It is known that the great Louis Veuillot was of very modest origin. He, perhaps for literary effect, stylized his name, which was originally Viellot, that is, oldster, already an indication of the humble social condition of his people.
On one of his most touching pages, the immortal polemist wrote that if the social order were to be restored on Catholic foundations, he would not want to belong to the elevated class, but rather would prefer to remain among the com¬mon people. This, so that he might aid in the reconstruction of a dignified popular class, aware of the grandeur of the Catholic plebeian class as such, mindful of its rights and profoundly imbued with its duties. It is the contrary, ultimately, of the neopagan and revolutionary plebeian class, which is ashamed of being plebeian, only dreams about its rights, and detests talk about its duties, a plebeian class that only wants to imitate the bourgeoisie, if not to overthrow it. It is the contrary of the typical plebeian class in foreign industrial centers that — and how this should be feared — could come to be typical in many places here if the children of the Church do not hasten in time to help with the charity of material resources and, principally, with the gift of clear, vigorous, and authentically Catholic principles.
The revolutionary metamorphosis of the bourgeoisie proceeds by stages and has already gone far. The same thing happens with the common people. Because of this, if the entirely revolutionary bourgeois or plebeian models are perhaps still rare, the manifestations of revolutionary ideas and styles in all the classes are frequent and sometimes more, sometimes less profound.
It is useful for numerous readers, then, whether bourgeois or not, to know the embodiment of a dignified plebeian human type, one lofty in her standing as a human creature mystically incorporated to Our Lord Jesus Christ by Baptism, but satisfied in her modest condition.
One notes in this young peasant woman dressed with decency and sound simplicity a composure that is more evident in her gaze than in her clothes, a gaze that is serene, firm, profound, pure, and balanced to the highest degree. Her name filled her own century, has been perpetuated in ours, and will shine as long as the world lasts. In heaven the angels sing her name with praise. This is Bernadette Soubirous, included by the Holy Father Pius XI in the roll of the saints! She is not a bourgeoise; she does not want to be a bourgeoise; she does not want to appear to be a bourgeoise; and she does not even want to extinguish the bourgeoisie. But few bourgeoises, even few princesses, have as much personal dignity and propriety.
Behold the elevation, the glory, the strength, of a Catholic plebeian class that is not deformed by the breath of the Revolution.
The preferred ambience that the revolutionary mentality seeks to dominate is that of the unions. As associations that are more and more powerful, more and more influential, they should for this very reason have an increasingly more serious interior ambience that is austere and respectable, like that of the medieval guilds.
But the spirit of vulgarity, joking, and revelry that the Revolution causes to blow throughout all of contemporary society did not spare the unions.
This is a scene that is far from having this aspect only in the United States, because it is like this in other countries. What is it? By the laughter, the gestures, and the poses, one might suppose it is a carnival group that is practicing a “solemn” exit. Rather, it is a group of workers at a celebration dinner with bourgeois airs — in the worst sense in which the revolutionaries unduly use the term — that highlights a grave event: victory in the elections for offices on a union’s board of directors.
Is there not a true contrast between the two pictures?
Two concepts of the common people. More. Much more. Two concepts of life.
Ambience Customs & Civilization, “Catolicismo” No. 75 –March 1957
