In this handout image provided by the Grand-Ducal Court of Luxembourg and Princess Stephanie of Luxembourg and Prince Guillaume of Luxembourg pose with Miss Isaure de le Court, Countess Louise de Lannoy, Mr Lancelot de le Court, Countess Caroline de Lannoy, Miss Madeleine Hamilton and Mr Gabriel de Luxembourg for an official photo inside the Grand-Ducal Palace after their wedding ceremony at the Cathedral of our Lady of Luxembourg on October 20, 2012 in Luxembourg, Luxembourg.
In accordance with these observations, an adaptation to the modern world—so much more egalitarian than pre-World War II Europe—does not mean that the nobility should renounce its traditions and disappear in the general leveling. Rather, it means that it should courageously continue a past inspired by perennial principles. The Pontiff emphasizes the highest among these, namely, fidelity to the Christian ideal.
“Also do not forget Our appeals to banish from your hearts all despondency and cowardice in face of the evolution of the times, and Our exhortations to adapt yourselves courageously to the new circumstances by keeping your gaze fixed on the Christian ideal, the true and indelible entitlement to genuine nobility.” (1958 allocution to the Roman Patriciate and Nobility.)
Such is the courageous adaptation that befits the nobility in face of the evolution of the times.
In consequence, the nobles should not renounce their ancestral glory. Instead, they ought to preserve it for their respective lineages and, even more, for the benefit of the common good as the worthwhile contribution they are still capable of making.
Wedding of Georg Friedrich Ferdinand Prince Of Prussia And Princess Sophie Of Isenburg.
“Yet why, beloved Sons and Daughters, did we express then and do we now repeat these admonitions and recommendations if not to fortify you against bitter disillusionments, to preserve for your houses the heritage of your ancestral glories, and to guarantee for the society to which you belong the valid contribution that you are still capable of making to it?” (1958 allocution to the Roman Patriciate and Nobility.)
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), 39-40.
