On the Duty of Resisting Error

[Stone]

Fighting the Revolution is a Religious Duty
by Mgr de Segur

There are three degrees in the Revolution:

1. The destruction of the Church , as authority and religious society, protector of other authorities and other societies; At this first stage, which concerns us directly, the Revolution is the negation of the Church, erected in principle and formulated in law; the separation of church and state for the purpose of discovering the state and depriving it of its fundamental support;

2. The destruction of thrones and legitimate political authority , an inevitable consequence of the destruction of Catholic authority. This destruction is the last word of the revolutionary principle of modern democracy and what is now called the sovereignty of the people;

3. The destruction of society , that is, of the organization it has received from God; in other words, the destruction of the rights of the family and property, in favor of an abstraction which the revolutionary doctors call the state. It is socialism , last word of the perfect revolution, last revolt, destruction of the last right. To this degree, the Revolution is, or rather would be, the total destruction of the divine order on earth, the perfect reign of Satan in the world.

Clearly formulated for the first time by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, then in 89 and in 93 by the French Revolution, the Revolution proved from the outset the bitter enemy of Christianity; she struck the Church with a fury reminiscent of the persecutions of paganism; she killed the Bishops, massacred the priests, the Catholics; it has closed or destroyed the churches, dispersed the religious orders, dragged in the mud the crosses and the relics of the saints; his rage has spread throughout Europe; she broke all the traditions, and for a moment she believed she destroyed Christianity, which she scornfully called an old and fanatical superstition.

On all these ruins, she inaugurated a new regime of atheistic laws, societies without religion, peoples and kings absolutely independent; for a century it has been growing and spreading throughout the world, destroying everywhere the social influence of the Church, perverting intelligences, slandering the clergy, and undermining the whole edifice of faith. From the religious point of view, it can be defined: the legal negation of the reign of Jesus Christ on earth, the social destruction of the Church.

Fighting the Revolution is therefore an act of faith, a religious duty in the first place. It is moreover an act of good citizen and honest man; because it is defending the fatherland and the family. If honest political parties fight against their point of view, we Christians must fight it from a much higher point of view, to defend what is dearer to us than life.


Mgr de Segur - The Revolution Explained to Young People (1861)

Adapted and translated from here.