Louis Veuillot: The Liberal Illusion [1866]

[Stone]

The Liberal Illusion

Chapter XXVIII

It would be no use to go on with these remarks, unless we paused to consider that vague monster which people call “modern society,” to inquire whether it really demands all it is said to demand, and whether its material force, quite a different thing from its intellectual force, is so considerable and preponderant as it is made out to be. Good grounds, grounds of fact are not wanting on which to contest the depth of this torrent, for all its noise and violence. We know quite well, we fully understand that it threatens to sweep away the Church and all who dare to defend her integrity.

For my part, however, I am inclined to believe that modern society, both in France and in other countries, still contains a sound core of Catholicity, perfect and pure, and that Europe, underneath a layer that has perhaps more of froth to it than solidity, is by no means disposed to abandon Christianity. To me it is incredible that the political, literary, and artistic groups, by whom dethronement of Christ and His law has been decreed, are more deeply rooted in the soil of France and more representative of the national genius than our numerous and glorious clergy, those countless enterprises of charity, that generous and inexhaustible zeal which covers the land with its benefits and memorials. To offset this the scandalous success of a book or of an anti-Christian journal may be urged by way of objection: this success is without doubt deplorable; yet it falls short of being an unanswerable argument. In the years 1864 and 1865, more churches were built in France than there were editions published of the blasphemous books of M. Renans36 the churches still send up their spires crowned by the cross; the work of the blasphemer has fallen down for good, trampled in the dust under the heedless feet of the faithful. And who in the world has any doubt as to which would cause the greater commotion, the suppression, for instance, of the Siecle, or the imprisonment for a religious act of the bishop in whose diocese the Siecle has the largest number of readers!

At the beginning of the present century, Joseph de Maistre wrote: “There is in the natural government and in the national ideas of the French people I know not what theocratic and religious element that is forever cropping up.”

But I do not care to insist on this point, which is of no consequence so far as the duty of Catholics is concerned. Let us assume that things have come to the worst; let us credit the irreligious torrent with all the power it boasts of having, and grant that its might is capable of sweeping us away: All right, the torrent will sweep us away! That is a small matter, so long as it does not sweep away the truth. We shall be swept away and we shall leave the truth behind, just as those have done who were swept away before us. Despite the torrent, we will hold fast to the truth; come what may, we will cling to this truth which is always new.

We came to this land that is called arid. We have known its youth and its fertility. If only our works avail to disseminate the fructifying salt and to augment that grain of sand which sets a limit to the sea; as our fathers preserved this refuge, we, too, will preserve it for generations yet unborn. The world either has a future or it has none. If the end of time is close at hand, then there is nothing left for us but to build for eternity; if long centuries lie ahead, then, in building for eternity, we shall also be building for the time. In the face of fire and sword, in the face of contempt and humiliation, let us be brave witnesses of God’s own truth, and our testimony will stand. There is a vegetation that sprouts up unconquerably under the hand of the Heavenly Father. Wherever the seed is planted, a tree strikes root; wherever the martyr has left a bone of his body, there a church springs up. Thus are formed the obstacles that divide and dam up torrents. In these days of sterility, at a distance of fifteen centuries, we still live on the store of grain accumulated in the catacombs.


36. Renan’s La Vie de Jesus (“The Life of Jesus”) which appeared in 1863.