by Fr. Franz Schmidberger, SSPX

What might a Christian Social Order look like in our own day and age?

The Christian Social Order rests upon the natural law implanted in every man and expressed objectively in God’s Ten Commandments. In addition, it recognizes the obligation to the one and only religion, instituted by God, the Catholic Church with its Deposit of Faith and its treasure of grace. Power in the state and in society has for its origin not the people, but God. (Rom. 13:1).

Christian Social Order, of course, grants civil recognition to marriages celebrated in church, whereas it gives no recognition to civil divorce. The indissolubility of marriage is even one of its basic pillars. Thus it condemns unmarried couples living together with relations prior to or outside of marriage. It forbids the sale of contraceptives. Likewise it bans blasphemy, homosexuality, and pornography from public life; it punishes abortion; and proscribes both euthanasia and drugs.

In what does society’s welfare or common good consist?

The welfare of society does not consist in material well-being alone, but primarily in the virtuous life of the citizens and in the tranquility which is the essence of peace, whether inward or outward.

What can Christianity offer to what has been called the social question, that is, to bridge the gap between various classes of society?

To overcome trade unions and strikes polarizing employers and employees, it would be wise to form guilds, that is to say, groups bringing together employers and employees within the same trade to safeguard their common interests. Employers are always fathers of their workmen. They must not only pay them a just wage but also take moral and even spiritual responsibility for them. So they must care for their workmen’s families, and give them a good example of attending Mass and receiving the Sacraments.

How does the Christian Order judge the massive move towards large cities?

To a Christian Social Order belong, in particular, the love of the land, love of nature, love of one’s people, love of work, and love of one’s homeland with its customs and traditions. The uprooting of men and their flight from the land and into the big cities, with their high-rise apartments where the children have no room to play and no contact with God’s creation, are not a blessing but a curse.

What are we to think of war today?

A people who have no will to defend their country or its inhabitants, their frontiers or culture, or, especially, to defend their faith or the Kingdom of God, is in the process of dissolution. Between the missionary and the soldier there is a close connection: the first proclaims the Faith and builds up God’s Kingdom, the second defends both against enemies at home and abroad.