In a front-page editorial, Le Monde recently wrote the following: “Politics is no longer a forbidden word for Christians. On the contrary, this word has become quite popular in the French [Catholic] church. . . . The French bishops have just studied the close relationship between faith and politics.”​—Le Monde, October 31, 1972.

In point of fact, the 1972 Plenary Assembly of French bishops, held in Lourdes, was mainly devoted to the theme “Politics, Church and Faith.” It published a long episcopal report entitled “A Christian Way of Engaging in Politics,” of which the main promoter was Bishop Matagrin of Grenoble. This French prelate is of the opinion that “to meet all the requirements of Christianity, a Catholic is duty bound to take part in politics.”​—Le Dauphiné libéré, October 23, 1972.

What is the result of the church-sponsored political involvement of Catholics? Reporting on a religious meeting held in Paris to discuss this episcopal report, a Catholic daily stated: “The meeting at the Mutualité Hall confirmed the wide variety of political opinions held by Christians [Catholics], ranging from extreme Right wing to extreme Left wing.”​—La Croix, January 18, 1973.

The consequences of such political divisions are obvious. As a French newsweekly put it: “From now on, each Catholic can, Gospel in hand, build his own model of future society. . . . Thus, on a certain Sunday in March 1973, Catholics will be able to kneel down side by side and receive Communion, and then go and put in the ballot box radically different votes.” (L’Express, October 16-22, 1972) Can one imagine the apostles leaving the “upper room” in Jerusalem and then casting votes for different political parties?

But the problem is even deeper than that. Catholics with widely different opinions could easily let their political feelings predominate, with serious religious repercussions. In fact, this disunity has already appeared, as shown by the following quotations: “Political choices create classes that have trouble communicating with each other. . . . This is so much so that Christians [Catholics] are asking themselves if they can really partake of the Eucharist together.” (La Croix, March 16, 1973) “Some [Catholics] refuse to celebrate Mass with others whom they disagree with on what they consider to be fundamentals.”​—Le Monde, October 29-30, 1972.

It appears, therefore, that differing political opinions constitute another problem for sincere people who still go to church. What about morals?

Traditionalists inside the Catholic Church speak of the need to “challenge the modern world’s idols: sex, money and State.” But the modernist clergy have adapted themselves to the present-day permissive society. Under the title “Who Still Keeps Lent?​—Misty Sin,” Robert Solé writes: “Who does penance anymore, in a church whose members seem to be progressively losing all sense of sin? . . . Today, Catholics are asking: ‘What is evil’?, whereas not long ago they saw evil everywhere. . . . Formerly, sin was well defined and subject to appropriate rules, but at present sin is misty. . . . Cheap psychology has convinced Christians that religion, with its ancient prohibitions, was what caused the feeling of guilt.”​—Le Monde, March 4-5, 1973.

French Catholic author and philosopher Jean Guitton, member of the French Academy, once wrote: “We should be totally willing to abandon our religion if it turns out to be anything but the truth.” More recently he stated: “In the end, an atheistic Catholicism might appear not very different from Communism.”​—Paris-Match, December 16, 1972.