Ozanam: Love and Politics

Love & Politics: The Revolutionary Frederic Ozanam
The 10th annual Ozanam Lecture was delivered by Dr John Honner on 15 March 2007 in Melbourne, Australia.

… Frederic has much to tell us about politics, and that what he has to say is relevant for our own time.

My first point here is that Frederic knew a lot more about politics than we might have thought. During his 40 years, he lived under five different political regimes: the first empire of Napoleon, the absolute monarchy of the Bourbons, the constitutional monarchy of the House of Orléans, the Second Republic of 1848, and the Second Empire. He witnessed three major revolutions, several minor revolutions, and the conservatives’ reign of terror.

In his youth Frederic was a cautious royalist. After witnessing the exploitation of workers and the conservative alliance of wealth and power, he became an advocate for liberty, democracy, republicanism and, arguably, Christian socialism – though he certainly did not see himself as a socialist among his contemporary socialists. Finally, in 1848, he became a political journalist and an activist and was persuaded to stand for election to the French
Assembly. So he knew something about politics

…
Conclusion
Frederic held no particular political creed and insisted on no particular political system. He was neither bourgeois nor barbarian, but a follower of Christ. He insisted on liberty, justice, and love. He was driven by a conviction that all people were the beloved of God, and that history was moving towards the Christian Republic of the primitive Church of Jerusalem. While he may seem conservative to some eyes, he was in his own time a revolutionary lay Catholic. It is a great challenge to be a person of self-sacrificing love in public life. Frederic died,exhausted, at the age of 40. He had given everything. Even as he died, he willed his body to science so that an autopsy might be carried out in order to learn more about the disease that took his own life.

For Frederic, a mystical all-embracing love was everything: authority was a means, liberty was a means, but love was the end and purpose of his life. Love was the underlying value on which all his actions were based. To those of us who struggle in the theatre of society, he offers inspiration and challenge, to add love to justice. ‘The orderof society is based on two virtues: justice and charity. However, justice presupposes a lot of love already…. Justice has its limits whereas
charity knows none.’ When love engages with politics, revolutions inevitably occur. Where there are no limits, we run the risk of being criticised as romantics, or visionaries, or revolutionaries, or even saints. Perhaps Frederic was not made for politics, but he still has much to contribute to politics. Politics needs to remember that in the end human life is about love.
We are fortunate to know Frederic, but humbled by his example.
The order of society is based on two virtues: justice and charity.
However, justice presupposes a lot of love already…. Justice has its limits whereascharity knows none.
Frederic Ozanam

The full text of this thought-provoking presentation is available here.

See also list of previous Ozanam lectures