Occasionally, but without sufficient insistence, attention has been drawn to the danger of the present wave of enthusiasm for action among Catholic layfolk. It easily loses its efficacy in a hectic type of activism typical of this century. If we are to direct this precious seed within the boundaries of the good soil and to prevent its falling on the rock where its first vigorous shoot comes to a premature and fruitless end, we must keep constantly before our eyes the ultimate purpose of it all. We must purify our intention and seek first the contemplation of God. Consequently we should look for a type of action, within the reach of every member of the Church, which will tend constantly and directly Godwards, an action unperturbed by the turmoil of all the pressing modern human problems. In this way the urge to do something can be given a twist towards God and contemplation, so that all the other forms of activity may spring from a single and solid base, like the varied but permanent vitality of a Gothic cathedral on its foundation of rock. Such a type of action is to be found, of course, in the active share in the liturgy and particularly in the Mass. In the liturgy all action is intended to lead directly to the worship of God. as contrasted with social action which deals directly with charity and justice towards our neighbour.

May I confess at the beginning of my paper that I have no particular qualification for speaking about the social problem; but for a long time I have been interested in the problem of how Christendom can be reunited again, how all the separated religious bodies or organisations can be brought to a realization of the truth that the unity and authority of the Catholic Church were appointed by Our Lord, and that all Christians must some day return to them. I believe that the two problems are very closely connected, and that the ultimate solution of the social problem depends upon the extent to which a solution is found for the problem of the Reunion of Christendom.

I suppose we should all agree that the social problem is primarily an economic one. The modern industrial system has brought an enormous increase in production, but it has also brought about a dislocation between production and distribution. The primary economic problem is how to get rid of this paralyzing dislocation. But this primary economic problem brings in its train a whole host of moral problems, because many of the attempts to solve the economic problem involve actions and policies which in one way or another come into contact with the moral law. Thus we get the tremendous problem of the gradual dehumanization of human beings by the conditions of life and work which seem inseparable from much of our industrial civilization, and with it the attendant problems of birth-control, sterilization, euthanasia, and so on.

The sin-stricken body weighs heavily on the soul which by nature yearns to behold its Maker. Perhaps it is the consciousness of this clinging burden which causes a man to regard himself as another in endeavouring to express his own personality. Yet the divine figure of the Word Incarnate gives assurance that self-realization may be only reached by the self-abasement of all that is human in the presence of the Divine. At this point are placed in close opposition self-idolatory and the God-centred attitude towards life which is the main-spring of life’s worship. But who will deliver us from the body of this death?

Divine revelation informs the erring mind that the culminating point in the Christian life is to be found in nothing less than eternal happiness which St. Thomas describes in no uncertain terms. But the life of grace, “semen gloriae,” is an eternal life since it holds within it the very roots of glory. It differs not in kind from that life at its apex where God is seen and all things in God, yet a ceaseless effort after spiritual liberty is demanded by a closer union with God in Christ.

The object of Catholic Action is to establish the Kingdom of God on earth. It is identified with the mission of the Church to teach all nations “to observe whatsoever I have commanded you.” The Bishops, by their strict apostolic succession, acquire the right and the duty to lead in the Church’s mission. With themselves they associate priests, who are ordained for specially sacred functions in the Church, and lay apostles who, by Catholic Action, share in the Divine Mission. The methods adopted by Bishops and priests in pursuance of this mission—prayer, exhortation and the Sacraments—are universal in their application and effective under all conditions. The methods of the lay apostle must depend largely on conditions of time and place, on the atmosphere in which he works, on the temperament of those with whom he comes into contact and even on his own human qualities. In a word, the method of Catholic Action depends on the milieu. It may therefore be of value to the apostles of Catholic Action in this country to attempt an analysis of the milieu in which we find ourselves and which we seek to supernaturalize.

Hilaire Belloc defined the attitude of the Catholic apologete to his sources, when he wrote: “I say the Catholic ‘conscience’ of history—I say ‘conscience’—that is, an intimate knowledge through identity: the intuition of a thing which is one with the knower—I do not say ‘the Catholic Aspect of History.’ This talk of ‘aspects’ is modem and therefore part of a decline: it is false, and therefore ephemeral: I will not stoop to it.”

Tertullian, too, was a Catholic apologete in act, when he wrote, of the Church in the third century: ‘‘Is it likely that so many churches, and they so great, should have gone astray into one and the same faith? No casualty distributed among many men issues in one and the same result. Error of doctrine in the churches must necessarily have produced various issues. When, however, that which is deposited among many is found to be one and the same it is not the result of error, but of tradition.” As Thomists would express it, more exactly: for this agreement no cause is given except it be one alone, namely the identity of the primitive dogmatic and hierarchic seed set in the world by Christ. This is certain.

After a preliminary period of confusion, it is now possible to gain a clearer view of the political scene in Spain. Two facts emerge: that the Catholic question was not the dominant issue and that it did not decisively swing votes either the one way or the other; that the Catholic deputies who lost their seats (Traditionalists, Alfonsists and others) did so not as a consequence of their Catholicism but because of specific political issues. Acción Popular, which we may legitimately describe as the Catholic party in Spain, actually increased its representation and is easily the largest party in the new Cortes. The Left gains have been made principally at the expense of the Centre Radicals, who staged a spectacular collapse, despite the promotion of a Centre ‘ ‘hold-the-ring’ ‘ party by President Alcalá Zamora and Premier Portela. Centre deputies who lost their seats paid the penalty of “betraying the Republic.” Don Alejandro Lerroux, one of the oldest Republican leaders, failed in two constituencies, and but a bare dozen of his followers have been returned. Señor Cambó, leader of the Catalan Lliga (Right) for many years, was also defeated.

One of the greatest difficulties of cinema as an art is that many of its effects can be obtained in two ways—legitimately by the proper use of the medium, and illegitimately by borrowing from the other arts and principally the theatre. The majority of commercial films fall into the second category. From time to time, however, comes a film which stands out from the general run by virtue of its essentially filmic qualities. We experience the peculiar pleasure that is derived from seeing the resources of an artistic medium used as they should be—to produce effects that no other art can produce so well. The Virtuous Isidore and Remous were both films of this kind. And now America has provided an example which is far richer and subtler than either—Chaplin’s Modern Times.