1) The epoch of the Seraphic Patriarch was indeed one of great political and economic upheaval, and this is why the late Cardinal (well, back then he was yet an Abbot) mentioned the historical details, which prefaced his tangent.
2) The tangent may have been a reflection of the activity of Pope Leo XIII, who, was a response to the evils of socialism and its seduction of the working classes, enriched the Third Order of Saint Francis with very great indulgences, and granted the Tertiaries very great privileges: the ideals of the Seraphic Patriarch were to spark the Tertiaries into "Catholic Action" and actively work for the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls, with the restoration of societal and political tranquility (which alone can happen under the social kingship of Christ) as a happy by-product of such zeal.
But yes, it was a strange tangent. When I read that I just associated it with the great revival of the Franciscan Tertiaries thanks to Leo XIII as the solution to society's problems.
I second this opinion.
While God knows my opinion on Christian Democracy, in the times he wrote his famous Sacramentary, what where the alternatives? Especially, as an Ultramontane, when the Holy See seemed to give public support to no other political system since Leo' XIII.
Rerum novarum (which in turn was based on Bishop Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler's tome "Die Arbeiterfrage und das Christentum") and
Quadragesimo anno of Pius XI.?
More so, as the Christian Democratic movement brought professing Catholics back to the highest levels of State since the French Revolution.
Contrary to the principles of Catholicism? To the detriment of the faithful and the nations respectively (especially in the 1st World War, used as the final embrace of the French and German Catholics to their respective anti-Catholic states)? Probably yes. But understandable? I think so.
Also, Card. Schuster certainly cannot be seen as some kind of reactionary or anti-progressist figure. His Sacramentary proves otherwise, as maybe did his membership in the
"Opus sacerdotale Amici Israel"But that progress and reaction are not diametrically opposed can easily be shown by Dom Guéranger, who was persecuted for his loyalty to the Holy See and his
reform of the Tridentine Rite to it's
former glory.
Note: Before his elevation to the College of Cardinals, Abbot Schuster was actually an
abbot nullius diœceseos. The installation and blessing of such a territorial abbot was only allowed with a Papal Mandate, just as in Episcopal consecrations. This might be interesting in regards to the other discussion we are having...