The Economics of Sanctity

Extract

In our present state of spiritual emergency must some form of economic reconstruction precede spiritual revival? This issue is dividing Catholic opinion. On the one hand Mr. Eric Gill writes: ‘Instead of doing anything about economics the moralists fulminate against the unborn child .... As someone said: “The drains are smelling—let's have a day of intercession!”’ And again: ‘The clergy are barking up the wrong tree when from the altar steps they talk about sin to people who have been deprived of the possibility of living according to common natural morals.’ Then Father Drinkwater: ‘The economic problem fills the whole sky, nothing, nothing, nothing, can be done until that problem has been dealt with.’

On the other hand, M. Maritain supports Péguy, and holds that if the social revolution is to come at all it must also be moral. He would go even further: ‘One is condemned to a work primarily destructive, if one wished to change the face of the earth without first changing one’s own heart, and this no man can do by himself. It may well be that if an almighty love really changed our hearts, the external task would already be half accomplished.’

In supporting the latter opinion, I submit, therefore, that it is just as bad an error to over-emphasize the importance of economics as to under-rate it. Prevailing conditions of life can help or hinder, as both the moralist and psychiatrist never tire of reminding us—but how far?