Similarities and Differences Among Men Find Their Allotted Place in the Absolute Order of Being

May 26, 2011

From the 1942 Christmas message of Pius XII:

The Quail Shoot by Francisco de Goya Y Lucientes

If the life of society involves inner unity, it does not, however, preclude differences which are upheld by reality and nature. Yet when one looks to God, the supreme regulator of all that concerns man, then men’s similarities as well as differences find their proper place in the absolute order of being, of values and therefore also of morality. If, on the other hand, this foundation is shaken, then a dangerous breach is opened between the various areas of culture, and an uncertainty and instability of boundaries, limits, and values appears.

 

Discorsi e radiomessagi di Sua Santità Pio XII (Tipografia Poliglotta Vaticana), Vol. 4, p. 331 in Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pius XII: A Theme Illuminating American Social History (York, Penn.: The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, 1993), Documents V, p. 485.

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