ABSTRACT
A superficial observer might be inclined to think that nothing but antagonism could exist between two such movements as Socialism and Romanism. According to the Roman conception, it is founded on Divine authority, that authority being represented visibly by the "sovereign Pontiff". Socialism comes into conflict with Romanism, moreover, by its negation of the sacredness of marriage, and its tendency to destroy the bonds of family life, and also its virtual denial of the rights of private property. Its revolutionary methods of social reconstruction, which would break with the past, entirely clash with the Roman conception of historical continuity. Romanism regards both Socialism and Individualism which latter it is in the habit of identifying with Continental Liberalism as the "frres ennemis", both anti-Christian in their nature, but its natural antipathies towards the latter, apart from other reasons to be mentioned farther on, incline it to greater sympathy with the former.
