779- Do humans draw from within themselves the power to progress, or is progress nothing more than the result of education?
“They advance naturally by themselves. Not all progress at the same time or in the same manner, however, and it is through social contact that the most advanced help the others to progress.”
780- Does moral progress always follow intellectual progress?
“It is its consequence, but it does not always follow it immediately.” (See nos. 192-365)
– How can intellectual progress lead to moral progress?
“By making good and evil understandable, for then humans can choose between the two. The development of free will follows the development of intelligence and increases the responsibility of humans for their acts.”
– Then how can one explain that the most enlightened cultures are often the most perverted?
“Complete progress is the goal, but like individuals, cultures only reach it step by step. Until they have developed the moral sense, they may use their intelligence to do evil. Morality and intelligence are two forces that only achieve balance over time.” (See nos. 365-751)
781- Is humankind ever permitted to halt the march of progress?
“No, but it can sometimes slow it down.”
– What are we to think of those who attempt to halt the march of progress and cause humankind to regress?
“They are poor conceited beings whom God will chastise, and they will be swept away by the torrent they meant to stop.”
Since progress is a condition of human nature, no one has the power to oppose it. It is a living force that flawed human laws may hinder but not stifle. When these laws become incompatible with progress, it overthrows them along with all the persons who attempt to uphold them. This will continue to be the case until humans harmonize their laws with divine justice. Divine justice desires the good for all, unlike those laws that are made for the strong at the expense of the weak.
782- Aren’t there those who obstruct progress out of good faith, believing they are helping it because from their own point of view they often see progress where it does not in fact exist?
“They are like a tiny pebble under the wheel of a large cart; a tiny pebble cannot keep a large cart from moving.”
783- Does the perfecting of humankind always follow a slow progressive march?
“There is the regular slow progress that results from the force of things. However, when a culture does not advance quickly enough, then from time to time, God causes a physical or moral jolt that transforms it.”
Humans cannot remain forever in ignorance since they must reach the goal set by Providence. They are enlightened by the force of circumstances. Moral revolutions, like social revolutions, creep into people’s ideas little by little. They germinate for centuries and suddenly burst forth, overthrowing the crumbling edifice of the past, which is no longer in accord with new needs and new aspirations.
In such upheavals, people usually do not perceive more than the momentary disorder and confusion that affect their own material interests. Nevertheless, those who raise their thoughts beyond themselves admire the designs of Providence, which bring good out of bad. Such upheavals are like the storms and disturbances that leave the atmosphere cleansed after having disrupted it.
784- Humankind’s perversity is very great. Doesn’t it seem like humans are regressing instead of progressing, at least from a moral point of view?
“You are mistaken. Observe the whole closely and you will see that they are advancing because they have a better understanding of what evil is, leading them day by day to reform their abuses. The excess of evil will make them understand the need for the good and for reforms.”
785- What is the greatest obstacle to progress?
“Pride and selfishness. I am referring to moral progress, since intellectual progress is always occurring. Progress itself seems at first glance to double the intensity of these two vices by developing ambition and the love of wealth, but this in turn incites persons to pursue research that enlightens their spirits. It is thus that everything is related in the moral world as well as in the physical, and that good is brought out of evil itself. But this state of things will only last for a while. It will change as people better understand that beyond the enjoyment of earthly wealth there is an infinitely greater and long-lasting bliss.” (See Selfishness, chap. XII.)
There are two kinds of progress that mutually support each other, but which do not proceed in tandem: intellectual progress and moral progress. Throughout this century, intellectual progress among civilized cultures has received all the stimuli it could desire and has reached an unprecedented level. Moral progress has also occurred, although not at the same rate. If we compare the social customs of a few centuries ago with those of today, we would have to be blind to deny that there has been progress. Then why should the ascendant march of morality be interrupted any more than that of intelligence? Why should there not be as great a difference in morality between the nineteenth and twenty-fourth centuries as there has been between the morality of the fourteenth and nineteenth? To doubt this would be to assume that humanity has reached the apogee of perfection – which is absurd – or that it is not morally perfectible – which has been disproved by experience.
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