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sovereign rights of God against aggressive neo-paganism.” The Pope particularly warns, in the same Encyclical, against nationalist perversion of Christian ...
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Pamphlet No. 25
PBIOE 10 CENTS
THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE 1312 Massachusetts (^) Avenue, N. W. Washington, D. C.
1937
APPRECIATIONsponsoring this forReport their iscooperation hereby ex¬ in
pressed to Mount Mercy College, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in its response to the Holy Father’s (^) appeal: “May they all unite in the peace of Christ in a full concord of thoughts and (^) emotions, of desires and prayers, of deeds and words—the (^) spoken word, the written (^) word, the printed word—and then an (^) atmosphere of genuine peace, warming and (^) beneficent, will envelop all the world.”
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
Introduction (^3)
I. The Christian (^) Conception of National Patriotism 6
II.
Current (^) Non-Christian and (^) Anti-Christian Doc¬ trines of (^) Nationalism 14
III.
Why (^) Nationalism Flourishes in Modern Times 21
IV.
The (^) Refashioning of National Attitudes 31
Appendices
A—Bibliography 44
B—N. C. W. C. Study Outline 46
Patriotism, Nationalism, and
the Brotherhood of Man
INTRODUCTION
THEfundamental brotherhood tenet of manof Christianunder the faith Fatherhood and (^) morals, of God taught is a
by Jesus Christ and His Apostles and by the long line of Ro¬ man (^) Pontiffs, successors of the Prince of the Apostles. It has
always been both an ideal and a practical program of historic Christianity. It is a principle embedded in Christian revela¬ tion, and developed in Christian philosophy and propaganda. But it is also one of those attributes of (^) Christianity quite in
keeping with human aspiration and experience, and with what may be called “natural religion.” For centuries, not only Christians but (^) many Pagans assumed, what the Hebrew Scrip¬ tures (^) declare, that the whole human race is descended from common ancestors created (^) by God. They naturally inferred that (^) physical and mental differences among men arise from differences of (^) geographical and physical environment and of individual (^) personality. In (^) particular, the Catholic Church has ceaselessly pointed the (^) way to a community of Christian nations—a common Christendom. (^) Early in the fifth century, a classical expression of the Church’s (^) unvarying doctrine on the subject was given by St. Augustine: “The heavenly city (i. e., the Church), while it (^) sojourns on earth, calls citizens out of all nations, and gathers together a society of pilgrims of all languages, not scrupling about diversities in the (^) manners, laws, and institutions where¬ by earthly peace is secured and maintained, but recognizing
same end of (^) earthly peace.” 1 Actually, too, this doctrine was steadily propagated in an
was extended in the first five centuries of our era over southern Europe, in the next ten centuries over central and northern
(^1) St. (^) Augustine, City of God, Book xix, chapter xvii. 3
Patriotism, Nationalism, and Brotherhood of Man 5
it now constitutes a (^) major obstacle to the realization of human brotherhood. This nationalism (^) may be a “myth,” but, if so, it is an (^) extraordinarily potent myth, commanding the ardent
allegiance of more and more (^) peoples and inspiring widespread popular attitudes and activities quite at variance with ideals of world (^) unity. We must all (^) be aware that we live (^) today in a world full of nationalism. We read of it in the headlines of our (^) daily news¬
papers. We see evidences of it on every hand in our daily lives. We are a bit odd if we do not (^) occasionally experience it within (^) ourselves. We all have at least a (^) general idea as to what nationalism is. We (^) recognize it, at any rate, in its extreme forms. We
know, for example, that both German Naziism and Italian Fascism are nationalistic movements. We should (^) know, more¬
over, that Germany and Italy are by no means the only coun¬ tries where extreme nationalism (^) flourishes, but that it is in evi¬ dence in Poland and (^) Hungary, in Soviet Russia, in Japan and China and (^) India, in Mexico—indeed, all over the world.
Many Englishmen and Frenchmen and many inhabitants of other countries are (^) extremely nationalistic—sometimes without
being aware of it. Many Americans, too, are devotees, con¬ sciously or unconsciously, of nationalism, and its extreme form is (^) typified most perfectly perhaps by such a peculiarly Ameri¬ can (^) organization as the Ku Klux Klan. But nationalism (^) is a (^) very complex phenomenon, and the word itself has been (^) employed during the past century in dif¬ ferent (^) ways. Sometimes the word is used as a synonym for
“patriotism.” Sometimes, especially among the French and certain other (^) European peoples, it is sharply distinguished from
ordinary patriotism and made synonymous with “chauvinism” or a (^) grossly boastful patriotism. For us it is highly important to (^) recognize kinds and degrees of nationalism (or patriotism)
ranging from the abnormal and feverish to the normal and temperate, from the nationalism which is contrary to Christian teaching to the patriotism which is in harmony with it. In our study of patriotism and nationalism, therefore, we must be very careful to make the proper distinctions and to understand clearly what is “good” patriotism and what is “bad” national¬ ism, what contributes to human solidarity and what militates against it.
(^6) Patriotism, Nationalism, and Brotherhood of Alan
In the first section of this (^) report, we discuss the Christian
conception of national patriotism. In the second section, we treat of current non-Christian or anti-Christian doctrines of nationalism. In the third (^) section, we offer explanations of the rise and (^) present vogue of these latter doctrines. In the final section, we make some suggestions as to how national attitudes may be refashioned so as to serve the fundamental Christian end of the brotherhood of man under the Fatherhood of God.
I
THE CHRISTIAN CONCEPTION OF NATIONAL PATRIOTISM
Nationalism, in its historic and (^) simplest sense, is patriot¬ ism (^) applied to one’s nationality. As such it is a common cul¬ tural (^) phenomenon, and one compatible with Catholic tradition and (^) precept. For patriotism is a love of one’s country, a prime expression of that sense of loyalty which holds men together in groups and without which men could not be the gregarious creatures that (^) by nature they are. Men have (^) always lived in groups. Apparently it is a part of God’s (^) plan that they should. And one of the things which have enabled them to live in (^) groups has been the loyalty—the patriotism—which God has implanted in their very nature.
volves a (^) triple affection. It embraces an affection for familiar
familiar ideas. One’s (^) “country” connotes all three of these: the land (^) itself, the persons on it, and the traditions associated with it. One’s “native land”—the terra (^) patria, la patrie, das Vaterland—is an extension of hearth and home. It is the soil that has (^) given life to one’s forefathers and holds their tombs, and which in turn (^) nurtures one’s children and (^) grandchildren. It is a link between (^) generations, between families and friends, between common (^) experience of the past and that of the present and future. It is the (^) earthly means, at once familiar and sa¬ cred, of (^) establishing and maintaining a community or group life. Loyalty to “country,” or patriotism in the basic sense, is one of those fine traits of man which (^) prompt him to rise out
(^8) Patriotism, Nationalism, and Brotherhood of Man
together by patriotism, then other groups are similarly held to¬ gether by a like patriotism, and what one esteems for one’s self, one must not deny to others. This is natural justice, re¬ enforced and (^) ennobled for Christians (^) by the Christ-given law of (^) charity. As Pope Benedict XV says: “There is nothing that Christ recommended more (^) frequently and more insistently to His (^) disciples than the precept of mutual charity, and that be¬ cause it embraces all (^) others; Christ called it the new precept, His (^) commandment, and He wished to make it a characteristic mark of (^) Christians, by which they would be distinguished from the rest of mankind.... The (^) Gospel does not contain one law of (^) charity for individuals and another law, different from the
Patriotism, in its true and basic sense, is a Christian virtue. This is not to (^) say, however, that (^) patriotism must be, or always has (^) been, synonymous with nationalism. Nationalism is but one form of (^) patriotism. Nationalism is (^) patriotism applied to a (^) nationality, and if it is true patriotism (in the Christian sense) that is applied to (^) nationality, then the resulting nation¬ alism is (^) compatible with Christian ethics. But patriotism may be (^) applied, and actually has been applied throughout past ages, to a (^) variety of human (^) groupings other than national; and, again, if the (^) patriotism thus variously applied is true patriot¬ ism (^) (in the Christian sense) then the resulting attachment to
Patriotism is love of one’s (^) “country,” we have said. But
imperial. It may be a mere fragment of a nationality—a town, a (^) county, or a province. Or it may be a conglomerate of sev¬ eral nationalities—an (^) empire, a cultural area, or an (^) occupa¬ tional or (^) religious community. The ancient Greeks consti¬ tuted a (^) nationality, but their abundant patriotism was pre¬ eminently devoted not to their common nationality as a whole, but rather to their (^) separate city-states, such as Athens or Sparta. The ancient Romans managed to transform the ob¬ ject of their paramount patriotism from a diminutive town on the banks of the Tiber to a (^) huge imperial domain encircling the Mediterranean and (^) constituting a commonwealth of cul¬ ture (^) and interests for (^) previously disparate tribes and peoples. (^8) Benedict (^) XV, Encyclical, Pacem, May 23, 1920.
Patriotism, Nationalism, and Brotherhood of Man 9
St. Paul evinced as much (^) patriotic pride in the Roman Empire as in the (^) Jewish nationality. There can (^) be, moreover, and usually has been in past ages, a kind of (^) pluralism in “love of country,” that is, in patriotism. One and the same (^) person can simultaneously feel and display a (^) patriotic emotion about several different objects. This was especially true of the Christian Middle Ages. At that time most individuals were (^) deeply rooted in loyalty to some re¬ stricted (^) locality—a village or city, a barony or duchy. At the same time the same individuals were (^) loyally attached to a (^) pro¬ fession or (^) class—nobility, guild, peasantry. Above all, the same individuals (^) possessed a supernatural (and supranational) religious loyalty to Catholic Christianity and to its territorial embodiment, Christendom. One of the great medieval (^) hymns of the Catholic (^) Church, the (^) Pange Lingua, pointed on to eternal life with God in Heaven as the Christian’s “native land.” Qui vitam sine termino O grant us endless length of days Nobis donet in (^) patria. In our true native land with Thee! Persons who thus (^) thought of Heaven as their “native land,” and who also felt a (^) lively attachment to a special social group and to a (^) special limited locality, might incidentally be patriotic about the (^) nationality to which they belonged. But the nation¬ alism of such (^) persons could not be an exclusive or extreme na¬ tionalism. It was in (^) keeping with Catholic principle and prac¬ tice. Latterly, in modern times, nationality has come to play a more and more (^) important role in human society and hence to emphasize a national grouping of human beings which more and more transcends the earlier (^) groupings by locality or class.
Wherefore, patriotism tends more and more to be associated with (^) nationality, to shed its previous pluralism, and to take on the (^) singular character of nationalism. There is nothing inher¬ ently evil in this. Patriotism of the Christian type can be as properly applied to nationality as to city or to empire; there can be an (^) eventuating nationalism which is as Christian as any urbanism or (^) cosmopolitanism. To obtain a clear idea of what nationalism (^) is, whether it be Christian or anti-Christian (^) nationalism, we must discover not only what patriotism is but what nationality is. For nation¬ alism, let us repeat, is patriotism applied to nationality.
Patriotism, Nationalism, and Brotherhood of Man 11
times we (^) loosely speak of nationalities as races—for example, of a German (^) race, a Slavic race, an Irish race, or a Jewish race. In so (^) doing, however, we speak inaccurately and misleadingly. Biologically, there is no German or Slavic race, no Irish or Jewish race. There is a white race, a black race, a yellow race. There is a (^) long-headed race and a round-headed race. But the latest (^) findings of the biological and anthropological sciences
only tend to confirm the traditional Christian teaching that what (^) physical differences there are among men are (^) insufficient, on the one (^) hand, to explain cultural differences, or, on the other hand, to raise serious question about the essential unity of all mankind. (^) Certainly no present-day nationality consists of one and (^) only one race. In every country of Europe and America, long heads and round heads are intermingled. In the United States, black Americans are just as American in speech and tradition as are white Americans. The (^) Jews are really not a “pure” race, but rather a mixture of various strains; in Ger¬ many, where many of them have resided for centuries, they are as German in (^) language and ordinary usage as are the so- called (^) Aryan Germans. The very word (^) “Aryan” denotes a type of language; only sheer imagination can make it connote race. We must (^) remember, furthermore, that while nationality is a fact of (^) long standing in the world, it has not always been recog¬ nized as a fact of (^) prime importance or as an object of para¬ mount (^) patriotism. Doubtless at all times individuals and families have been conscious of (^) belonging to a particular ethnic group, but for centuries of recorded history they have been wont to attach as much or more (^) significance to some other grouping of which they were members—a church, an empire, a (^) town, a clan, a guild. Only among primitive tribes and among modern peoples has the sentiment of patriotism been predominantly and universally associated with nationality. That (^) nationality has come to the fore in modern times as the chief (^) object of patriotic devotion is attributable in consider¬ able (^) part to the counsel and example of the Catholic Church. The (^) Church, recognizing nationality as usual and natural with man, has no quarrel with it, any more than with patriotism. Indeed, the Church throughout the nineteen hundred (^) years of her existence has (^) respected and even fostered a consciousness of (^) nationality among her members; and it is significant that
(^12) Patriotism, Nationalism, and Brotherhood of Man
ties almost from the (^) beginning, is the very continent in which national consciousness has been most (^) continuously and success¬
fully cultivated. In a real sense the Catholic Church is the foster-mother of the (^) European and American nationalities. The Church established an ecclesiastical (^) unity for the English nation before there was (^) any political unity, and a similar func¬ tion she (^) performed for the French, the Spanish, the German, the (^) Scandinavian, the Czech, the Hungarian. She helped im¬
mensely to keep alive the sentiment of nationality among peo¬ ples, such as the Irish, the Polish, the Lithuanian, etc., who were (^) long deprived of political independence. Her priests, as a German writer (^) says, “fought for the rights of the people in
Flanders, in Ireland, in Alsace, in southern Tyrol, in Slovenia, in (^) Croatia, in Slovakia, in Poland, in Lithuania, in the Latgal, and in the (^) Basque country.” 9 And in her later missionary
enterprise in Asia and Africa, as in her earlier extension throughout Piurope, she has taken pains to respect national traditions and to erect at the earliest (^) possible moment native national hierarchies.10 (^) Everywhere she has inculcated love of one’s native environment (^) and (^) respect for national language, cus¬
tom, and atmosphere. She has sought “the preservation of man’s right to remain what he is, to talk the language one learned from one’s (^) mother, to dress in the costume of one’s fathers, to
turies.” 11 Nor has the Church (^) discouraged the fusion of the con¬ sciousness of (^) nationality with the sentiment of patriotism to
produce a kind of nationalism. On the contrary, the Church has (^) approved, rather than disapproved, the unity and inde¬
pendence of particular nationalities—German, French, Span¬ ish, English, Irish, Polish, and all the others. “Self-determina¬ tion of (^) peoples,” rightly understood, is and always has been quite compatible with Catholic (^) teaching. The Catholic Church expects and counsels every Christian to be patriotic, in the
(^9) Erik von (^) Kiihnelt-Leddihn, The Gates of (^) Hell, Eng. trans., p. 435. (^10) This (^) point has been stressed by Benedict XV in the Apostolic Letter, Maximum (^) Illud, of November 30, 1919, and by Pius XI in the Encyclical, Rerum (^) Ecclesice, of February 28, 1926. (^11) Erik von (^) Kiihnelt-Leddihn, op. cit.
words of Leo XIII: (^) ‘Through the Divine Founder of the Church and in virtue of the (^) age-old traditions, the (^) august min¬ istry of the (^) Pope possesses a sort of high investiture as mediator of (^) peace. In fact, the authority of the supreme Pontiff extends
beyond the frontiers of nations; it embraces all peoples, in order to federate them in the true (^) peace of the Gospel; his ac¬ tivity in (^) promoting the general welfare of humanity lifts him above the (^) particular interests which the different heads of states have in (^) view, and, better than anyone else, he knows how to make (^) peoples, different in natural traits, tend to con¬ cord.” 14
II
CURRENT NON-CHRISTIAN AND ANTI-CHRISTIAN
DOCTRINES OF (^) NATIONALISM
cation of (^) patriotism, in the Christian sense, to the principle of (^) nationality. Nationalism has taken on other meanings, both with statesmen and with countless (^) citizens, beyond Christian
teaching and frequently in flat contradiction to it. Three of these (^) meanings may be distinguished and indi¬ cated as follows:
omnipotent and is expected to act accordingly. It not only exercises full (^) right to wage war and to command the obedience of its citizens in all secular and (^) temporal matters. It also claims
sovereign authority over religion and education, over families, and (^) especially over the upbringing of children.15 In a word, (^13) Pius (^) XI, (^) Encyclical, Ubi Arcano Dei, December 23, 1922. (^14) Leo (^) XIII, Letter to Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, May 29,
(^15) This claim (^) Pope Pius XI has vigorously denied and denounced. “The (^) believer has an inalienable (^) right to profess his faith and to put it into (^) practice in the manner suited to him. Laws that suppress or make this (^) profession and practice difficult contradict the moral law.... Laws or other (^) regulations concerning schools that disregard the rights of par¬ ents (^) guaranteed to them by the natural law, or by threat and violence
Patriotism, Nationalism, and Brotherhood of Man 15
this kind of nationalism insists (^) upon rendering to Caesar (that is, to the national government) not only what is Caesar’s but what is God’s also. More than (^) this, however. The national state which is domi¬ nated (^) by the type of nationalism here described tends to fall under the (^) sway of the most intensely nationalistic element of its (^) citizens, who preach a veritable warfare (^) against all other elements in the nation. (^) Hence, from the twofold conviction that the national state is (^) omnipotent and that everyone in it must conform with the most nationalistic (^) element, springs a peculiarly strenuous intolerance, which is an outstanding char¬ acteristic of much (^) present-day nationalism. Any group sus¬ pected of “divided allegiance,” or even of harboring inter¬ national or (^) supranational thoughts, is (^) subject to nationalist denunciation and (^) persecution. Notably has this been the case with four (^) groups: (a) resident foreigners or citizens of foreign antecedents; (b) advocates of reforms effected or attempted in other (^) countries; (c) Jews; and (d) Catholic Christians. (^) Against one or (^) another, or (^) all, of these groups nationalist propaganda and (^) legislation have been directed in one country after another. In (^) Germany, not only Jews but both Catholics and Protestants have suffered. In (^) Mexico, an extreme nationalism has abetted an (^) especially savage attack upon the Catholic Church. In the United (^) States, agitation is carried on by fanatical nationalists,
periodically and indiscriminately, against Negroes, Jews, Cath¬ olics, and all “alien” influences. Wherever this intolerant nationalism (^) appears, it is not a
lovely thing. It is antithetical to Christian patriotism, whose “love of (^) country,” let us remember, involves the Christian con¬
cepts of humility and charity. And, needless to say, national¬ istic intolerance is (^) apt in the long run to defeat its own ends, by
stimulating counter intolerances among persecuted minorities, and (^) by putting a premium on the most noisy and most dema¬
on the wisest and best.
nullify those rights, contradict the natural law and are utterly and es¬ sentially immoral.”—Encyclical, On the Church in Germany, March 14,
Patriotism, Nationalism, and Brotherhood of Man 17
The (^) menacing increase of armies tends much more to excite than to (^) allay rivalry and suspicion.” 17 Finally, as a more or less natural outcome of all these ills, there is the ill of international war. The World War of 1914- 1918 was (^) primarily a nationalistic war, in which nationalist
passions were most effectively and almost universally aroused; and the four (^) years of the World War proved vastly more de¬ structive and (^) deadly than the twenty years of the Napoleonic
Wars, or the thirty-years’ war of the seventeenth century, or the (^) hundred-years’ war of the late Middle Ages, or the four hundred (^) years of medieval crusades. Obviously, war becomes in our modern (^) age ever more terrible; and the explanation is to be (^) sought not only in the technological perfecting of instru¬ ments of war but also in the (^) intensifying nationalism which
possesses whole peoples and makes them ready and even zealous to make use of the (^) perfected instruments of war. What makes a calamitous situation even worse is the fact that (^) popular passions are so intensified by nationalistic war as
practically to preclude victorious powers from negotiating a just peace with the vanquished. There can be no doubt, for example, that the spirit of vengeance rather than that of con¬ ciliation dictated (^) many provisions in the peace treaties which concluded the World (^) War, and thus not only embittered post¬ war international relations but also contributed to the con¬
temporary exaggeration of nationalism, especially among the defeated and (^) unjustly treated peoples. Another nationalistic world war could be but a (^) prelude to still more vindictive na¬ tionalism. As (^) Pope Pius XI has recently declared: “It is in¬ deed (^) impossible for peace to last between peoples and states if in the (^) place of true and genuine love of country there reigns a hard (^) egotistical nationalism, which is the same as saying hatred and (^) envy in the place of mutual desire for the good, diffidence and (^) suspicion in the place of fraternal confidence, competition and (^) antagonism in the place of willing cooperation, ambition for (^) hegemony and mastery in the place of respect for all rights,
including those of the small and weak.” 18 (^17) Leo (^) XIII, Consistorial Allocution, February 11, 1889. The same Pontiff, in an (^) Apostolic Letter of March 19, 1902, speaks of “armed peace” as “equivalent in many respects to a disastrous war.” Pius XI in his (^) Apostolic Letter, Nova Impendet, of October 2, 1931, speaks further of “the unbridled race in armaments” as “the cause of enormous (^) expendi- ture taken out of the resources available for the (^) public well-being.” (^18) Pius (^) XI, Consistorial Allocution, December 24, 1930.
(^18) Patriotism, Nationalism, and Brotherhood of Man
religion to take the place of such an historic and universal supernatural (^) religion as Christianity. The religion of national¬ ism, if we (^) may use the phrase, superficially resembles real reli¬ gion: it has dogmas; it has a cult, with holydays and cere¬ monial (^) observances; it appropriates religious, even Christian,
phrases and (^) formulas; and it instills in its worshipers a strong sense of (^) obligation and devotion. In essential respects, how¬
ever, it is different from Christianity, and quite antithetical to it. It is (^) this-worldly, rather than other-worldly; its kingdom is of this world. It takes no account of the (^) supernatural, ig¬
noring if not openly denying it, but bases itself on what it ac¬ cepts as the natural order and what it interprets as “realistic”; it exalts not the Bible or the Christian (^) Fathers, but the posi¬ tivism of (^) Auguste (^) Comte, the politics of Machiavelli, the ro¬ manticism of (^) literary men of modern times, or the racialism of pseudo-scientists of the late nineteenth century. It is exclusive rather than (^) comprehensive, being concerned with a particular people rather than with all peoples. It flatly contradicts the Catholic (^) principle expressed by St. Paul: “There is neither Jew nor (^) Gentile, there is neither Greek nor Barbarian, there is neither bond nor free: for (^) you are all one in Christ Jesus.” 19 At bottom and in its extreme (^) manifestations, the (^) religion of nationalism betokens a conscious or unconscious revival of tribal, primitive paganism, the paganism of those barbarian Teutonic, Slavic, Indian, or other tribesmen who anciently dis¬ ported themselves in the forests and clothed themselves in the skins of wild (^) animals, the paganism which Christianity has long been (^) praised for dispelling. In present-day Germany, Hun¬ gary, and other countries, conspicuous devotees of the religion of nationalism (^) loudly lament the Christian civilization which, they claim, was originally imposed upon their respective peoples by “foreign” Jews or Romans from the outside and which, they aver, has long corrupted naturally heroic nations by inculcat¬ ing in them Utopian or downright vicious doctrines of humility and (^) world-brotherhood; and they vociferously urge a complete uprooting of “alien” Christianity and a popular return to the worship of such indigenous legendary gods and heroes as Odin, (^19) St. (^) Paul, Romans, x, 12; Galatians, iii, 28; Colossians, iii. 11.
