with the most intransigent dictators of the twentieth century, for the power vested in him for life is the faculty of wielding this unquestioning obedience of thousands; nor was nor is there one to whom he is responsible for the use made of it.

“All power is committed to him of acting as may be most conducive to the good of the society. He has assistants in the different provinces, but these confine themselves strictly to such matters as he names at his pleasure; he receives or dismisses, dispenses or furnishes, and may be said to exercise a sort of papal authority on a small scale.” (Ranke’s History of the Popes.)

Thus the Company of Jesus became, and still is, a theocracy within a theocracy. Its rigid machinery was created to assist in the achievement of the Company’s goal―the strengthening of the Church’s authority through educating youth, preaching, and missionary work. It began by founding colleges in many countries, and when its founder died it had ten colleges in Castile, five each in Aragon and Andalusia, and many houses in Portugal. Over the Portuguese colonies the Jesuits exercised almost complete mastery, and they had members in Brazil, East India, and the lands between Goa and Japan, and a provincial was sent to Ethiopia. Colleges and houses existed in Italy, France, Germany, and other European countries.

Ever since, throughout the centuries and in all countries, the Jesuits have gone on with their work of consolidating the religious and political power of the Catholic Church. They have reached an extraordinary perfection and sill in training young people for high offices either in the Catholic Church itself or in civil Governments. As a Jesuit historian wrote:

“Many are now shining in the purple of the Hierarchy, whom we had but lately on the benches of our schools; other are engaged in the government of States and cities.” (Orlandini).

This training of the spiritual and temporal ruling classes has made the Jesuits inclined to meddle in religious and political events. Their activities in the political spheres of all countries have been innumerable, and that is the main cause of their having been continually persecuted, expelled, or banished by kings, emperors, and Governments of all kinds, including the most devout Catholic kings and countries. Indeed, owing to their continuous interference and intrigues in the politics of many countries of Europe, as well as in that of the Catholic Church, the Pope himself was forced to suppress the Order altogether.

That was in 1773, and the Pope concerned was Clement XIV, who for many years had received complaints from the sovereigns and Governments of Europe regarding the interference in public matters of the Jesuits, who were accused of being “disturbers of public peace.”

However, in 1814, the Order was universally restored. Since that date the Jesuits have continued to spread, and in many countries they still retain the quasi-monopoly of education, with excellent colleges and universities. They are to be found behind the high educational institutions, the Press, radio, political parties, and Governments, as we shall have occasion to see in the following chapters.

Have the primary spirit and the motives with which Ignatius Loyola created the Order weakened? Has their tremendous discipline lessened? To-day they are exactly the same as the first members of the Order; they are as powerful, as skilful, as tenacious and inflexible in their one goal of strengthening the Catholic Church in the world as they have ever been. Their great qualities and their great organization all over the world work more indefatigably than ever to that very end. Like the Catholic Church itself, and like many other religious Orders, they have divided the world into provinces, in order more easily to spread their influence. These provinces are governed by provincials, under the Superior-General, who resides in Rome and who is in constant touch with the Pope himself. That their Superior-General should be in constant and direct contact with the Pope is understandable when one remembers that the Company of Jesus came into being to defend and further the power, religious and political, of the Papacy. The Papacy is supported by an immerse army, composed of the whole Hierarchy, the religious Orders, and the Faithful; but the Jesuits are its most fanatical and skilful soldiers―they are, in fact, the shock troops of the Pope.

Each Jesuit takes a most important vow―in addition to the vow of obedience and the other two already mentioned―and it is as follows:

“… to perform whatsoever the reigning Pontiff should command, to go forth into all lands, among Turks, heathens or heretics, wherever he may please to send him, without hesitation or delay, as without question, condition, or reward.”

To-day the Company of Jesus is the most powerful Order of its kind, having members, working to further the Pope’s primacy in the most delicate and influential places, in religious, educational, social, and often political fields. It is the most dynamic machinery at the disposal of the Pope; a powerful theocracy working incessantly and with fanaticism to further the great theocracy of the Catholic Church in the world.

In addition to the Jesuits and numerous other purely religious Orders, the Catholic Church has tried to adapt itself to modern society by creating new organizations which, owing to their religious, social, and political nature, are perhaps more apt to influence their environment than the old religious Companies. These organizations have been created during the last century and the present century, and they are very numerous. Their activities are especially dedicated to education and social work. We shall mention only two.

The first is the Salesian―a company of what may be called “lay priests.” It was founded last century, and its main work is to run colleges and take care of the spiritual and physical welfare of students and workers. They are to be found in many countries of Europe, and especially in South America.

Another typical organization of this kind is the Company of St. Paul. It is even more “lay” than the Salesian, for its members have discarded all outward signs of their status. Like its older counterpart, the Jesuits, this Company has an important political character. Its main object is to counteract and fight the influences of Socialism and Communism, especially as exercised through social and educational institutions. It was founded as lately as 1920, by the Archbishop of Milan.

Priests and laymen and women are equally eligible for membership; they reside in separate houses, but meet for work. Priests must hold a degree in canon law, theology, or other science; others must have a university degree or pass an entrance test. All must be under thirty at entrance. Simple vows are taken and renewed annually. No religious habit is worn, and the members are encouraged to have ties of study, friendship, and work outside the Company, so that they may live in close contact with the world.

Among the works of the Company are hospices, printing presses with several publications, including a daily paper, missions, schools, and technical training centres. Outside Italy the Company is established in Jerusalem, Buenos Aires, and other centres. Like several others of its kind, this Company specializes in working districts, training young workers at its centres in order to implant early in their minds the social teaching of the Catholic Church, and thus counteract Socialist teaching. For this purpose it is continually opening technical training centres, rest centres, libraries, sports clubs, etc.

In addition to these religious or semi-religious Orders, the Vatican controls other kinds of organizations, sometimes of an apparently religious nature, sometimes purely social. It is not uncommon for such organizations to court their adherents in millions.

To cite one example, the Apostleship of Prayer, the League of the Sacred Heart. Pope after Pope blessed it, and Pope Benedict XV said that all Catholics should be members of it. Its main purpose is to unite as many Catholics as possible in private and communal prayer, with the purpose of entreating the protection of God for the Catholic Church, the Pope, the spreading of Catholicism in the world, and a Universal Peace (which, of course, means a Catholic Peace). To-day the League has a membership of over 30,000,000, and its paper, Messengers, is published in forty languages.

In Great Britain there is the organization The Sword of the Spirit, which is under the direct control of the Cardinal Archbishop. Its aim is to spread Catholicism through the Press, pamphlets, books, cultural and social activities, etc.

Then there exist many purely lay associations, which superficially have nothing to do with the Vatican. Nevertheless, in social, cultural, and political matters they depend on instructions from either the local hierarchy or Rome. In England, for instance, there are: the National Council of Catholic Women, Catholic Women’s League, the National Catholic Youth Council, Catholic Federation Association, etc. A cultural movement formed during the Second World War is the New Man Association. In all European and American countries innumerable organizations of this kind exist. In the United States of America the most influential and wealthy is the Knights of Columbus Association.

But the most important of these new organizations, created by a Pope himself and depending directly on the Vatican, which the Catholic Church uses in order to move forward with modern times, is the Catholic Action, or Catholic League. Its main task is to maintain and spread Catholic ideas and principles in modern society, through social, cultural, and political activities.

Catholic Action was created in order to provide the Catholic Church with an organization less comprised than the Catholic Parties in the various countries, but nevertheless able permanently to influence social and political trends with Catholic ideas. Such an organization could penetrate the social and political strata more unobtrusively, and thus achieve the same aims as the old Catholic Parties without incurring their risks and responsibilities.

During the period between the two worlds wars, Pope Pius XI sacrificed many Catholic Parties with this idea in view. He created this new movement, unitarian in character, which closely joined the laymen to the Hierarchy and equipped it for public action above all parties, in defending religious interests, the family, Catholic education, Catholic principles, etc. Catholic Action, the Pope declared, was the apple of his eye. So much so, that not only did he make its existence known to many Governments, but he insisted that one of the main clauses of any Concordat he made with a country was that it included the diplomatic recognition of Catholic Action.

The activities of Catholic Action embrace all fields, from the intellectual to the manual, from the social to the political. It is organized in such a way that the main outdoor work is carried out by Catholic laymen, who nevertheless are closely connected with and directed by the Catholic Hierarchy―which, of course, moves to the will of the Pope. Indeed, close union with the Hierarchy (which means the Vatican) is the main tenet of Catholic Action:

“The Hierarchy has the right to command and issue instructions and directions. Catholic Action places all its powers and all its energies at the disposal of the Hierarchy. Besides, complete obedience to the directives of the ecclesiastical authority, as even the civil authority comes from God. Catholic Action members should pay due respect also to civil authority, and loyally and faithfully serve their legitimate prescriptions (Pope Pius XII, September 1940).

What are the aims of Catholic Action?

“… it aims to develop, in accord with the Church, a holy and charitable social activity, to inspire and to restore where necessary true Catholic living; in a word, to Catholicise or re-Catholicise the world…”

In the words of Rev. R. A. MacGowan, another Catholic clergyman, the Assistant Director of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, Catholic Action deals with “questions in the field of legislation and economics, but only in their distinctly religious and moral aspects, and not as do political parties.”

The authoritative Catholic paper Commonweal, in a more outspoken statement, defines the goal of Catholic Action as “to produce change and adjust all religious, moral and social and economic thought and procedure of modern life to Catholic standards of thought and action, in order to spread the kingdom of Christ.”

It is very evident (and, indeed, admitted by the statements of the Church itself) that Catholic Action is the most powerful and up-to-date weapon used by the Catholic Church in trying to shape society according to its principles. This is a rational and bold attempt to outwit the open games of politics, and employ religious belief and religious organization to gain political goals which, in their turn, serve to further religious ideas.

Thus the Catholic Church, rightly or wrongly, interferes in politics, in this case indirectly through old and new semi-religious or semi-lay organizations; it cannot in honesty deny that it interferes with the temporal problems of peoples. The demarcation between the spiritual and physical, the temporal and the divine, always has been very difficult. To-day it has become impossible. If this were not the case, things would be much easier for the Catholic Church as well as for society. Unfortunately, most problems are “mixed matters, ” and all who deny that the Catholic Church is bound to interfere in political problems should be reminded of the remark made by Queen Catherine, who said that the demarcation between temporal and spiritual is at times impossible. The Catholic citizen is bound to deal with politics, for, as Pope Pius XI, the founder of Catholic Action, put it: “The same man, according to the nature of his task, acts now as a Catholic, now as a citizen.” His daily activities cannot be neatly divided into water-tight compartments. As George Seldes aptly put it:

“The religious spirit is a living force which one cannot bottle as categories and species with well-pasted labels.”

“Finally, ” and we quote the same writer, “it is plain that the framework of the Catholic Action provides the most formidable machine for universal centralization that one can imagine in our time.” And if the reader at the same time remembers all the other purely religious, semi-religious, and lay companies, or associations that exist, he will realize what formidable machinery the Catholic Church has at its disposal for reaching all strata of society, to further its principles and thus assert its authority on the modern world.

It is obvious that although, on the technical and administrative sides, this machinery closely resembles that of a modern Government, such resemblance is only superficial.

For the various Congregations or Ministries have been created through a complicated and immense web of spiritual and material interests. Their fields have no boundaries of any kind, their activities are felt in all continents, and they are at the disposal of a single will―that of the Pope.

Although each Congregation has a well-planned routine to follow and has its own particular problems to cope with (the Congregations have their regular daily, weekly, and monthly meetings), it can curtail or enlarge its activities according to the plans of the Pope.

As we have already mentioned, the Supreme Pontiff, unlike any prime minister, president, king, or dictator, may exercise upon any section of the Vatican unlimited personal pressure. No ancient or modern dictator has ever held a power comparable with that of the Pope. He has no control of any kind over him; he need not account for his actions to anyone, not even to the College of Cardinals. All the complicated machinery of the government of the Catholic Church, whose arms stretch out to all the corners of the earth, is at the complete and uncontrollable disposal of one man―or, perhaps, two men: the Pope and his Secretary of State.

Now, having seen how the government of the Catholic Church and the Vatican works, and having acquired some knowledge about the immense influence that both can exercise in many strata of society wherever there are Catholics, let us glance at what the Popes who rule the Catholic Church of our day think about the great issues which have stirred the world during the last fifty years. Through knowing by what principles the Pope is guided, it will be easier to gauge the future attitude and consequent policy of the Vatican with regard to the burning problems of Secularism, Liberalism, and Authoritarianism, the social and political ideologies inspiring Democracy, Socialism, or Fascism. For it was the support or hostility of the Popes toward these forms of government which caused the Vatican to fight or to befriend certain modern ideologies, political systems, and nations instead of others, and thus determined the policy of the Vatican in our century.