'We cannot be satisfied with anything less than the full social action of Catholicism'

With this post, I am beginning a series of reprinted articles from Father Louis J. Twomey, SJ’s trailblazing social-justice newsletter Christ’s Blueprint for the South. Assembling this series will have a practical value for me as I prepare to give a presentation on the Blueprint at this June’s International Symposium on Jesuit Studies at Boston College, which has for its theme “Jesuits and their Journals.” I am hoping (and praying) that it will also help me kickstart my Father Twomey biography, A Priest in Good Trouble, which has been sidetracked since I began working last June as the director of a diocesan tribunal.

The following is the first editorial on the first page of the first issue of Christ’s Blueprint for the South, originally published November 15, 1948, by Father Twomey from his office at the Institute of Industrial Relations at Loyola University New Orleans.

By Father Louis J. Twomey, SJ1

The only weapon against action is better action. The only weapon against an idea is a better idea. We Catholics in the South are not at a loss for ideas. In the realm of social theory, there has never been a better idea than the Mystical Body of Christ. The fullness of that concept means that regardless of national origin, cultural heritage, economic affiliation, family tradition, racial ancestry, community status, we are all one in the baptism of Christ. Our social unity extends to the communion of Saints in heaven, even to God our common Father.

Christian solidarity has been impressed on our minds in the clear and simple catechism lesson and in the profound and subtle theological thesis. We repeat it in the Apostles’ Creed, the acts of faith, hope and charity, the sublime prayers of the Mass. In the intellectual and supernatural spheres, we Catholic Southerners continue to maintain the highest social ideals the world has ever known. These are Christ’s Blueprint for the South.

Ideas that remain ideas are sterile. The problem we face today is the opportune translation of ideas into action. The contributors to this humble bulletin maintain that the Mystical Body of Christ can work; that the concrete realities of Christian social living do not have to be shaved down to fit pagan patterns. We seek nothing less than the fullness of Christianity. We cannot be satisfied with anything less than the full social action of Catholicism.

The new law of love, which is as old as the Church, can function only in a generous heart and an open mind. It is foreign to the spirit of Christ to niggle about private rights when society needs the virtue of charity, to see how far one can go without committing mortal sins against justice, to accept pagan social customs when we have in hand the Beatitudes.

We have the better idea! Have we here and now the better action?