By Michel de Keukelaere.
If there is any structure that is contrary to the organic Christian society discussed in the book Return to Order, it is the highly centralized bureaucratic European Parliament. The presentation of this book was, so to speak, almost in the belly of the beast. It was an unlikely place to have a talk about Return to Order, as the bureau of the Federation Pro-Europa Christiana is hardly a half a mile from the European Parliament in Brussels.
However, this fact did not stop the nearly 60 people from crowding into the small auditorium at the Federation’s bureau on November 26. The speaker, John Horvat II delivered a talk with the same title as his book, “Return to Order: From a Frenzied Economy to an Organic Christian Society—Where We’ve Been, How We Got Here and Where We Need to Go.”
The director of the Federation Pro-Europa Christiana, Duke Paul of Oldenburg, gave the opening remarks stressing the unique perspective of the book. Mr. Mario Navarro da Costa, head of the Tradition, Family, Property Bureau in Washington DC, introduced the speaker and spoke of the book’s relevance to the European context. The talk was simultaneously translated from English into both French and Dutch, the two principal languages in Belgium.
In his address, Mr. Horvat presented the current economic crisis from an entirely refreshing perspective contrary to the stale vision presented by bureaucrats who think in terms of statistics, formulas and business indicators. According to the author, the world economy is in trouble not simply because of soaring unemployment and rampant inflation, but rather because it is frenzied and out of balance. The moral compass necessary to keep things in balance has been lost.
However, Mr. Horvat did not present today’s economic challenges without pointing out 
viable solutions. He borrowed tried and proven solutions from our rich Christian past to abundantly illustrate what an “organic Christian society” looks like. While outlining ways to work toward this goal, he affirmed the need to have clear objectives in order to develop an effective plan of action and stressed that in order to get back on-course there must be a return to order.
After the talk, there was a lively questions-and-answers session, the traditional vin d’honneur and much conversation while Mr. Horvat signed copies of his book.