Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/32

 been entrusted the care of the common welfare, allowing themselves to be circumvented by the fraudulent devices of infamous men and terror-stricken at their threats, have ever displayed towards the Church feelings of suspicion or even of hostility, not understanding that the endeavors of these sects would have been of no effect had the doctrine of the Catholic Church and the authority of the Roman Pontiffs, among rulers and peoples alike, always remained in due honor. For the Church of the living God, which is the pillar and ground of truth, proclaims those doctrines and precepts whereby the security and calm of society is provided for, and the accursed brood of Socialism is utterly destroyed.

For although the Socialists, turning to evil use the Gospel itself so as to deceive more readily the unwary, have been wont to twist it to their meaning, still so striking is the disagreement between their criminal teachings and the pure doctrine of Christ, that no greater can exist: For what participation hath justice with injustice, or what fellowship hath light with darkness? They in good sooth cease not from asserting—as we have already mentioned—that all men are by nature equal, and hence they contend that neither honor nor respect is owed to public authority, nor any obedience to the laws, saving perhaps to those which have been sanctioned according to their good pleasure. Contrariwise, from the Gospel records, equality among men consists in this, that one and all, possessing the same nature, are called to the sublime dignity of being sons of God; and, moreover, that one and the same end being set before all, each and every one has to be judged according to the same laws and to have punishments or rewards meted out according to individual deserts. There is, however, an inequality of right and authority which emanates from the Author of nature Himself, of whom all paternity in heaven and earth is named. As regards rulers and