Dalla Our apostolic charge, 25 August 1910, Pope Saint Pius X: “Dunque il Sillon (the so-called French Christian Democracy, ndR) sows erroneous and harmful notions about authority among your Catholic youth, on freedom and obedience. […] The same happens with the notion of brotherhood, of which they establish the basis in the love of common interests, or, beyond all philosophies and all religions, in the simple notion of humanity, thus understanding all men with all their miseries in the same love and equal tolerance, both intellectual and moral as physical and temporal. Well, Catholic doctrine teaches us that the first duty of charity does not consist in tolerating erroneous beliefs, however sincere they are, nor in the theoretical or practical indifference to the error or vice in which we see our brothers immersed, but in zeal for their intellectual and moral improvement, no less than for their material well-being. This same Catholic doctrine also teaches us that the source of love for neighbor is found in the love of God, common father and common goal of the entire human family, and in the love of Jesus Christ, of which we are the members to the point that consoling an unhappy person is equivalent to doing good to Jesus Christ himself. Every other love is an illusion or sterile and fleeting feeling.
Certainly, human experience is to prove, in pagan or secular societies of all times, that in certain moments the consideration of common interests or natural similarity is of very little weight in the face of the passions and disordered affections of the heart. No, there is no true brotherhood outside of Christian charity, than for the love of God and his Son Jesus Christ, our Savior, embraces all men to comfort them all and lead all to the same faith and the same heavenly happiness. Separating the brotherhood of Christian charity understood in this way, Democracy, far from being progress, it would constitute a disastrous regression for civilization.
Indeed, if you want to arrive, and we desire it with all our soul, to the greatest possible amount of well-being for society and for each of its members, through brotherhood, or, as they still say, through universal solidarity, the union of spirits in truth is necessary, the union of wills in morality, the union of hearts in the love of God and his Son, Jesus Christ. Well, this union is achievable only through Catholic charity, which only, consequentially, can lead people on the path of progress, towards the ideal of civilization. Finally the Sillon poses, underlying all falsifications of fundamental social notions, a false idea of ​​human dignity. In his opinion, man will truly be man, worthy of the name, only starting from the day he has acquired an enlightened conscience, forte, independent, autonomous, that can do without a master, which obeys only itself and is capable of assuming and carrying the most serious responsibilities without giving up. Here are the big words with which the feeling of human pride is exalted; like a dream that drags man along, without light, without a guide and without help, on the path to illusion, dove, waiting for the great day of full consciousness, he will be devoured by error and passion".