The title on this post is taken from the subtitle of the new book – yes, it’s 10:30 on Friday, so there’s probably a new book – from Peter Kwasniewski. And since we are in the wake of the traditional celebration of Christ the King…
His Reign Shall Have No End: Catholic Social Teaching for the Lionhearted
Peter A. Kwasniewski
What’s going on with that subtitle?
If you guessed it has something to do with Pope Leo XIII you would be right. As we find in the Preface:
He himself had the heart of a lion, and those who would follow him today must be no different, as they will find themselves resisting not only the unbelieving world but also the misbelieving and misbehaving world within the Church.
One need only think of the way that the Collect for the Feast of Christ the King was altered in the “reform” after Vatican II. No longer does the Collect stress the present, social Kingship of Christ, here and now, but rather the future, eschatological Kingship after Christ takes all things to Himself. That’s not a wrong thing to stress. It is a different thing. Hence, what we lose in the change to the Collect is a powerful reminder of Christ’s Kingship over all there is in this world here and now.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of Pius XI’s social encyclical Quas primas. As the book blurb says, Quas primas is
“the master key to Catholic Social Teaching’s coherence and, more importantly, to the flourishing of nations no less than the beatitude of individuals. Wherever this kingship is ignored or denied, individuals, families, whole societies decompose like a body deprived of a soul; wherever it is welcomed in faith, Christian life revives and Christendom stirs from slumber. Divine Providence raised up Pope Leo XIII to guide the reconquest; his teaching is taken here as the unsurpassed guide to the thorniest political and economic questions that confront the human race at a time of tremendous upheaval.”
With a starting point in the Incarnation – where else? – this book serves an introduction – or a re-introduction – to traditional Catholic Social Teaching. These days Catholic Social Teaching is reduced to cliches about immigration and “the poor” and climate change. It will come as a shock to some that perhaps Catholic Social Teaching is deeper than they think and, in the case of some, deeper than they want it to be. For example, it is fundamental for marriage and the family.
It may be that when you see that tag “Catholic Social Teaching” your eyes roll up in your head and you either doze off or you swiftly change the channel. There is no doubt a lot of Social Justice fatigue out there because of the incessant left-leaning drumbeat about social issues. You might be tired of a certain sector of the Church ramming a particular twist down your throat, usually in concert with diminishing the right of people even to be born in favor of all manner of admittedly important, even urgent, but logically secondary issues.
What is needed is a recovery of a deeper view of Catholic Social Teaching. That’s what this book sets out to provide.
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The youcat series’ book on social teaching has some weak points.
I can’t take anything Dr. K says about social teaching seriously since I read those lifesite articles that give his sophomoric understanding of economic theory.
In regards to your aside about the “right to be born,” perhaps we would benefit from a change of terminology.
What if someone being raked over the coals of the seamless garment argument “inadvertently” said deportation instead of abortion?
After all, the child is being forcibly removed from a place where he or she has come to dwell contrary to his or her interests and will.
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