The need of the present hour is to form men of character who will be the real spiritual leaders of their families. Unfortunately liberalism has infected our minds to such a degree that even among traditional Catholics true men have become rare. It will be our purpose in this article to give you some helpful advice on one of the most serious problems of our modem world. We will take as our guide St. Thomas Aquinas who will as usual shed a flood of light on this important subject. In our times of intellectual confusion, it is a necessity to have recourse to the robust doctrine of the Summa Theologica. We perfectly understand that very few laymen have the time to read St. Thomas himself. This is why we would like to express the substance of the luminous principles of the Angelic Doctor in simple language so that you can all profit from his wisdom.

We will find most of the elements we need in St. Thomas' study of the virtue of fortitude, which is often called courage in modern English. One possible Latin word for fortitude is “virtus” (which also means “virtue”). We find the root “vir”, which means “man”. So you see that manhood is linked with courage. In order to have true fathers, we need to have true men. And true men are strong men. But what exactly is strength?

St. Thomas explains that fortitude is a moral virtue concerned with dangers. Man comes across many threatening evils during his existence, and he must face them in a reasonable manner, i.e. controlling his fear. Courage enables man to handle difficulties and obstacles. There will be two acts flowing from this virtue: one will be the attack and the other the defence. Fortitude will therefore be divided into magnanimity, which could be rendered into modern English by the words “greatness of soul” ( m a g n a a n i m a ) a n d perseverance. Magnanimity enables us to enlarge our heart and undertake a great work with confidence. Perseverance allows us to stand firm and endure evil for a long time, resisting the temptation to give up. The problem is that original sin has badly damaged our human nature. This was by what are commonly called the “wounds”. That means a certain loss of our former inclination to good. One of these wounds has introduced a disorder in our virtue of fortitude: this is the wound of weakness (vulnus infirmitatis). Since Adam's fall, courage is not easy. We tend to fall into sins opposed to fortitude. Their study will be very useful and help us to understand the modern crisis.

Let us start with pusillanimity. As indicated by its etymology (pusilla anima) the word means pettiness of soul. This unfortunate disposition leads us to under-estimate our own power and consequently to be paralysed. You can see why it is opposed to the virtue of m a g n a n i m i t y . T h e pusillanimous man can be compared to the servant of the gospel story who buried his lord's talent in the ground through fear of his master's harshness. Instead of arming his mind with hope of overcoming obstacles, he shrank from his duty which was to make the talent bear fruit. He was afraid and lacked courage. He had the necessary gifts to achieve his task, but through faint-heartedness he did not have the courage to act. He thought the job was too big for him.

The great Dominican Fr Clerissac said that one of the traits of the liberal mind was that “it did not have enough confidence in the truth”. If we want to be more precise in our analysis, we could say that modern man thinks that the truth is only for the realm of theory, but that in practice it is not applicable. Cardinal Billot pointed out well that since we are dealing with moral truths, i.e. principles which by their very nature are also norms for action, it is absurd to restrict them to abstract speculation and never to apply them in concrete life. What would you think of an engineer who refused to apply the principles of his science to the projects entrusted to him? But it is one of the aspects of the modern disease we are studying: the refusal to believe in the practical efficacy of our Catholic principles. We believe in them but we act contrary to them. This divorce between doctrine and life is, alas, very common today.

Let us take an example. A father has a teenage son who listens to rock music. He knows that it is not good for his child. He has read Mgr. Williamson's study of the harmful effects of rock and roll. His conscience tells him that he has the duty to watch over his son's entertainment and remove from it what is not pleasing to God. And yet this father is afraid to put his principles into practice. This is typical of pusillanimity, or faint-heartedness. Instead of being confident in the strength of his convictions and therefore making the courageous decision to act upon them, however unpleasant the results may be, this man finds himself paralysed by fear. So he will end up excusing his cowardice by saying that it is just not possible today to control rebellious teenagers, that even if he were to take away his rock cds, his son would buy other ones etc... In short, he will pretend that the Catholic ideal cannot be lived. He will keep on believing that rock music is evil but he will not behave as if this truth had any value. He will tolerate his son's rock music, which allows him to avoid a confrontation. He can thus remain his son's friend and watch his tv with (false) peace of mind.

If his conscience disturbs him, maybe he will have a talk with his teenage son. But because of the liberalism which is weakening him, he will compromise. His concern will be to determine the measure of restrictions that his boy can put up with and then he, the father, will adapt himself to that. So he will be satisfied because he will have got his son to agree not to listen to one particular rock band which has Satanic “backward messages.” But he will allow him freedom to listen to all the other rock bands. A stronger father would have prayed to God for courage and then would have worked hard to guide his son away from rock music and into good music. He would have had confidence in the power of truth and in the strength of his own authority. We know it is not easy. But life is a battle and we cannot run away from its difficulties.

Authority is one of the notions most attacked by modem liberalism. Liberalism comes from the Latin word liber (free). It consists in a false notion of liberty which excludes authority. Fatherhood is linked with Authority. Pius XII says, “In your home each of you is the head, with all the duties and responsibilities which this entails. Do not therefore be doubtful or hesitant in the exercise of that authority. Do not shrink from those duties nor flee from those responsibilities.” St. Thomas insists very much on the hierarchy present in God's creation. There is order everywhere, among angels, men, animals, plants and minerals. In the family, the father has a God-given authority which he cannot abdicate without introducing disorder in his home. The virtue of Fortitude gives him the necessary strength for fulfilling this mission of education. Magnanimity gives him the confidence he needs to have in his own authority. Of course he will have temptations of cowardice. The vulnus infirmitatis is still there and the old and liberal man pushes him to avoid conflict with his children. But the true man will be faithful to his convictions. He will not keep the truth for himself under the pretext of getting along with others. He will have the courage to enlighten the souls of his fellowmen with it.

So let us summarise this first aspect of the modern disease which destroys true manhood: the absence of character due to lack of strong convictions. Of course, the concrete order of things can never have the perfection of the abstract ideal. But it is our duty to strive to put theory into practice, in short, to live the truth regardless of the consequences. Compare this with the ideal of manhood proposed in the Middle Ages as we can see in the chanson de geste. The knight, Roland, has Catholic principles, puts them into practice. No ecumenism! “He spurs on his horse and rides on to strike the pagan who has insulted Charlemagne. He breaks his shield and tears his hauberk open. With a free blow of his lance, he flings him dead from his horse. He shouts, 'Strike, Franks, we are right, but these wretches are wrong'.” Roland has no doubts about the combat of the Christian Crusaders against the infidels. He is a man of character. He is not infected by liberalism as we unfortunately are in our modem age. Notice that the mediaeval mind was too robust to be a victim of this scourge. It is only after the Reformation and the other revolutions which weakened Christendom that it became possible for liberalism to poison us. In the Middle Ages there was no divorce between truth and life. Men believed in Catholicism and behaved according to it. Sentimentalism was virtually unknown in the days of the Summa and the Cathedrals. Rousseau had not come yet with his sickening doctrine of the primacy of feeling over intellect.

But we are getting off our main subject, which is to study the damage done to manhood by original sin and actual sin so that we can help fathers to rediscover the meaning of their vocation. St. Thomas, after studying pusillanimity, the vice opposed to magnanimity, has a very interesting article on the vice opposed to perseverance. If you remember what we have said above, perseverance was the virtue enabling us to endure evil for a long time. It is pre-eminently the virtue of the besieged, since it requires heroic courage to fight through to the end, even when there seems to be no hope of victory. And this is what we need today because of the onslaught of evil around us. But as our faculty for attack has been weakened through Adam's fall, so has our faculty for defence. As St. Thomas says, when man has to endure a prolonged evil, he is deprived of his comfort for a long time and so the temptation comes to give way. This is why the vice opposed to perseverance has received the name of softness (mollities) since a thing is said to be soft if it readily yields to the touch. The Angelic doctor remarks that women, because of the frailty of their temperament, are prone to this defect. Men who lack perseverance in battle will therefore be called effeminate or emasculated because they lack the courage which should be found in true men.

This attempt at reconciliation with our enemy in order to put an end to an endless struggle is at the heart of the “liberal Catholic” mentality. One of the thinkers who pointed out that this compromise is nothing but an illusion was Louis Veuillot. After the false values of the French Revolution of 1789 had gained ground th during the first half of the 19 century, some well-meaning Catholics sought to reconcile the Church with the modem world. They pretended that it was impossible to be continually fighting against the ideas of the age, to row against the current without ceasing, and to prolong a conflict which appeared without issue. But who cannot see that it is an illusion to want to reconcile what is irreconcilable, namely Our Lord Jesus Christ and Satan? St. Thomas explains well that the struggle between the two “cities” is a necessary law of history. Christ is the head of the Mystical Body, the Catholic Church. The devil is the head of all the men who are “seeking aversion from God, which has the nature of an end, inasmuch as it is sought for under the appearance of liberty.” Here we are. It is the Non serviam (I will not serve) of the Revolution. So, Louis Veuillot refuted the liberal Catholics in showing them that they were sacrificing truth in order to work out a comfortable compromise with the modern world, shaped by the Revolution. In short he thought they were too soft on the Revolution. The battle had been going on for so long that the temptation to give in was overwhelming. But what we need is to pray for manly courage instead of yielding to the enemy!

To come back to the Catholic home, we easily see that the modern father is often lacking in the heroic courage needed to sustain the long siege by the enemies of the family. His children are subject to all kinds of evil influences and become more and more difficult to discipline. The modern world is spending billions of dollars in advertising for the purpose of making his children greedy, lustful and proud. The disproportion between the forces is tremendous: on the one hand, Satan and his powerful cohorts eagerly desiring our eternal damnation and having at their disposal gigantic resources; on the other hand, a poor Catholic man, wounded and weak. How is he to avoid becoming discouraged? By bearing in mind that we not alone in this fight! Jesus is there, our victorious king who tells us, “Have confidence, I have conquered the world.” But you can see that the father who lacks fortitude will be ready to work out a compromise because he is simply tired of the struggle which has gone on for so long. If we take again the example of rock music, he will say, “After all, rock music is not that bad. We must not exaggerate. Maybe I was a little too extreme a few years ago. All my efforts have borne no fruit. So I might as well resign myself that rock and roll is here to stay. From now on, I will just keep quiet and allow my son to listen to whatever music he wants.” When one has fought for so long, what a shame to give up simply Page 14 Nova May 2006 because one is tired of the battle!

We now have to point out a last characteristic of the liberal mentality and this is self-deception. The liberal-minded man after having surrendered will justify himself and pretend that the illusory peace he has purchased through his compromising is wonderful. He will convince himself that his new situation is better than when he was in continual conflict. And the power of the human heart for self-deception is so amazing that he will end up sincerely believing that his cowardice is something reasonable and quite pleasing to God. Tolerance will appear to him an attractive virtue. This is why the great theologian Fr. Garrigou- Lagrange called liberalism the worst thing because it is the corruption of the best thing, namely charity for our neighbour. Tolerance of error and sin is a terrible weakness. And yet it is often presented as a Christian virtue. It is in fact a Christian heresy, a disgusting parody of true charity. To present the spineless pacifist spirit of the modern world as something worth striving for - what an imposture! Mediocrity, as Fr. Garrigou says, is 'an adroit mingling of the true and the false. It wishes to bring everything in harmony, with the result that everything will be confused. It begins by taking up its position in the centre, equally distant from good and the opposite evil. In order to obtain the favour of all, it declares itself the friend of everybody, poses modestly as the sage who can finally effect a reconciliation between the various aspects of truth and those of error. Is this not the god which the world needs, the god who will finally establish the reign of peace and tranquil order?”

Indulgence of sin, accommodating weakness, cohabitation with evil, all this is the death of the militant spirit which is of the essence of Catholicism. Perfect peace is only for Heaven. It is an illusion to seek it here below. Let us fight against sin. Of course we must love the sinner, but never sympathise with the evil in him. True charity is love for God and therefore has as its necessary corollary the detestation of what is opposed to Him. The lack of hatred for evil is definitely one of the features of the modern mentality. Because one does not want to be divisive, then one prefers to remain silent when faced with error. Such should not be the attitude of true fathers if they want to be real spiritual leaders of their family. They must never forget that they have a God-given authority over their children. Invested with this authority, they represent God for their sons and daughters. What a tremendous responsibility!

We took as an example of weakness in a father his reluctance to object to the rock music which is slowly but surely destroying his son's soul. But we could have taken many other examples: the father who is afraid to tell his daughter that her clothes are immodest, or who allows his children to watch tv everyday, or who will offer presents to his son's girlfriend although he knows the couple is publicly living in sin... We implore you to exercise your authority. The family is collapsing because its head has lost the sense of its virile vocation. Remember what we said about courage: “virtus” comes from “vir.” Be firm. God gave you a participation in this Fatherhood, i.e. the mystery of the communication of life. But you do not only transmit the life of the body through generation but the life of the soul as well through education. Pope Pius XlI says, “Children are like reeds shaken by the wind. Who will strengthen these reeds? First of all, the authority which rules the family... Take care not to wait until your children are grown up before exercising your authority over them!”

To finish this article we would like to quote the beautiful poem of G. K. Chesterton, The Ballad of the White Horse. King Alfred has been fighting the Danes for a long time. Our Lady appears to him and he asks her if the war will at last come to an end. And our blessed Mother tells the brave king,

“I tell you naught for your comfort, yea, naught for your desire,
save that the sky grows darker yet and the sea rises higher.
Night shall be thrice night over you, and Heaven an iron cope.
Do you have joy without a cause, Yea, faith without a hope?”

Alfred did not lose courage.

“The King went gathering Christian men...
While a man remains, great war remains,
Now is a war of men.”

And Alfred finally won the victory thanks to the intercession of the mother
of God. We need true fathers. The devil is very powerful and the evil around us is
overwhelming. But Our Lady will make true men out of you and thanks to her, you
will win the final battle for your souls and the souls of your children.

“And when the last arrow Was fitted and was flown,
When the broken shield hung on the breast,
And the hopeless lance was laid in rest,
And the hopeless horn blown,
The King looked up and what he saw
Was a great light like death,
For our Lady stood on the standards rent,
As lonely and as innocent
As when between white walls she went
And the lilies of Nazareth.
One instant in a still light
He saw Our Lady then,
Her dress was soft as western sky,
And she was a queen most womanly -
But she was a queen of men.”

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