Word: messineo
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Dates: during 1950-1950
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...There's no question of innovation, but only of clarification," protested black-haired Jesuit Father Antonio Messineo in Rome last week. Those who regarded his article in the Jesuit fortnightly Civiltâ Cattolica as something new in Roman Catholic thought, he said, were wrong. Father Messineo's conclusion had been that "tolerance is a duty of both individuals and states towards those who have accepted error and profess error." This tolerance, reasoned Messineo, rises out of the respect due to the human person and to his God-given right of exercising his reason and working...
...tolerance must always be directed to individuals and not to their errors, and it must never proceed from indifference. "Right can only be on the side of truth . . . but there are three theological reasons why tolerance . . . is a duty." In the field of practical politics, wrote Messineo, politics may be dictated by prudence; in personal relations it is dictated by charity, and is required in recognition of each individual's right to move freely in search of truth...
...informal elaboration of his views, Father Messineo added: "Today tolerance is taking a larger place than ever in Catholic concept, because this is a democratic age and democracy stresses the rights of individuals . . . You'll see that when the Dutch Catholics become a majority,* Holland will be a tolerant country-not because Dutch Catholics are indifferent to truth, not because they'll deem it prudent to be tolerant, nor again out of charity, but because they are aware of the individual rights of non-Catholics to tolerance...
...Sermon on the Mount, with its advice not to resist evil, to turn the other cheek and to love one's enemies, according to Father Messineo, was meant for individuals only, not collective groups. "It is the inalienable right of a collectivity to defend its integrity and existence against unjust aggression . . . The citizen has the duty to render the society to which he belongs . . . the indispensable service of picking up arms and fighting to the utmost of his fully exploited capabilities in defense of his community menaced by unjust aggression." Conscientious objectors, he warned, "are guilty of Lucifer-like...
...case there should be any thought that Father Messineo was merely venting his own theological opinions, a Vatican" spokesman said: "Messineo's article has rendered the Church's stand absolutely clear . . . But it is certain that if this type of moral absenteeism . . . were to become widespread . . . the Pope would then intervene and give Messineo his full backing...