Two ecclesiastics – two worlds
Above, Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val, Secretary of State to Saint Pius X.
Below, Mgr Jacques Gaillot, titular bishop of Parthemia, bishop removed from Evreux
The Brazilian thinker distinguishes three depths in the Revolution. These, chronologically, overlap to a certain extent.
The deepest level is that of the tendencies. When the disorderly tendencies of man refuse to conform to an order of things that should guide them and correct them, they begin by modifying mentalities, ways of being, customs and artistic expressions.
From these deep strata, the crisis passes into the ideological terrain. It is the revolution in the ideas. Dr Plinio recalls the phrase used by Paul Bourget in his famous work Le démon du Midi: “One must live as one thinks, under pain of sooner or later ending up thinking as one has lived”.52 Inspired by the intemperance of the rebel tendencies, new doctrines appear. In the beginning, they at times seek a modus vivendi with the old ones, expressing themselves in such a way as to maintain a semblance of harmony with them. Generally, however, this does not take long to break out into a declared struggle.
The revolution in the facts follows the revolution in the ideas when it begins to transform, by bloody or unbloody means, the institutions, laws and customs in the religious realm as well as in temporal society.53
Notes:
52. Paul Bourget, Le démon de midi, Paris, Librairie Plon, 1914, vol. II, p. 375.
53. P. P. Corrêa de Oliveira, Revolution and Counter-Revolution, p. 27.