May 2006 Print

Fr. Franz Schmidberger

I would like to take this opportunity to speak to you about a subject which is very important to me, in order that you understand our actual situation in human society, in the Church, and here. This speech is divided into three parts: Christianization, De-Christianization, and Re-Christianization.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, after His Passion and Resurrection, gave the order to His Apostles to go into the whole world and preach the Gospel to all nations–not to all individuals. From the very beginning, Our Lord had in mind that the Gospel is not simply a matter of individual thinking, but of public order. The Apostles recognized this as you know from a little of the history of the Church. There was the persecution of the first Christians by the Jews; St. Stephen became the first martyr. Then the Christians went to Rome and the emperors began persecutions against them, including Nero, Trajan, Decius, Diocletian, and all the others.

Christianization

Nevertheless, the blood flowing was the seed of new Christians. The cross of Our Lord is always fruitful. Not only did individuals accept the Gospel, the truths and faith of Our Lord Jesus Christ, but also whole nations implemented the Faith in their Constitutions and daily life. The first nation to become Christian as a nation was Armenia in around 300. Then, in 313, the emperor Constantine the Great gave the liberty to the Church to be free from persecution. He decreed that Christians had the same rights as pagans in the Roman Empire.

One hundred years later, the emperor Theodosius the Great installed the Catholic religion as the religion of the State. In this time, we see how the whole Roman Empire was transformed and changed from a pagan to a Christian society. For instance, in North Africa, Christianity flourished as the number of bishops at that time demonstrates.

In 496, Clovis, the king of the Franks, was baptized along with 3,000 nobles of his kingdom on Christmas day. Thus, the kingdom of the Franks became a Christian nation.

Around 600, St. Gregory the Great sent 40 monks under the guidance of St. Augustine to the Anglo-Saxons to convert them.

One hundred years later, a man from the Anglo-Saxons, St. Boniface, comes to the German tribes to convert them.

In 800, Charlemagne is crowned Emperor by the Pope himself on Christmas day in Rome.
The German emperors of the Holy Roman Empire tried to convert the eastern part of Europe and the Slavic tribes and peoples. But there were especially two missionaries who came from Greece who were instrumental in the conversion of the Slavic peoples: Sts. Cyril and Methodius.

In 988, the Ruthenians, the ancestors of the Russians and Ukrainians, became Christian after their great prince was baptized in the Dnieper at Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine.
There was then still one part of Europe undergoing this process of conversion, namely, the north, the Scandinavian countries, which converted relatively late, between 1000 and 1100.
Thus, we can say that by the year 1200, all of the then-known world which used to be the Roman Empire had truly converted and had been Christianized. This is to say that all the people living in this area–people, tribes and nations–all adored the Holy Trinity. They all believed in the Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ, considering Him the High Priest of the New Testament, who had power over both individuals and public life. They all accepted His charge that the Faith was the only true religion founded by God. This was the state of things around 1200.

It is also evident at this time, however, that not all was paradise on earth. Sins and crimes were still committed, yet the official public order was a Christian one. All these nations held the Christian Faith, and no one would have dared to go against Christian doctrine. Even in 1054 when the schism of the East occurred and the Greeks and those dependent on them, such as the Bulgars, separated from the See of Peter, the Pope, it was nevertheless a Christian time.
If you thus consider this development, then, you must say that for a thousand years, from 313 (the Edict of Milan of Constantine) until 1300, it was a time of Christianization. Everybody had the hope and perspective that one day the whole world would be Christian.

It is true that already in 622, Mohammed began his campaign to spread Islam in Palestine, Asia Minor, North Africa, Spain and France. Nevertheless, Christianity held firm in the confession of the Christian Faith.

De-Christianization

In about 1300, there were cultivated people who decided that they would also like to enrich their culture by their knowledge of the ancient pagan cultures and languages. They especially looked to ancient Greece and ancient Rome. However, they not only learned their languages and culture, but also pagan ideas, putting man in first place, considering man the measure of all things. We call this the time of Renaissance, i.e., the rebirth of old pagan cultures and Humanism, placing man in the center.

Reformation

This was a very dramatic change in mentality. Finally this change in mentality focused on the Protestant Reformation and brought forth the monk of Wittenburg, Martin Luther. Luther claimed that Christ did not institute a visible Church or an exterior priesthood; every Christian is his own priest and every Christian can obtain forgiveness of his sins if he asks for pardon from God directly. We do not need a sacrifice of expiation since Christ suffered once forever. We do not need a Pope since every Christian can read and understand the Gospel himself. Therefore, the Church became unnecessary, as were the priesthood, the papacy, and sacrifice.

Luther thus made every Christian his own priest and pope. The work of Redemption was unnecessary; Redemption was made once and forever on the Cross, and this was sufficient. There is no need for it to be continued in time and space.

At this time, whole countries of Europe joined this error: great parts of Germany, Switzerland, and Holland; all of Scandinavia was lost to the Faith. Moreover, King Henry VIII of England, a few decades later, declared himself the Head of the English Church–against the Pope. Thus, he went into schism. Bishop Cranmer of Westminster instituted the Book of Common Prayer, which brought the errors of Protestantism to England, which led England from schism into heresy.

This had a very dramatic and tragic result: Everywhere in the world where one speaks the English language, you do not find a Catholic culture, but, rather, a Protestant culture. This is the result of the schism of Henry VIII and Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer. The British Empire was spread throughout the whole world, bringing Protestantism with it into the colonies of America, Canada, etc. Thus, Protestantism spread to the whole world.
The year 1517 is the date when Luther published his theses. This new spirit of rejection of the Church–"God and Jesus Christ, but not the Church"–this spirit of public rebellion against the Church was spread in other countries in Europe.

In 1717, exactly 200 years later, the first great Freemasonic lodge was established in London. The Freemasons do not just reject the idea of God as long as this God is "behind the clouds," as long as He has nothing to do with the world, as long as He is like an Architect who made the universe but afterwards withdrew and stays in peace. Generally speaking then, that is their idea of God. Their idea of God is one who has nothing to do with the world. Especially they reject the idea of a God who incarnated Himself, taking a human nature, dwelling amongst us and giving us the model of Christianity: redeeming us on the Cross. This idea, for the Masons, is inconceivable.

Revolution

This spirit for hatred of the Church finally came to the Court of Versailles in Paris, France. It fomented in French society and finally brought forth the French Revolution in 1789; then the King and Queen were beheaded, not just as individuals, but as the death of a principle: the principle of the Kingdom of Our Lord in human society. Human society from now on had to be laicized. God no longer had anything to do with human society. These revolutionaries put a naked harlot on the altar of Notre Dame in Paris, adoring her as the goddess Reason. It is quite symbolic and important.

The year 1517 was the first step of public de-Christianization; 1717 was the second important step in the de-Christianization and laicization of society with the Enlightenment, the Freemasons, the secret societies and eventually the French Revolution. The year 1917 saw the third step, with the Russian Revolution, again, exactly 200 years later. Lenin declared religion the opiate of the people, that only matter exists, that God, Jesus Christ, religion and Redemption are empty. The only work which is important was to bring paradise to earth by a society without classes where everyone is equal. In the name of this equality and "paradise," millions of people were killed to establish Communism in Russia and later on in other countries.

Subversion

Now, it must be said that, in 1923, there was a certain group people with these revolutionary ideas, most of whom were apostatized Jews, that is, Jews who did not follow the Law of Moses, who did not follow their religion. They founded the Institute for Marxism in Frankfurt, Germany in 1923: Horkheimer, Marcuse, Adorno, Eric Fromm, and so on. They said that the Russian Revolution was a certain success since they had obtained power in Russia. But it was not to be expected that they would take over power in the whole world. So they tried to devise another method to bring the Revolution to the world. In Russia, it was achieved by weapons; they thought it was better to achieve it through culture: to change the culture and civilization, thus changing the minds of the people. So, they founded the Institute for Marxism in Frankfurt. Since they were Jews, however, when Hitler came to power in Germany, they fled: first to Switzerland, and then to the United States. In America they held chairs of universities and spread their poison everywhere.

In 1936, they began a campaign against Christian marriage and the Christian family. They realized that the family and marriage were bastions that kept the Revolution from coming to fruition. Thus, marriages and families had to disappear.

After the Second World War, some of these men returned to Germany, founding the Institute for Social Research, hiding their ideas a bit. Others stayed in the United States and had a profound influence here, studying especially how to corrupt the youth through atonal music, music which has no harmony. They studied how to bring the spirit of rebellion and the spirit of hatred to the youth so that society could be transformed in a Communistic, revolutionary manner. They studied this systematically.

From 1962-65, the Second Vatican Council occurred in Rome. Here, all these movements and orientations penetrated in a very malicious way: Protestant ideas; rationalism (which rejects Divine Revelation); and the notion of transforming the Gospel into social work, i.e., Liberation theology, which has its roots in the Council. The penetration of these ideas is seen especially in the Declaration of Religious Liberty by reference to which the last Catholic States in the world were laicized: South America, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and some cantons of Switzerland. No longer did the Catholic religion occupy the position of "religion of the State." Henceforward, all religions had to be recognized by the State with the same public rights.

This did enormous harm to the people and nations in South America, where, after the Second Vatican Council, about 50 million people apostatized and went to various sects. This is one of the bitter fruits of the Second Vatican Council. Another was the spirit of relativism, promoted by the idea of ecumenism, which says that all denominations have a certain truth and that none has the absolute truth. Thus, they all have to join together to form a "super-Church" or a community where truth is not so important, only "charity."

We see how the Church herself was invaded by these new ideas and how the process of de-Christianization continued in a dramatic manner. We see especially, after the Second Vatican Council, how the seminaries closed down, one after another, since there were no vocations. We see how religious orders decline. We see how families split up. We see how lives are no longer lives of prayer and sacrifice, but lives of enjoying earthly things.

There is a book called Index of Leading Catholic Indicators [by Kenneth Jones]. It is written by a young American who gives statistics about the life of the Church, especially in the United States. In the last section, he speaks about the main religious orders, comparing the number of seminarians from 1965 to 2000. It's quite interesting to see. For example, in 1965, the Jesuits had 3,559 seminarians; in 2000, they had 389. That is a decline of 89%. The Franciscans in 1965 had 2,251 seminarians; in 2000, they had 60, a decline of 97%. The Christian Brothers in 1965 has 912 seminarians; in 2000, they had seven, a decline of 99%. The Benedictines had 1,541 seminarians in 1965; in 2000, they had 109, a decline of 93%. The Redemptorists declined 98%, the Dominicans 89% (343 to 38 from 1965 to 2000). The Maryknoll Missionary Society had 919 seminarians in 1965, which declined in 2000 to 15, a 98% decline. The La Salette Fathers had 552 seminarians in 1965; in 2000, they had one, a more than 99% decline.

These are dramatic declines. If things continue like this, the religious life in America and Europe will eventually disappear. But the religious life is essential for the Church, for her characteristic of sanctity, for certain works of charity, like hospitals, and for teaching in schools. All this will completely be finished. There will be no longer any Sisters to be nurses in Catholic hospitals, and so on.

You can see the work of destruction, the de-Christianization of society. This concerns the Church, and you see also this de-Christianization in the rite of Mass itself. The sacraments have been profoundly changed. In the life of families, you've seen Catholic schools close down. In society itself, the mass media, especially television, every day spread propaganda in favor of crime. They glorify crime, impurity, adultery, and modes of living which discredit the family. You see how this propaganda affects the youth and changes society by atonal music; perhaps especially the work of the Beatles, but all rock music, rap, etc.

Then you see today how computers, the Internet, and cell phones have an important impact on people, especially our youth. We are all in danger of losing our sense of reality. We live in an imaginary world, a world of illusions, a world of screens: televisions and computers. This is our world, no longer the real world which God has created. These things are very, very dangerous.

Moreover, you see how the anti-baby pill destroys morality in marriages. Divorce is more and more common. In the United States, about half of all marriages end in divorce. Abortion claims 50 million victims, innocent children, per year in the world.

Then there is the whole spirit of technology and natural sciences. Souls are no longer cultivated souls. They are no longer trained in the humanities, languages, literature, the arts, and music. They are no longer cultivated in geography. They are simply idiots of technology, that is to say, they are very poor souls, narrow-minded, mere technicians–no longer truly developed souls.

Then there are the pro-homosexual lobbies, establishing other ways of life outside the family and even against the family. Even today, these styles of life are recognized by whole countries, officially legalized in many European countries and to an extent even in America.

This all constitutes an entire work against the Church. The traditional Roman Church is like a stumbling block against this revolutionary spirit. It is like a bastion, so these people attack the Church openly.

Silent Apostasy

Pope John Paul II, in 2003, wrote an encyclical, a post-synodal writing, Ecclesia in Europa, "The Church in Europe." There was a synod held about the Church in Europe, the bishops discussed these matters in Rome, considering the good points but acknowledging the terrible weaknesses. Afterwards, the Pope summarized these exchanges of the bishops' opinions, writing the following, which is quite interesting:

The age we are living in, with its own particular challenges, can seem to be a time of bewilderment. Many men and women seem disoriented, uncertain, without hope, and not a few Christians share these feelings....Among the aspects of this situation, so many of which were frequently mentioned during the Synod, I would like to mention in a particular way the loss of Europe's Christian memory and heritage, accompanied by a kind of practical agnosticism and religious indifference.

That is to say, people do not care about religion; they care about their daily lives, money, and pleasure–practical atheism.

[M]any Europeans give the impression of living without spiritual roots and somewhat like heirs who have squandered a patrimony entrusted to them by history. This loss of Christian memory is accompanied by a kind of fear of the future....Among the troubling indications of this are the inner emptiness that grips many people and the loss of meaning in life.

If you ask young Europeans what the meaning of life is, they will answer "I don't know and I'm not interested to know it."

The signs and fruits of this existential anguish include, in particular, the diminishing number of births, the decline in the number of vocations to the priesthood and religious life, and the difficulty, if not the outright refusal, to make lifelong commitments, including marriage.

That is to say, people do not want to marry any longer; they merely want to live together.

At the root of this loss of hope is an attempt to promote a vision of man apart from God and apart from Christ. This sort of thinking has led to man being considered as the absolute centre of reality, a view which makes him occupy–falsely–the place of God and which forgets that it is not man who creates God, but rather God who creates man. Forgetfulness of God led to the abandonment of man. It is therefore no wonder that in this context a vast field has opened for the unrestrained development of nihilism [nothing, emptiness, no values] in philosophy, of relativism in values and morality, and of pragmatism–and even a cynical hedonism [hedonism is the orientation to just enjoy life and make lust the principle of your life]–in daily life. European culture gives the impression of silent apostasy on the part of people who have all that they need and who live as if God does not exist.

These are the facts and signs of de-Christianization.

Re-Christianization

What then are we doing, faced with the situation of a non-Christian world? Do we merely lament that things are very bad? Or do we need to do more? I think we need to do more. But what is our task? What is our mission?

My dear friends, we must re-Christianize the world. We have to try to transform this neo-pagan society into a Christian society again. This is a work that is more difficult than the first time. The citizens of today are not merely heathens; they are neo-heathens and neo-pagans; apostates. They have thrown away the Faith. They were unfaithful to the grace of God. It's much more difficult to convert them than it is to convert a pagan in the bush of Africa.

1) Absolutism

The first step is to oppose this spirit of subjectivism where everyone says things like that "It is my personal feeling that abortion is wrong, but my neighbor thinks it is fine, so it's O.K. for him." "Since I am a Catholic, I don't accept birth control, but my neighbor is a Protestant, so he can use it." "I am a Christian, but others are Hindus, Buddhists, Moslems or Jews; let them make their salvation in their religion; what matters is that they are good people." No! These are questions of the natural law! The natural law obliges everyone, Christian or non-Christian, Catholic or Protestant. Four and four make eight for everyone. Black or white, young or old, cultivated or not, yesterday or tomorrow, it is the same for everybody. It is an objective order. We must again establish ourselves in the objective order created by God and established by Our Lord in the supernatural order of Redemption.

This spirit of subjectivism and relativism is completely destroying the minds and spirits of people. Young Catholic men must keep in mind that the spirit of relativism and subjectivism should once and forever be banned from our souls. Two and two make four for everybody. It was like this a thousand years ago, and will be so a thousand years from now. Truth is eternal.

2) Detachment

The second point is to fight against the spirit of the world. Our surroundings, society today, is materialistic and is concerned only with comfort, luxury, pleasure, fun, and holidays. It is a world full of pride, a world which goes farther from God every day. If we really want to re-Christianize, we must begin with ourselves and put away the spirit of the world. Lead a Catholic life, not just by going to Mass and serving, but every minute in every area of your live, whether in sports, recreation, at home, with the family, at work, on holiday, in politics–we must everywhere maintain a Christian attitude. This is taught to us especially by the Social Teachings of the Church.

We must avoid the enormous dangers of the modern world with its technology, which has an enormous attraction and seduction for us. Be aware of the dangers of the computers, computer games, cell phones, the Internet, television, and so on. They are bad. They are truly bad. They do much more evil to your soul than you think. Of course, you need a computer for certain professions, but do not use it more than it is needed.

3) Generosity

The third step is to be proud of your Catholic Faith and to be proud of your Catholic schools, which provide an integral Catholic education and formation. "Yes, I am a Catholic and I am very proud of it." We must have the idea of constructing, and not that of consuming. We must give, we must do something; not merely receive. Television makes one passive; you simply receive. But you, as young Catholic men, must give. Do not just look for governing and exercising power; look to serve. Serve God and serve your neighbor. Do not forget that the work of re-Christianization begins with yourself, in your own heart, soul, and life. The world will not get better without your contribution and this must begin with yourself. Otherwise, everything is lost.

4) Catholic Action

Then you must work for the re-establishing of Christian institutions, such as the family, where the spirit of Our Lord reigns, where He is enthroned and where the television is banished. We must restore Catholic schools, and I congratulate you for this school in St. Marys. You ought to be very happy and very satisfied to be in such a school. You must love your school. It is an enormous grace; so few Catholics in the world have the chance that you have! Moreover, we must restore parishes, seminaries, houses of religious life, everything in Christ, per Mariam, through the Blessed Virgin Mary.

5) Catholic Convictions

Please lead a prayer life. Souls need a prayer life. But this is not sufficient. It is necessary to have a sacramental life, to go to Confession and to receive Holy Communion; but it is not sufficient. You must also have a "Catholic head." You must have Catholic ideas, principles, and convictions that cover all of life. Every aspect of daily life, not merely Sundays. We do not want just a religion which affects Sunday; our religion should affect every day. Our religion should not just affect our private lives; it must affect public life: life in the family, life in the office, life in the workshop, in politics, in the arts, etc.

Only in such a way is it possible to re-Christianize society, to make America a true Catholic country. This is our most profound desire. St. Mary's is geographically the center of the United States; from this point, there should be a radiation of re-Christianization. This school is one element of re-Christianization among many elements in other countries, from priories, retreat houses, families, and schools.

Young men, you are tomorrow's workers for the re-Christianization of the world! It would be a great shame and a terrible betrayal if you do not want to work in such a way for the honor of Our Lord, to bring Him back to society as the King of all things. He really has, in everything, the first place and the last word. You must not renounce the idea that the world should become a Catholic one, and that we are the ones working for this most noble idea. I invite you to keep as your principle Instaurare omnia in Christo–to restore all things in Christ. Keep it in mind, and always live and work according to this principle.


This conference was given by Fr. Franz Schmidberger, First Assistant to the Superior General, to the boys of Notre Dame de La Salette Boys' Academy, Olivet, Illinois (January 19, 2006). Angelus Press thanks Fr. Schmidberger for his assistance in editing this written version of his speech.