III: The Ends of Catholic Action – What Are We Working Toward?

Now that we have covered the nature and necessity of Catholic Action, it is necessary to consider the ends of Catholic Action, both the ultimate goals of Catholic Action and all of the intermediate ends of Catholic Action. With this, we will both see the ultimate reason for Catholic Action and all the particular functions of Catholic Action. When we consider the ends of Catholic Action, we need to think about it like planning a journey. To give an analogy, if you were to plan on going to the store later, you would organize your entire day around this end. Then, when the time came, you would go through various steps – getting in the car, driving to the store, getting out of your car, etc. The final end of getting to the store determines the various means that you employ to get there. Something similar happens with Catholic Action. We need to be well aware of the end so that we can proportion the means to this end. But it gets more complicated because in Catholic Action, there are various different levels of ends. Hence, we can think about it more like a company. If a company’s purpose was to produce cars, there are obviously many steps that go into achieving this end. Each of these steps are going to require different departments and employees with their own purposes. The car company needs a marketing department, a research and development market, a production department, etc., each with their own intermediate end that all come together to achieve the final end of producing cars. This is the distinction between the interior ends of an organization and the exterior end. The interior ends are marketing, research and development, etc., but the external end is singular, i.e., making cars. St. Pius X describes the supreme and general end of Catholic Action in his encyclical E Supremi Apostolatus Cathedra:

The supreme end towards which all our efforts must converge, is to establish the human race under the rule of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

This ultimate end has three aspects: First, it is fundamentally religious – concerned with our service to God, not merely social improvement. When many hear “religious” they think only of prayer and sacraments. But “religious” means carrying out one’s service to God, whether in the temporal sphere or spiritual sphere. Both are religious acts. Second, it is social – not merely about  individual submission to Christ, but entire societies. As Pius XI powerfully stated:

Thus the empire of our Redeemer embraces all men…Nor is there any difference in this matter between the individual and the family or the State; for all men, whether collectively or individually, are under the dominion of Christ. (Quas Primas, n. 18)

The goal of Catholic Action is to have the entire society as a whole at the service of Christ as King, not merely the various individuals of a society. Third, it is restorative and defensive – Catholic Action specifically opposes and overcomes secularization, which seeks to tear down the rightful dominion of Christ in society. This ultimate end is like the end of building cars, but what are those departments of Catholic Action are we should engage in? The Church has particularly highlighted nine Apostolates. First, we have the activity that cooperates in the life of the parish, which cooperates with the parish priest in promoting the religious duties of laymen. There are various examples of this such as, e.g., teaching catechism or engaging in liturgical functions, and it is unnecessary for me to give a long list of these duties and activities. This is called the parochial apostolate. Second, we have the activity that cooperates in the diffusion of Christian Culture. Obviously, as an interior end, each apostolate has the diffusion of Christian Culture as an aim. For, how else are the members of any Apostolate going to be formed for their ask. But, as an exterior end, i.e., the diffusion of Christian Culture outside of the Apostolate, there are many who engage in this. This is also called the intellectual Apostolate. This is one of the most foundational Apostolic Actions insofar as it provides the foundational principles for the other Apostolates. As Bishop Luigi Civardi puts it in his Manual of Catholic Action

This apostolate is not only essential to Catholic Action, but preliminary—it must precede every other kind of activity. For Catholic Action, we have said, intends to reconstitute the Christian State in all its elements, and to do this by actuating Catholic principles in all sections of social life. Now it is evident that if these principles are to be actuated, they must be asserted and diffused. Hence cultural propaganda, or a wide dissemination of ideas, must precede every other activity. This belongs, as a matter of fact, to the very nature of things. It derives from the immanent psychological law that the will follows the understanding. Man, in fact, acts as he thinks; thought is the mother of action…History shows that the Christian apostolate was always a cultural apostolate a diffusion of ideas. (pg. 21)

In this Apostolate, laymen seek to propagate and defend the teachings of the Church. The Popes have especially encouraged educated individuals to engage in this Apostolate for the widest diffusion of Catholic principles. Third, we have the domestic apostolate, or the apostolate of the family. This, along with the cultural and parochial apostolate, is one of the most central in that it provides the most sure way of forming those who will be dedicated to the Apostolate. Cardinal Gasparri explains this well, writing

If it be opportune that Catholic Action, aiming at the Christianisation of Society as a whole, should attend to economic or political problems, when these are complicated with moral and religious ones, it is no less fitting that Catholic Action should call the attention of Catholics towards the institution of the Family, from whose right functioning depends the good of civil society itself.

This is centrally found in apostolate activity meant to form parents in being able to carry out their duties. Fourth, there must be an apostolate that guards and defends the rights and liberty of the Church. In this, laymen work to oppose official or unofficial opposition to the Church carrying out her mission. In fact, Catholic Action arose in its modern form to carry out this end of defending the rights and liberties of the Church and Apostolic See. Fifth, there must be an apostolate that is educational, called the scholastic apostolate. Here, the Church carries out her right to education.