"In this new millennium, two fundamental Communist objectives are still being pursued: the destruction of nationalities and the very idea of family."
Here are excerpts from an interview of Wlodzimierz Redzioch with Msgr. Michel Schooyans, entitled "We must resist," published in the October, 2000 issue of "Inside the Vatican" (1-800-789-9494, www.insidethevatican.com):
Under the zealous guidance of John Paul II, the Church has entered the new millennium with renewed determination to evangelize the world. The perennial forces of apathy, indifference, materialism, relativism and bigotry, however, have not disappeared, and still make the Church's efforts painfully slow and dangerous. In addition, recent years have seen the beginnings of several new and ill-defined movements that could have an immense impact on the Church's task of evangelization, and are causing concern among a number of Catholic thinkers... Perhaps the most spectacular of the new movements is the "globalized" economic approach that industrial and financial leaders have installed and praised...
Then, in the labyrinthine corridors of the United Nations, global policies and programs have been charted and promoted that directly conflict with the Church's teaching on marriage and the right to life. These efforts have been so intense and so cleverly linked to "individual freedoms" and "quality of life" that it has been difficult for many to learn precisely what's behind them and what long-range impact they will have. In order to provide our readers with a Catholic view on such developments, we talked with Monsignor Michel Schooyans about the moral implications of the UN's actions and the global economic policies of industrial leaders.
In the decade since the fall of the Berlin Wall, "globalization" under a "new world order" has proceeded apace. Is our world becoming more democratic and just as a result?
MICHEL SCHOOYANS: In this new millennium, two fundamental Communist objectives are still being pursued: the destruction of nationalities and the very idea of family.
Let's speak first of the idea of a world government. There have been attempts to create such a government from the beginning of the 20th century. But recently Willy Brandt (former socialist premier of Germany) and Jan Tinbergen (Dutch Nobel Prize recipient in economics) relaunched the idea of world "governance."
I am struck by the fact that the UN is evolving in that direction and that its agencies are taking on the features of ministries in a world State. Seen as an endeavor to do away with individual nationalities, cultures, political systems, etc., this is a disturbing phenomenon, as we would lose the rich variety of our world.
Communist ideology has survived the collapse of Communist regimes and, I believe, the plan to govern the world via the UN has inherited a number of features from the Communist "International."
One sign of this is the so-called "gender" issue now in great vogue at the UN. The gender issue has several roots, but one of these is indubitably Marxist. Marx's collaborator Friedrich Engels elaborated a theory of male-female relationships as prototypes of conflictual relations in the class struggle. Marx emphasized the struggle between master and slave, capitalist and worker. Engels, on the other hand, saw monogamous marriage as an example of men's oppression of women. According to him, the revolution should begin with the abolition of the family.
Tinbergen collaborated in the drafting of the UN's 1994 Annual Report on Development. In that document, he very explicitly wrote that without the creation of a world government, our planet will descend into chaos. The Tinbergen-Brandt theories somewhat echo those of the Polish-American Zbigniew Brzezinski. In 1969, Brzezinski published an important book entitled Between Two Ages. There he stated that unless the US takes world leadership into its own hands, using the UN to create a world government, turmoil and confusion, precipitated by the North-South conflict, will take over the world.
Along with this plan for a world government, there is the process of globalization, or economic interdependence. In the global economy, different countries take upon themselves different roles. Activities for creating added value are concentrated in the rich countries, while developing countries are to be first and foremost the providers of raw materials. Heavy, pollution-producing industry will, of course, be concentrated in the undeveloped countries. Globalization is dangerous because control of goods signifies control of workers...
How does the social doctrine of the Church relate to these materialist ideologies?
SCHOOYANS: The Gospels speak to us of the weak, the sick, and even of sinners, to whom Jesus gave back human dignity. This Christian morality is a contradiction of Marxist ethics and of today's neo-liberalism, which is based on the observation that nature is brutal and eliminates the weak. Marxism and neoliberalism share the ideology of the "struggle," or, if you prefer, of the "selection process."
In Marxism we have the class struggle: the stronger middle class won out over the feudal nobility, and workers are to triumph over the bourgeoisie as their power increases. This process appears in liberal ideology as social Darwinism, for both individuals and nations. This concept of the survival of the strong and the destruction of the weak, inherited from Nietszche, goes beyond Malthus's ideas of natural selection. Here, artificial selection is introduced: eugenics, or the selection of the "best" according to market demands. If we Christians proclaim the dignity of the weak, we are said to "act against nature." For that reason, the Gospels are considered an interference and an annoyance in today's world, now more than ever.
In Communism, man does not count at all. It is the Party which counts, society, the State.
In Capitalism, it is the market which decides; human beings have roles to play only when they produce and consume.
New Age influences, including holistic theories which perceive man as only a particle of the universe, are challenging Christian values of human dignity. According to these theories, man is a result of evolution, appearing at a certain moment in the world's development and destined to once more disappear. This transient being should, above all, respect nature and honor the Earth-Mother, Gaia.
In order to respect nature, in this view, human beings must limit the growth of the world's population. These views were expressed at many UN conferences. Linked to that world view is the so-called "natural morality," which holds that man is subservient to nature.
How does that vision of the world influence the globalization and internationalization processes?
SCHOOYANS: I'll give you an example. Brazil has many natural resources, including its famous Amazon Forest. There are those who claim Brazilians, are not capable of administering this valuable resource, and they call for making the Amazon Forest a "world patrimony" under international control. The same claims are made against African and Asian countries, where once more attempts are made to limit population growth and national sovereignty in the name of new pantheist and monist philosophies.
Christianity believes that human beings should administer nature in a morally responsible. way and with respect for future generations. But Christian doctrine would never hold that man is only a particle of nature.
Can we still speak of national independence when globalization is wiping out economic frontiers, and international institutions are marginalizing national States?
SCHOOYANS: States are no longer independent, and the poorer the State, the greater is its dependence. But even the smallest States should have the courage to say "No" to laws permitting abortion. Even in Belgium, King Baudouin was brave enough to refuse to sign such a law.
We should all realize that abortion is not "one of the problems," but rather "the problem." A society, which accepts abortion decides against the innocent and the defenseless. First the unborn are eliminated, then the handicapped and retarded. And then, why not the old who are sick and in the way? We must decide: Do we wish to live in a society which respects God's commandment "Do not kill," or not? If not, then we are descending into barbarity. I live in a society where abortion has been legalized and where legalized euthanasia is on the political agenda. (In any case, euthanasia is already widely practiced.) If parents are permitted by law to kill their children, why should the children not be allowed to kill their parents as well?
It seems that in today's world, one does not dare express opinions not in agreement with the dominant liberal-permissive mindset.
SCHOOYANS: Here you are touching upon a crucial difficulty: a sort of brain-washing has attempted to impose the immoral ideas of a few on unsuspecting people who trust their leaders to be wise and honest. For instance, the belief that abortion and euthanasia are "basic human rights," that homosexual couples are to be considered the same as traditional marriages. The Church has always sided with the weak. Even now we must resist UN attempts to introduce such "new" human rights.
Pope John Paul II sometimes speaks of the "globalization of good." Do you think that the Church can have a positive influence on the process of globalization?
SCHOOYANS: That has been the role of the Church through the centuries. Jesus was concerned with the rejects of society. He gave them back their dignity. Throughout history, saints and normal Christians have imitated Jesus, recognizing the dignity of all human beings, and all of society's victims. In today's society, victims are blamed for their own situation, and thus their elimination is justified. For example, an unborn child is guilty of complicating the life of his parents.
The Church must continue to defend innocent victims. Jesus himself was an innocent victim, the innocent Lamb of God. The Gospel message is completely opposed to natural violence in the world — whether violence of class, market, or gender. The role of the Church in our world, today is to replace the logic of natural violence and brutal competition with the logic of love. (End of Inside the Vatican's article.)
On the same topic, here are excerpts from Msgr. Schooyans's book "La face cachée de l'ONU" (The hidden face of the UN), published in French by Le Sarment Fayard in 2000. The translation is from "Michael":
The UN and some of its agencies behave more and more openly as though they had received a mandate to elaborate a conception of human rights radically different from that expressed in 1948: (in the "Universal declaration on human rights"). According to the UN, man is a fragment of the cosmos, and has no eternal destiny; he is a product of evolution. Man is made for death. He is but an individual in search of pleasures, unable to recognize truth. This is the source of the new rights of the UN. They are no longer recognized and declared, but imposed. They are the expression of the will of the mightier. Man must revere the Earth-Mother, Gaia (the goddess of the earth in Greek mythology), in place of God his Creator and the Creator of earth.
Mankind will have to accept a supranational technology that will dictate to States what they must do, and to individuals what they must think.
One only has to watch the talks about vital issues like euthanasia, abortion, mass sterilization, homosexuality, etc., to see how widespread this perverted and topsy-turvy interpretation has become. The truth no longer matters.
There is no more question of the dignity of every human person. Values are inverted. The new values are what pleases the individual. Yet, these new values can only divide people. According to the UN, the new fundamental right of the human person is the right to satisfy his individual passions. This inevitably leads to violence.
The Secretary General of the United Nations strives to build a new global sovereign elite, and transform the UN into an unprecedented concentration of the political, economic, military and psychosocial powers. This last power includes the media, knowledge, techniques, ideologies, law, religion. The UN is building a super-centralized control of these four factors to rule the world.
The pyramid-shaped system of standards adopted by the UN has transformed this organization into a fantastic machine whose role is to control lives, and therefore control individuals, families and States. National States must accept being the satellites of the world State, and be replaced by the head of the "pyramid".
This kind of UN is doomed because it is based on a structure of sin. This UN that rejects the values contained in the Declaration of 1948 has no future. To survive, the UN needs the truth, the truth that the Church offers about man, his divine origin, his destiny — which is eternal bliss. The UN needs the Church and Christians because it needs to be freed from lies and violence. One must stop supressing the truth. Stop depreciating the family! Stop intruding into the intimacy of couples to "administer" their inalienable right to transmit life! Stop crushing the weakest! Stop limitating the sovereignty of nations. Stop installing a globalization that, controlling the world economy, will control every human being! Stop the insidious construction of a world government that is above every person and nation! Stop imposing to mankind a system of ideological domestication through the control of the media! Stop controlling the world by using a perverted conception of the law!
No Christian can remain indifferent, mute or inactive in front of what is going on at the UN: This "new ethics" and perverted conception of human rights are the forerunners of unprecedented violence against the human person and the family. With such a flawed conception of man, family, ethics, society, and human rights, democracy becomes totally impossible.
The Church must be vigilant, and prepare for a persecution which has actually already begun. However, the Church must not confine herself to a defensive stand. The call (of Pope John Paul II) for a new evangelization is timely. The salt of the earth must not lose its flavor. To draw the attention of people on the errors of the United Nations Organization is an urgent service that the Church owes to the human community. Her courage will certainly arouse the courage of others.
In fact, following this metamorphosis of the UN, the Roman Catholic Church appears to be the only institution that carries a conception of man that calls for democratic systems and that makes the establishment of such systems a moral duty. As it is written in the Book of Revelation, right from her beginning, and on behalf of God and of man, the Church revolted against the imposture of an usurped power.
The Church must proclaim today that a new war has begun: an all-out war against the human person, a war that first wants to mutilate man, and then destroy him. It is a war that wants to deprive man of his reason and will, in which his prodigious resemblance to God is expressed. It is a senseless war where the price of the death of God will be the death of man.
Msgr. Michel Schooyans