10. Where the True Peril of a Hecatomb Is

As he comes to the end of the present study, many a reader will ask himself: How then can we avoid a nuclear hecatomb? It is very clear that if Catholics become firm about the principle of pri­vate property, the Communist powers, losing all hope of imposing their system on the world by peaceful means, will resort to war. In view of this, regardless of what might be said from a doctrinal angle, would it not be preferable to yield to them?

Oh, men of little faith! We would like to answer, why are you fearful. (cf. Matt. 8:26).

Wars have as their principal cause the sins of nations. For, as Saint Augustine says, the sins com­mitted by nations cannot be recompensed or casti­gated in the other life, and, therefore, receive in this world the reward for their good actions and the penalty for their crimes.

      Thus, to avoid wars and hecaturnbs, let us combat them in their causes: the corruption of ideas and morals, the official impiety of the laicist States, and the increasingly frequent opposition of the positive law to the Law of God. This, yes, is what exposes us to the wrath and chastisement of the Creator and which leads us more than anything else to war.

If, to avoid war, the Western nations committed a sin greater than the present ones by agreeing to live under the Communist yoke in conditions re­proved by Catholic morality, they would in this way defy God's wrath and call down upon themselves the effects of His anger.

And this holds all the more so, since concessions made today in reference to the abolition of private property would have to be repeated tomorrow in relation to the abolition of the family, and so on. For, in this way, international Communism, with inexorable intransigence, proceeds by the tactic of successive impositions, a tactic inherent to its spirit. By capitulating to this tactic, into what ignominy, into what abyss, into what apostasy would we not fall?

Human existence, without necessary institutions such as property and the family, is not worth living. Would not the sacrificing of the one or the other amount to losing, for the sake of life, the very rea­son for living? Why live in a world transformed into an immense population of slaves hurled into an animal promiscuity?

In face of the dramatic option of the present hour, which this article tries to make evident, let us not reason like atheists who ponder pros and cons as if God did not exist.

A supreme and heroic act of fidelity in this hour could cover a multitude of sins before God, inclining Him to turn away from us the cataclysm which approaches.

An act of heroic fidelity... an act of entire and heroic confidence in the Heart of Him who said: "Learn of Me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls." (Matt. 11:29).

Yes, let us trust in God. Let us trust in His Mercy, whose channel is the immaculate Heart of Mary.

What the Mother of Mercy said to the world in the Message of Fatima, is that wars are turned away by prayer, penance, and the amendment of our lives. And not by hasty, shortsighted, and fearful conces­sions. . .

In the face of the insidious suggestions of inter­national Communism, may Our Lady of Fatima ob­tain for all of us who have the duty to fight the courage to exclaim “non possumus.” (Acts 4:20)