He will return with his immense heart, with his heart of fire, his poor man's soul
and his smile. He will return! And the Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph!

FROM SAINT THOMAS MORE TO SAINT PIUS X
THE INDISPENSABLE CATHOLIC COUNTER-REFORMATION

On 31 October 2000, at Rome, Pope John Paul II proclaimed Saint Thomas More “Patron of statesmen and politicians”. The text of the Motu Proprio states the reason for this:

« The life and martyrdom of Saint Thomas More have been the source of a message which spans the centuries and which speaks to people everywhere of the inalienable dignity of the human conscience […]. And it was precisely in defence of the rights of conscience that the example of Thomas More shone brightly. It can be said that he demonstrated in a singular way the value of a moral conscience which is “the witness of God himself, whose voice and judgment penetrate the depths of man’s soul” (Veritatis Splendor, n^o 58), even if, in his actions against heretics, he reflected the limitations of the culture of his time (sic!). »

What a perverse understanding: to make the English martyr out to be a herald of freedom of conscience as the basic principle of political order! Luther and Henry VIII are the ones who, after having substituted the illuminations and vaticinations of their individual consciences, claimed this freedom to satisfy their evil passions, while the most amiable of Christian humanists followed the reverse path: our Father who had taken him as his model wrote, « In times of the frenzied exaltation of the self, of liberty and of individual faith, he led his upright life from the summit of worldly honours to the scaffold: like a true son of God, like a humble faithful member of the Roman Church in joy and simplicity. » (The Monster and the Saint, CCR n^o 66, p. 19)

A CLEAR AND PURE CONSCIENCE

Saint Thomas More

Erasmus said that his friend Thomas More had « a clear, unstained conscience, purer and whiter than white snow ». He rose from one office to the next, without having aspired to any one of them, « having respect for God, and after God, for the King ». His enlightened conscience made it a duty for him to put aside his easy “Utopia”, in order to rush to the defence of threatened Christendom. By order of the King, and then at the request of the Bishop of London, he undertook a brilliant refutation of the rebellious monk of Wittenberg and the English heresiarchs. He accepted the office of Chancellor of England, but it was purely in the hope of being able to better attend to the unity of the faith in the kingdom.

When Henry VIII shook off Rome’s yoke, More’s conscience rose up in a reproving silence. If he refrained from giving the reasons, he nevertheless knew, his conscience being the transparent witness of the law of God and of the kingdom, that his eternal salvation depended on his fidelity. When he was threatened with decapitation, the punishment for traitors, he replied: « I lose my bodily head if I obey my conscience; I lose my spiritual head, who is Christ, if I disobey it: now, without this Head, no one enters Heaven. » It is therefore as a martyr of the Church and not of freedom of conscience that he died on 6 July 1535, saying: « Be witnesses that I die in the faith of the Holy Catholic Church, the king's good servant, but God's first. »

CATHOLIC ECUMENISM

The Abbé de Nantes recast this drama in its true light, so as to help England recover her national soul by following the lesson of this holy martyr who was the most English of the English: the King's impiety towards his loyal subject remains the private abuse of an anointed person, an abuse which he exercised in the framework of his legitimate functions. He does not thereby destroy order, but he overrules it. Henry VIII was the King and he certainly abused his royal power. That is a sad occurrence in an institution of immense benefit. As for knowing whether the King's first marriage was valid or whether the second might become so one day, this was not a question for the King's subject to judge. That question rightly belonged to a Pope or Council: More in no way wished to judge the matter.

« When Henry VIII decided to commit himself to the path of schism, Sir Thomas More simply but resolutely withdrew his obedience, without loss of respect for the royal person, for loyalty to the Crown and for the nation it symbolised. No doubt he still hoped that a schism born of a passing Royal passion would die with the same passion. He was to be a martyr for his fidelity to God, without in any way modifying his fidelity to the King, just like Saint Thomas Becket.

« He acted quite differently towards heresiarchs. With the innovators it was not the abuse of a function that he attacked, but the subversion and betrayal of every bond of both the political and ecclesiastical order. No friendship can subsist and no bond is sacred when all order, both human and divine, is under attack. Contrary to so many friends who were dear to him, More openly made every effort and used all his power to destroy their party.

« This is why the lesson of his life and death is the lesson of a perfect Catholic and loyal subject of His Majesty, which every good Christian should understand. By resisting the royal whim and the drift of his people into schism, Thomas More, far from betraying the nation actually saved the soul, tradition, honour and future of the Throne and of the Nation. A day will come when England, beset by trials, will know just what her schism has cost her and then England will feel the attraction of her Roman Catholic past and of her mediaeval traditions, which were more human and more open to the universal. Sir Thomas More will lead England there across the rift of five centuries. » (CCR n^o 66, p. 14)

In 1935, John Fisher’s and Thomas More’s bull of canonisation presented them « as the leaders and the masters of the glorious phalange of those numerous believers from all classes of society who, throughout Great Britain, opposed the new errors with an invincible fidelity and who, through shedding their blood, gave witness to their indefectible devotedness towards the Holy See ». It is our humble desire to follow in their footsteps.

brother Thomas