Fragment - "Thoughts on a New Christendom" - Dom Jean-Paul d'Hiver

[This seems to be material for a book. The author's name and the page number are in the upper right hand corner; this is page 33.]

"-but no one reads the documents anyway. Such engagement, these days, is not in vogue.

"If one were, however, to peruse the social encyclicals, a certain level of discomfort would be unavoidable for even the most committed Catholics. The fact is that no candidates for public office in this country, at least in living memory, have been taint-free as far as the Church's teaching is concerned. Some advocate forms of social engagement that exceed the common sense limits laid down by Leo XIII and similar voices; others focus too narrowly on the rights of families, or more commonly, on the rights of individuals considered apart from their social habitat.

"This deviation from the ideal should not trouble most people, at least as a deviation. Practiced ideals are not immaculately conceived. One expects material circumstances, especially varying human personalities, to bend the perfection of any system at least a little. This deviation ought, however, to make Catholic voters aware of the transcendence of the system they have received from their Magisterium; the tenets laid down in Rerum Novarum and Quadragesimo Anno serve as pristine scaffolding for the civilization of love. Giving them flesh is a difficult and perhaps impossible project, but one that we as Christians are bound to pursue. In light of this difficulty, however, one should not expect political leaders to exhibit devotion beyond the human. Presidents are not Messiahs. The very size of the endeavor is meant to drive home to Catholics in the pews: this is a work for all. The struggle is to incarnate the Mystical Body in the body politic as nearly as possible. As such, the whole Body is concerned with this end, and "cries out in labor pains" until that incarnation is achieved.

"There is one Messiah, and he lives in all Christians. All Christians must perpetuate his work and presence in the world, as in the world; Christianity evokes - demands - a formalized political structure in which to wrap itself. The God-Man was swaddled not in the light of divinity, but in homespun cloth. It is one goal of this book to show that participatory democracy, viewed as perpetuating the incarnate will of the people, can be a unique and preeminent catalyst for incarnating the Mystical Body of Christ.

"To that end, we will explore the various elements of democracy, and view it especially in light of its fundamental problem: what to do about pluralism?"

[The date on the page is 10/22/1973. There are various scrawled notes in the margins, mostly illegible or crossed out. One, running along the bottom of the page in loose letters, reads: "Who are 'the people'? Dangers of abstract thinking. -S.L." This hand is different from the one that left the other markings.]