Father Charles Coughlin

“The Need to Reclaim Catholic Social Teaching” by Doug McManaman was timely, scholarly and insightful.  McManaman warns, “The Marxist or semi-Marxist approach to social justice can be attractive and is even described by some as ‘liberating.’”  Indeed, the courageous Pius XI wrote, “Anyone who would save Christian civilization may not collaborate with Communism in any manner whatsoever because it is intrinsically evil.”

McManaman rightly observes, “The official teachers of the Church enjoy the benefit of the charism of office; and they have been careful not to endorse unregulated capitalism on the one hand, and even moderate socialism on the other, warning that the latter is simply irreconcilable with Christianity.”  Father Coughlin observed this in 1972, warning, “The contest in which Moscow and Washington are now engaged is a contest between two atheistic states, one admittedly so, and the other hypocritically so; one definitely opposed to God and religion, the other clumsily tolerating both God and the Church.”

Coughlin explained, “Marxism or Communism has grown and matured all the way from Arianism through the logical development of revolution – a growth encompassing sixteen centuries of conflict.  Communism is the logical development of the mistaken Christian policies and practices of the past.  It is a synthesis of all heresies; a compendium of all the false theories of sociology; a denial of all basic, natural and moral laws; an exaltation of Satanism.  Yet Communism’s rise to primacy (in a short span) has been too spectacular to be man-directed; while the decay of Christianity’s influence equally has been too tragic to be the results of mere human hatred or ingenuity.  Satan is unleashed!”

Coughlin observed, “Despite this evolutionary and revolutionary political phenomenon emerging in Europe and America there is still hope the fervor, faith and fearlessness of many bishops and Catholics will counterbalance the Satanists.”  While this hope remains strong today, Crisis Magazine of June 2007 nevertheless reported, “What would a post-Christian Europe replace Christianity with? To me, it seems clear: Europe would be a cultural battleground between a weak-kneed, postmodern faith of multiculturalism and socialism on one hand and a virile Islam on the other.”

In view of Islamic demographics and the unwitting acceptance of cultural Marxism’s “political correctness,” this analysis could be applied to the question, “What would a post-Christian Canada replace Christianity with?”

Born in Hamilton, Ontario, educated in St. Michael’s College in Toronto, Father Coughlin gives this dire warning: “Recognize that many of the philosophies and immoralities of the French and Russian revolutions have been firmly rooted in universities and seminaries; and generally accepted in part by a formidable segment of politicians.  I refer not only to their economic theories of Socialism already factualized in America and planned for all Europe but, more particularly, to their beliefs and attitudes toward authority.  In the case of Catholics this means eventually retaining or rejecting papal primacy and the entire concept of the supernatural life.”

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Doug McManaman, “The Need to Reclaim Catholic Social Teaching,” Catholic Insight Magazine, June 2007, p. 25.

Father Charles Coughlin, Twelve Timely Essays on Antichrist (Bloomfield Hills, Michigan: Charles E. Coughlin, 1972), p. 33.

McManaman, p. 25.

Coughlin, pp. 1-2.

Coughlin, p. 8.

Coughlin, p. 9.

Armstrong Williams, “Abandonment of Faith in Europe,” Crisis Magazine, June 2007, p. 34.

Coughlin, p. 9.