|
THE CENTRAL QUESTION POSED
BY THIS ESSAY
As is well known, it is possible to have a Communist
regime in which the Church is allowed to continue functioning, but with only a
minimum amount of freedom. An example
of such a situation is provided by Poland.
This raises a question. Is it legitimate for a Catholic in the West to view as a morally
acceptable possibility the imposition of such a Communist regime in his own nation?
There is no way of avoiding this question. It is, on
the one hand, certainly possible that for political reasons a Communist regime
may grant this marginal freedom to the Church for a considerable period of time
as in the case of Poland. It is also possible, on the other hand, that the
nations of the West may be forced to choose in the not‑too‑distant
future between the lesser of two evils: nuclear warfare and Communist
domination.
If it is licit for the Church to accept a partial
liberty under Communist domination, perhaps the lesser of the two evils may be
to permit the victory of Marxism to avoid the hecatomb of atomic war. But if
this coexistence represents a grave risk of complete or almost complete
extirpation of the faith, the case is different. Then, to accept the struggle
against Marxism would be the lesser evil, for the loss of the faith is a
greater evil than the destruction of everything that an atomic war could touch.
How imminent, how palpable this question is! Consider the
photograph on the front cover of this magazine. It shows a Communist demonstration in front of the
Cathedral in Milan which occurred during the recent Italian elections.
This scene, situated in the nation which is the very
seat of the Church, brings the Church and Communism into a tragic proximity.
Who can fail to grasp the direction and import of such a scene?
Yet there is only one solution to the central question
we have raised, and it is argued convincingly by Plinio Correa de Oliveira in
his essay, "The Church and the Communist State, the Impossible
Coexistence."
|