Bishop Donald J. Sanborn used the monthly newsletter he sends out in his capacity as rector of Most Holy Trinity Seminary to deliver a pastoral warning about the growing attraction of non-Catholic political movements, especially among young Catholic men.
In his October newsletter, His Excellency denounced, among other things, a properly understood and narrowly defined racism, manifesting itself as the impulse “to hate or at least disparage persons of certain races … purely for their racial origins or characteristics.” Later in the letter, he warned against liberal democracy, the “naturalism” of American politics, and cautioned against embracing modern political movements which offer no solution to society’s moral and spiritual crises.
At the outset of his essay, His Excellency made helpful distinctions on the topic of race which avoided the usual liberal hysteria and cosmopolitan taboos on the subject, unsurprisingly placing his analysis firmly within the bounds of Catholic orthodoxy. This was achieved by His Excellency’s distinguishing between racial hatred and valid judgements based on both individual and group conduct.
In the case of the United States, His Excellency observed, the Black community is overwhelmingly responsible for violent crime and anti-social behavior. “Law abiding citizens do not want to live near black people, in general, lest their cars be stolen or worse, they be murdered,” he said. “Such aversion does not violate the law of charity.” Later, he noted the unfortunate relationship between “color and crime.”
Lest one think His Excellency was giving credence to racial radicalism, he actually did the opposite and stated that Catholics must never condemn entire populations on the basis of ancestry because it “is against justice and charity … to lump all persons of any given race into a general and unredeemable category, and to treat them scornfully simply because of their race.”
His Excellency also pointed out elsewhere — against the liberal view of strict racial equality — that “it is not racism to recognize that differing races have various strong points and weak points.” This “is simply reality.”
In the middle of his newsletter, Bishop Sanborn reserved severe criticism for misguided Catholics who regard Adolf Hitler’s political movement with sympathy, describing a “benevolent attitude” towards National Socialism as “downright deplorable.”
The Dispatch
His Excellency argued that that German socio-political movement is perceived as right-wing only because it “brought law and order to a nation that was plagued by disorder under the Weimar Republic.” In reality, he said, it was a left-wing cause.
His Excellency highlighted the fundamental incompatibility between National Socialism and Catholic principles, focussing on Hitler’s hostility towards the Church and the Third Reich’s violations of natural law. He acknowledged that some conservatives initially welcomed Hitler’s promises of cultural restoration, which, Sanborn relayed, “to a great extent it was” successful due to its opposition to degenerate art, ugly architecture, and female immodesty. That said, this is not to be confused with true, Christian restoration. “While it is true that nazism opposed the horror of international socialism and the New World Order which we are living today, it is also true that the nazi world order would have produced its own horrors for Catholics and the Church in general,” His Excellency noted.
Bishop Sanborn then provided a better alternative for young, disaffected Catholics who lament the poor options available within the Republican Party and broader American right-wing. “They should become good Catholics, and not good nazis, which is simply an alternate form of pagan socialism,” he stated.
With the charitable concern of a true shepherd, Bishop Sanborn further challenged the broader tendency to seek salvation through political movements, thought not ruling out legitimate Catholic Action. “Young persons should also understand that there is no good politics on the face of the earth,” he recalled. He proceeded to explain how modern politics is, at root, poisoned at its core:
Western democracies are deeply infected with the errors of naturalism, as well as the errors of freedom of speech, of the press, and of religion, all of which have been condemned by the Catholic Church. While there is legitimate freedom of the press and freedom of speech, in the sense that legitimately controverted issues may be publicly aired and discussed, what is condemned is the idea that you have the right to say whatever you please or publish whatever you please. Needless to say, there is only one religion which has the right to exist, namely the one true religion, Roman Catholicism.
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Finally, His Excellency offered a Catholic alternative. “Only Our Lord Jesus Christ, by His infinite power, can overcome the forces of hell which have been unleashed against His Church and against society,” he stated. “Only the reign of Christ the King in our families, our society, and in our government can set aright our culture, our nations, and our way of life. Pope Pius XI said it succinctly: Pax Christi in regno Christi — The peace of Christ in the reign of Christ.”
His Excellency concluded by saying that rather than allowing themselves to be drawn into radical, non-Catholic political movements, young men should study traditional social doctrine included in encyclicals such as Quanta Cura, Libertas, Quas Primas, Divini Redemptoris, and Quadragesimo Anno.
In just four pages of a monthly newsletter, Bishop Sanborn provided more insight in modern politics than 62 years of apostate papal claimants with all the ink they have wasted on the subject.
