Recently the Catholic world has been rocked by a number of signs that should ask us to pause as to what is the root cause of the crisis that is striking the Church. I would suggest that it is a crisis of ontology, or being. In its everyday manifestation it is shown through a denial of truth as a concrete reality. As such, the immediate crisis is one of truth.
For example, do we really believe that outside the Church there is no salvation? If we believe in truth and being, we will believe with the mind of the Church; that yes, there is no salvation outside the Church. Thus the Holy Spirit, as the Fathers taught, acts beyond the Mystical Body to not santify men through other religions, but to impell them to unity with the Church, which has one body and one soul.
The Second Vatican Council in an ecumenical euphoria did indeed claim that the Holy Spirit does sanctify men through their false religions, but this is not acceptable and is not Patristic. I quote the following from the Council:
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UNITATIS REDINTEGRATIO (Ch. 1, sec 3)
"Moreover, some and even very many of the significant elements and endowments which together go to build up and give life to the Church itself, can exist outside the visible boundaries of the Catholic Church: the written word of God; the life of grace; faith, hope and charity, with the other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit, and visible elements too. All of these, which come from Christ and lead back to Christ, belong by right to the one Church of Christ.
The brethren divided from us also use many liturgical actions of the Christian religion. These most certainly can truly engender a life of grace in ways that vary according to the condition of each Church or Community. These liturgical actions must be regarded as capable of giving access to the community of salvation.
It follows that the separated Churches and Communities as such, though we believe them to be deficient in some respects, have been by no means deprived of significance and importance in the mystery of salvation. For the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as means of salvation which derive their efficacy from the very fullness of grace and truth entrusted to the Church".
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It should be noted that the life of grace, faith, hope and charity do not exist outside the Church. Indeed the Holy Spirit offers gifts to men outside the Church seeking to draw them into the Church, but such gifts do not "engender a life of grace", not does the Holy Spirit use "them as means of salvation".
Claiming that men are sanctified by false religions by receiving such sanctification via the Church to whom sanctification properly belongs is also not accurate, not true and contrary to the Fathers. St. Augustine is very clear that false religions do not have the Holy Ghost. A false religion cannot therefore offer a man sanctification. Sanctification is offered only through the Church.
To conclude, Venerable PIus XII implored all men to come to the Church, to return to Catholic unity:
MYSTICI CORPORIS:
As you know, Venerable Brethren, from the very beginning of Our Pontificate, We have committed to the protection and guidance of heaven those who do not belong to the visible Body of the Catholic Church, solemnly declaring that after the example of the Good Shepherd We desire nothing more ardently than that they may have life and have it more abundantly. Imploring the prayers of the whole Church We wish to repeat this solemn declaration in this Encyclical Letter in which We have proclaimed the praises of the "great and glorious Body of Christ," and from a heart overflowing with love We
ask each and every one of them to correspond to the interior movements of grace, and to seek to withdraw from that state in which they cannot be sure of their salvation. For even though by an unconscious desire and longing they have a certain relationship with the Mystical Body of the Redeemer, they still remain deprived of those many heavenly gifts and helps which can only be enjoyed in the Catholic Church. Therefore may they enter into Catholic unity and, joined with Us in the one, organic Body of Jesus Christ, may they together with us run on to the one Head in the Society of glorious love. Persevering in prayer to the Spirit of love and truth, We wait for them with open and outstretched arms to come not to a stranger's house, but to their own, their father's home.
Monday, May 7, 2007
Friday, February 23, 2007
And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Myself
Christ's Mission is Universal
With those words, from the Gospel of St. John (12:32), Our Lord Jesus Christ outlined his whole programme for the history of humanity. He drew to its fruition the Theology of History as proclaimed by Abraham and the Prophets, and - with the Holy Spirit operating through St. John the Baptist - fulfilled the Will of His Father by revealing His Sacred and Divine Identity and Mission to His people, the Jewish nation.
However, now, the call was universal - to all men. For example, the Roman centurion prayer to Christ for mercy on his ill servant ("Domine, non sum dignus"...[Lord, I am not worthy to receive you...]). This universality of Salvation - more urgent than ever in a world converging on a world culture - must be therefore preached with clarity to all men without exception - to Jew and Gentile alike. Such preaching must be bound with love, but true love supposes truth. The Church temporal, being in possession of the absolute truth in faith and morals is bound before Her Lord and Master, Christ, to preach to all men (c.f. Satis cognitum, Quas Primas).
"Christ loved the Church, and delivered Himself up for it" (Eph. v., 25)
Pope Leo XIII, opening his encyclical, Satis Cognitum (On the Unity of the Church) draws our attention to Christ's redemptive power that operates through and for the Church. Men are redeemed by being part of the Church. Thus, all men are called to the one arc of Salvation. Thus, to believe in Christ is to believe in the Church, to believe in the Church is to believe in Christ. Pope Leo writes: "But the mission of Christ is to save that which had perished: that is to say, not some nations or peoples, but the whole human race, without distinction of time or place. "The Son of Man came that the world might be saved by Him" (John iii., 17)". Thus man is saved by Christ, through the Church.
Historically, the evangelizing mission was attacked and undermined by the corruptive influence of the western schism, corrupt prelates, meddling princes and generally low level of morals amongst the clergy. This was then accelerated by the paganizing Renaissance, to be then followed by the so-called Reformation. Following that, false principles of jurisprudence (as exemplified by such diverse characters as Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau) were promoted within government, as well as with subjective concepts of dynamic "truth" becoming the basis of philosophy. Following, there would be various offshoots and various reactions. Pope Leo XIII encouraged the blossoming Thomist movement to propose to humanity once again the ability to conduct true rational thought, through a true metaphysics of being.
The Corruption of Truth
The modernist philosopher develops and follows the agnostic Kantian-Hegelian path - one of subjectivism, and truth being a never ending product of the dynamic mind. The logical extension of Kant was that religion is a product of the mind, the mind as found within a given moment in history, within a given culture. Truth is not absolute, it is not outside of the mind to be conformed to by the reasoning person. Rather, it is something personal and moulded in the mind. Religion, faith, religious experience is "true" for the "believer", but can be false for the next "believer". All is immanent in the mind of the person. Granted, Kant did concede the existence of reality outside the mind, but that it was subjectified when processed. He therefore sought to create a counterbalance between philosophy of conformity to the object, with conformity to the subject. What Kant the Lutheran did, however, was create an agnostic atmosphere regarding metaphysics and the divine by denying the possibility of using reason to reach God.
As Pius X identified, once religion is no longer objective reality, but subjective thought, all religions become equally true (and hence, equally false). The ax is then set to the root of the Tree of Life, Catholicism is uprooted, and religious "insanity" (c.f. Mirari Vos, Gregory XVI) abounds. We can see this in the more extreme forms of contemporary gnosticism, and the explosion of external elements (though perverted) of eastern philosophy and religion in formerly Christian countries, such as various forms of psychosomatic "meditation". One wonders what the Bhuddist or Hindu really thinks of the pick and choose approach of the typical lasped western Christian.
In conclusion, one of the many lessons of Pascendi is the unattainability of truth for the modernist, his/her * rejection of the mind conforming to the object, the reduction of religious experience from an objective experience with the True God to a subjective experience. Religion is reduced to an external ritual, derived from dynamic and perpetually evolving historical circumstances that has its foundations in agnosticism.
* "His/her" is added, not out of any concession to neo-Marxist political correctness, nor to contemporary academic writing styles, but to the reality that as many women as men succumb to subjectivist modernism.
With those words, from the Gospel of St. John (12:32), Our Lord Jesus Christ outlined his whole programme for the history of humanity. He drew to its fruition the Theology of History as proclaimed by Abraham and the Prophets, and - with the Holy Spirit operating through St. John the Baptist - fulfilled the Will of His Father by revealing His Sacred and Divine Identity and Mission to His people, the Jewish nation.
However, now, the call was universal - to all men. For example, the Roman centurion prayer to Christ for mercy on his ill servant ("Domine, non sum dignus"...[Lord, I am not worthy to receive you...]). This universality of Salvation - more urgent than ever in a world converging on a world culture - must be therefore preached with clarity to all men without exception - to Jew and Gentile alike. Such preaching must be bound with love, but true love supposes truth. The Church temporal, being in possession of the absolute truth in faith and morals is bound before Her Lord and Master, Christ, to preach to all men (c.f. Satis cognitum, Quas Primas).
"Christ loved the Church, and delivered Himself up for it" (Eph. v., 25)
Pope Leo XIII, opening his encyclical, Satis Cognitum (On the Unity of the Church) draws our attention to Christ's redemptive power that operates through and for the Church. Men are redeemed by being part of the Church. Thus, all men are called to the one arc of Salvation. Thus, to believe in Christ is to believe in the Church, to believe in the Church is to believe in Christ. Pope Leo writes: "But the mission of Christ is to save that which had perished: that is to say, not some nations or peoples, but the whole human race, without distinction of time or place. "The Son of Man came that the world might be saved by Him" (John iii., 17)". Thus man is saved by Christ, through the Church.
Historically, the evangelizing mission was attacked and undermined by the corruptive influence of the western schism, corrupt prelates, meddling princes and generally low level of morals amongst the clergy. This was then accelerated by the paganizing Renaissance, to be then followed by the so-called Reformation. Following that, false principles of jurisprudence (as exemplified by such diverse characters as Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau) were promoted within government, as well as with subjective concepts of dynamic "truth" becoming the basis of philosophy. Following, there would be various offshoots and various reactions. Pope Leo XIII encouraged the blossoming Thomist movement to propose to humanity once again the ability to conduct true rational thought, through a true metaphysics of being.
The Corruption of Truth
The modernist philosopher develops and follows the agnostic Kantian-Hegelian path - one of subjectivism, and truth being a never ending product of the dynamic mind. The logical extension of Kant was that religion is a product of the mind, the mind as found within a given moment in history, within a given culture. Truth is not absolute, it is not outside of the mind to be conformed to by the reasoning person. Rather, it is something personal and moulded in the mind. Religion, faith, religious experience is "true" for the "believer", but can be false for the next "believer". All is immanent in the mind of the person. Granted, Kant did concede the existence of reality outside the mind, but that it was subjectified when processed. He therefore sought to create a counterbalance between philosophy of conformity to the object, with conformity to the subject. What Kant the Lutheran did, however, was create an agnostic atmosphere regarding metaphysics and the divine by denying the possibility of using reason to reach God.
As Pius X identified, once religion is no longer objective reality, but subjective thought, all religions become equally true (and hence, equally false). The ax is then set to the root of the Tree of Life, Catholicism is uprooted, and religious "insanity" (c.f. Mirari Vos, Gregory XVI) abounds. We can see this in the more extreme forms of contemporary gnosticism, and the explosion of external elements (though perverted) of eastern philosophy and religion in formerly Christian countries, such as various forms of psychosomatic "meditation". One wonders what the Bhuddist or Hindu really thinks of the pick and choose approach of the typical lasped western Christian.
In conclusion, one of the many lessons of Pascendi is the unattainability of truth for the modernist, his/her * rejection of the mind conforming to the object, the reduction of religious experience from an objective experience with the True God to a subjective experience. Religion is reduced to an external ritual, derived from dynamic and perpetually evolving historical circumstances that has its foundations in agnosticism.
* "His/her" is added, not out of any concession to neo-Marxist political correctness, nor to contemporary academic writing styles, but to the reality that as many women as men succumb to subjectivist modernism.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
100 Years of St. Pius X's "Pascendi Dominici Gregis" - "On the Doctrine of the Modernists"
This first post, though informal, will outline the direction that this blog will go throughout the year. Dedicated to St. Pius X, and specifically to the encyclical, Pascendi, this site will post and develop a number of ideas as they evolve around this great encyclical. We will combat both dogmatic and social modernism (indeed, both being integrally linked). For example, we encourage all readers to meditate upon and try to live the great "forgotten" encyclical of the 20th century, Quas Primas (On the Kingship of Christ) by Pius XI.
This site, following St. Pius X, will be devoted to the reality that the Catholic Church is the One, True Church - and that any form of true "ecumenism" must be directed by this great Truth - being the return of those who have sadly separated themselves from the One True Fold, and the Conversion of the rest of humanity without exception (c.f. Satis Cognitum, Leo XIII; Mortalium Animos, Pius XI).
Over the next few months, this blog will discuss the modernist as a philosopher, theologian, historian, refomer, and so on. We will also comment on contemporary happenings in the Church as seen in the light of this encyclical and the unchanging Teachings of the Church.
It is our hope and prayer that this year, the Centennial of Pascendi (and the accompanying Syllabus, Lamentabili ), the Church will follow St. Pius in trying to "restore all things in Christ", by the restoration of Catholic Tradition and by striving to restore society to its proper foundation, Our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray too that this 100th anniversary will see a major commemoration and vigorous restatement of St. Pius' teachings by his successor, Pope Benedict XVI.
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