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| Leo XIII Spesse Volte IntraText CT - Text |
5. We have never failed to deplore these grave and reiterated outrages. We deplored them on account of the danger to which they exposed our holy religion, and we deplored them too, and we say this from Our heart, on behalf of our country, for religion is a source of a nation's prosperity and greatness and the principal foundation of all well ordered society. Religious feelings raise and ennoble the soul and instil into it notions of justice and honesty, and when they are weakened men fall away and abandon themselves to their savage instincts and to the pursuit of material interests. The logical outcome of this is bitterness, dissension, depravity, strife and the disturbance of the public peace-evils which will find no certain or effective remedy in the severity of the law, the rigours of the courts, or the employment of armed force.