10. The Counter-Revolution and Non-Catholics
General Robert E Lee
May the Counter-Revolution accept the cooperation of non-Catholics? Are there counter-revolutionary Protestants, Moslems, and others? The answer must be carefully nuanced. There is no authentic Counter-Revolution outside the Church.1 But it is conceivable that certain Protestants or Moslems, for instance, are in a state of soul in which they begin to perceive all the wickedness of the Revolution and to take a stand against it.
Fred Chase Koch, 1900-1967, was an American chemical engineer, who founded the oil refinery firm Koch Industries, the second-largest privately-held company in the United States. In 1928, Koch traveled to the Soviet Union to build oil refineries, but he came to despise communism and Joseph Stalin’s regime. Koch self-published a 39-page, anti-communist pamphlet “A Business Man Looks at Communism” relating his experiences in the Soviet Union and warning of the threat of Communist take-over.
Such persons can be expected to form obstacles, at times even great ones, against the Revolution. If they respond to grace, they can become excellent Catholics and, therefore, efficient counter-revolutionaries. Until then, they at least oppose the Revolution to some degree and can even force it back. In the full and true sense of the word, they are not counter-revolutionaries. But their cooperation may and even should be accepted, with the care that the directives of the Church demand.
Catholics ought to be particularly mindful of the dangers inherent in interdenominational associations, as Saint Pius X wisely warned:
Indeed, without mentioning other points, the dangers to which — because of associations of this sort — our people expose or certainly can expose both the integrity of their faith and the just obedience to the laws and precepts of the Catholic Church are incontestably grave.2
Among non-Catholics, our best apostolate should focus on those who have counter-revolutionary tendencies.
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Revolution and Counter-Revolution (York, Penn.: The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, 1993), Part II, Chapter XII, pg. 120-121
