The Church and Farming

Description

"I repeatedly promised Saint Peter that if I ever got the chance, I would teach the truth about his Master in the way he and his successors, the Roman Pontiffs, wanted it done. That is what I have striven to do and am doing". —Rev. Denis Fahey

This is the last book published before Fr. Fahey's death. It is an enduring testament to his love of the land and his firm belief that the best setting for most Catholic living is the family farm or small business, similar to the life lived by the Holy Family of Nazareth. The Church is greatly interested in farming because it is the most fundamental of all human occupations. Those who work the land are deeply immersed in, and must work in harmony with, the natural rhythms and processes of God s creative handiwork. The harmony and balance of rural life are profoundly upset by industrialized living, both on and off the land. Father delves into many spiritual, chemical, technical, and scientific questions pertaining to the future of farming and the life of the Church and all human society, which depends completely on the land for its existence and prosperity.

227 pp.

Fr. Fahey was a Holy Ghost Father like Archbishop Lefebvre, and they both studied under the great seminary professor Fr. Le Floch, C.S.Sp.

• Fahey, C.S.Sp., Denis. “A Brief Sketch of My Life Work.” The Angelus , January 2001.
• Maume, Patrick. “Fahey, Denis.” In Dictionary of Irish Biography , edited by James Quinn. Royal Irish Academy, 2009. ←Despite calling him an "anti-Semite" (which he was not), this biography is good.

Church & Farming should be one of "The three foundational writings [3rd = Rerum Novarum] for the contemporary CLM [Catholic Land Movement] restoration".

ref:15.56:

“I will confess,” writes Mrs. McDonald, “I knew I had the womanly power of influencing my husband. If I had insisted, I feel certain we would have lived in town, but I knew (woman’s intuition again) that Mark would never be happy there; so together we faced the tasks ahead. So you see, I do not know exactly how I came to the land, except by God’s grace, but I do know why I will stay on the land and encourage others to live on the land also. …

ref:15.174:

“It is a simple fact that populations do not replace themselves in the city, and that rural families provide the population increase” (Sacramental Protection of the Family (p. 12), by Emerson Hynes (National Catholic Rural Life Conference, Des Moines, 12, Iowa).

My KOReader notes:

Joint

10/28/23Joint : 53

is important to go back to first principles for enlightenment and guidance.

10/28/23Joint : 73

reduction of the number of middlemen who usually consume an ample share of the profits

thus P2P! decentralization

10/28/23Joint : 74

separated brethren

This term was used pre-V2?

Ch 1

10/30/23Ch 1 : 92

instead of being what it is in reality merely a useful

10/30/23Ch 1 : 93

interpretation of phenomena in terms of quantity

Chap 3

11/01/23Chap 3 : 136

the ousting of philosophy from the curriculum of schools and the domination of mathematics aggravated the blindness of people to the attack that was being made on the supernatural order of the world under Christ the King.

11/02/23Chap 3 : 152

we must get rid of the notion that atoms and energy will tell us all that we need to know about the universe

11/03/23Chap 3 : 154

It has been calculated that an acre of good arable soil contains as much as forty tons of micro-organisms, exclusive of worms and grubs. It would seem to be no less naive to dose such a microcosm with chemicals than it is to dose the human body with the same thing. …

11/03/23Chap 3 : 155

bacterial content of fertile arable soil is something in the order of forty tons of these micro-organisms per acre of land. How fantastic it is to think that by tossing a few tons of chemical to this incredible microcosm we are doing something scientific

11/01/23Chap 3 : 155

“Insofar as scientific ‘proof’ has become synonymous with ‘statistical significance’ we cannot in advance accept for research into what are essentially qualities, a system of values which is fundamentally quantitative. The mystique of the mathematician is not of universal application.” (Mother Earth , Winter, 1949–1950, Editorial Notes).

Briggs!?

11/01/23Chap 3 : 155

For an excellent outline of the deleterious influence of Cartesian philosophy on modern science, see Le Cartesianisme et L’Orientation de la Science Modérne by Father C. Forest, O.P. (Casterman, Paris). He shows, briefly but effectively, the long-unsuspected effects of Cartesian mechanism on medicine, pedagogy and social science.

Chap 4

11/03/23Chap 4 : 179

food is not to man what coal is to a furnace.

11/03/23Chap 4 : 180

forced limitation in selection of foods

11/03/23Chap 4 : 183

, ‘this illness results from a life-time, of wrong nutrition

11/03/23Chap 4 : 185

he often asked his fellow-students and himself why they were all the time studying disease and not health.

11/03/23Chap 4 : 196

the war was used exactly as planning had designed

Didn't Bp. Oresme say coinage could be altered in times of war?

11/03/23Chap 4 : 230

To produce commercial white flour, the removal of these essential nutrient factors is considered necessary in order to decrease spoilage and to produce profits. White flour is sold to the bread or baker industries; part of the bran finds its way into the laxative factories; part of the gluten is sold to the gluten bread factories for consumption by diabetics; middlings are processed by the breakfast food and cereal factories to give the gullible their quota of morning ‘pep’; part of the wheat germ and wheat germ oil finds its way to the drug factories to be processed for pharmaceutical distribution where childless couples are urged to purchase it to restore their sex fertility—and most of this would be unnecessary if we ate foods as produced by nature.11

11. “Sterility due to vitamin E deficiency is commoner in women in England than had been suspected. This is not surprising when one bears in mind that the best sources of the vitamin are wheat germ and green vegetables and that large numbers of the poorer people today live on diets consisting chiefly of white bread (which does not contain the germ) and containing very small amounts of green vegetables or salads’’ (The Englishman’s Food , by Sir Jack Drummond, p. 103). Quoted by Dr. Lionel Picton in Thoughts on Feeding, p.168. Thoughts on Feeding is published by Faber and Faber, London.

Vitamin E is lacking in current enriched refined wheat regulations (cf. 🇺🇸 § 137.165 a); cf. Whole Grain Council's infographic:

11/03/23Chap 4 : 231

“Medical science is largely occupied in adapting our bodies to an unnatural way of living, just as agricultural science is largely occupied in adapting our land to an unnatural way of farming.

11/03/23Chap 4 : 232

quart of fresh unpasteurized milk contains a third of the adult requirement of vitamin C. Pasteurization robs us every year of as much ascorbic acid as is contained in the entire citrus crop of the United States. It also robs us of some calcium, which pasteurization converts to un-assimilable forms

11/05/23Chap 4 : 232

To be fully human, work must be as far as possible artistic, that is, it must be work, in which a form, intellectually apprehended, is incorporated in matter confided to an artisan to be elaborated for the Common Good. “The elimination of the soul in labor has thrown men back upon their animal nature. Deprived of spiritual or emotional satisfaction in their work is it any wonder they seek this satisfaction in the gratification of their lower appetites, the stimulant of these ever needing to be stronger and stronger? Hence the prevalence of sensational literature, films and plays of the lowest type, these being necessary to replace the stimulant of the spirit which they have lost” (Flee to the Fields , pp. 184, 185).

Chap 5

11/08/23Chap 5 : 261

Sometimes “parents are glad that they do not need to bother with instructions which these competent persons (priests and nuns in Catholic schools) can provide. And sometimes even priests fail to see that, in this way, Christian parents become more and more confirmed in an attitude of indifference and never learn to do their duty. The experience of Catholic parents in some European countries speaks in eloquent language on this matter. For decades they, too, relinquished to the Catholic school as many as possible of their parental rights and duties. …They no longer discussed or talked of religious problems at home: what was the need, since the priest or sisters were teaching in school whatever the children had to know? . . . Two or three generations later this irresponsible attitude suddenly found itself facing an abyss—there was no longer any Catholic school education. An awakening followed, and with it a remarkable rebirth of Catholic family life, a revival of ‘the Church at home.’ Can we not learn from this example instead of waiting for a similar experience?”30

11/08/23Chap 5 : 281

“Their power becomes particularly irresistible,” writes Pope Pius XI, “because . . . they are able to govern credit and determine its allotment, for that reason supplying, so to speak, the life-blood to the entire economic body, and grasping, as it were, in their hands the very soul of production, so that no one dare breathe against their will.”58

famous Quadragesimo Anno §106 quote

11/09/23Chap 5 : 290

The creation of exchange-medium and the lending of it must not be in the same hands.

French original of Quebec bishops' pastoral letter (Engl. transl.: ref:8.1): Le Problème rural au regard de la doctrine sociale de l'Église : lettre pastorale collective de l'épiscopat de la province civile de Québec (1938)

Table of Contents

Loreto Publications Introduction ix

Part I

Foreword vx

Teaching of Pope Leo XIII 1
The Two Currents issuing from the French Revolution—Principles Concerning Human Equality and the Right of Private Ownership—The Doctrine of St. Thomas—Erroneous Philosophies Behind Individualism

Allocution of His Holiness, Pope Pius XII 11
To the Italian Farmers’ Federation, On the Occasion of Their National Congress in Rome, 15th November, 1946, Particular Pleasure of His Holiness on this Occasion—Importance of Family Life of the Countryside—Characteristics of Genuine Rural Civilization—Family Farming—Lack of Right Ideals—Magnitude of the Task that Confronts Farmers—Reason for Opposition Between City and Country—Work Considered as Fulfilment of Function by Members of Christ.

Joint Pastoral Letter 19
On the Rural Problem in Relation to the Social Doctrine of the Church, issued by His Eminence the Cardinal Archbishop of Quebec, and Their Excellencies, The Archbishops and Bishops of the Civil Province of Quebec.
The Agricultural Problem and the Clergy
I. Dangers which Threaten Our Rural Class, Causes of Rural Exodus
II. Proposed Remedies:
(1) Esteem for Agricultural Profession. Its Social Aspect—A Warning against False Doctrines—Woman’s Role.
(2) The Development of Rural Education. The Parents Role—The Rural Atmosphere of the School—Rural Education—Education in General—Adult Education.
(3) Farmers’ Professional Organization—Advantages of Association—The Catholic Union of Farmers—Educational and Economic Enterprise—The Respective Roles of the State and the Church.
Conclusion. The Supreme Remedy Lies in the Practice of Religion.

Part II
Reflections on Rural and Other Problems

Chapter I 51
Erroneous Philosophies and their Consequences
The Predominant Role of Ideas—Both Descartes and Locke are Ockhamists or Nominalists—Consequences of Locke’s Teaching on Money—The “Economic Man” of Liberalism.

Chapter II 69
Farming
Effects of Liberalism on Society in General—The Enthronement of Money and the Emergence of “Economics’’—The Advent of Agri-Industry—The Ravages of Agri-Industry—Africa—The Decay of Ownership and the Growth of Factory-Farming in U.S.A.

Chapter III 89
Cartesian Philosophy in Action—Artificial Manures
Recapitulation of Philosophical Principles—Application of Chemistry to Agriculture—Humus and its Functions—Some Excellent Expressions of this Contrast in Philosophies—Chemical Fertilizers and Microzymas—A Striking Confirmation of a Statement by Dr. Alexis Carrel—Two Medical Doctors on Cartesianism—Testimony of a University Professor
Chapter IV 107
Food and Health
The Factors of Proper Nutrition—Food Processing and Health—Flour-Milling and Bread—Brown Bread—Bleaching—Phytic Acid—Processing of Food in General—The Remedy—Nutrition and the Prevention of Ill-Health—Planning and Regimentation—The Fabian Society and Central Planning—Orders in Council—Fabianism on Both Sides of the Atlantic—The Planners Behind State Medicine—Fabianism in the U.S.A.—Ireland is Also Being Drawn into the Net—Words Versus Deeds

Appendix I 161
The “Welfare State” Means the “All Powerful State”

Appendix II 163
The Attack on Family Life

Chapter V 165
The Great Reality of Our Membership of Christ
The Return to Order—The Tiller of the Soil and Member of Christ—Union with Christ as Priest in Holy Mass—Membership of Christ in the Home—Education and Rural Life—Holy Mass and the Kingship of Christ—Farmers and Co-operative Organization—To Dealers in Money or Exchange-Medium Must be Assigned their Proper Place in States—England’s Return to the Gold Standard in 1925—An Example of Banking Technique in the U.S.A.—Principles of Monetary Reform—Lending of Lawful Exchange-Medium by Banking Guild—Stability of Price Level—Re-forestation—Compost from Sewage Sludge—Rural Family Life Needs Organized Help