“The Russian Priest”: On our relationship to the state
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“Modern civilization was produced by a creative effort of humanity, not only independent of, but often contrary to, the law of God. It acquired solid, robust, anti-religious forms, invested with an alien spirit which is hostile to us.
“How shall we solve this problem, we who want to live in accordance with God’s law, yet do not wish to leave the world? It is easier to make a decision as an individual — to go into the world without losing ourselves, keeping our heart dedicated to Christ, to live to the full the life of the Church, without being over-indulgent towards ourselves.
“For society this solution is much more difficult.
“Catholicism provides us with an example of an energetic ‘muzzling’ of the world: the world is forced to live in accordance with the Church, to be the Church’s servant.
“But I do not think that this problem can be solved by individual forces, not even by those of the Church. We cannot pass through the world unarmed; this would only be false pride. We must use the external methods of exercising influence upon the world. The fact that we have lost Russia is not only a political mistake, but a sin against the Church.”
– Fr. Alexander Elchaninov, “The Diary of a Russian Priest”
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Oops, forgot to add something — his comments about Catholicism were written when he was living in Europe in the 20’s. I don’t know a lot about Catholicism, but I haven’t gotten the impression that the current American variety errs by “muzzling” the world. Maybe just the opposite — like the Protestant churches, they’ve been so accommodating sometimes that they allow the world to muzzle them!