Chapter 17 - FILL IN HERE
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The Popes and
Liberal Catholicism
“Catholic Liberalism is a veritable plague.”
Pius IX
Father Roussel collected in his book1 a whole series of declarations from Pope Pius IX condemning the Catholic Liberals’ attempt to blend the Church and the Revolution. Here are some of them, which it is good for us to ponder.
What afflicts your country and prevents it from meriting the blessings of God is the mixture of principles. I will say the word, and I will not keep it secret; what I fear is not all those wretches from the Paris Commune… What I fear is this unhappy politics, this Catholic Liberalism which is a veritable scourge…This seesaw game which would destroy Religion. Without doubt one must practice charity, do what is possible to bring back those who have lost their way; it is not, however, necessary for that to share their opinions…2
Therefore, venerable Brother [the bishop of Quimper], notify the members of the Catholic Association that, on the numerous occasions when We have reproved the partisans of liberal opinions, We have not had in view those who hate the Church and whom it would be useless to name; but rather those whom We have just indicated, who, preserving and supporting the hidden virus of the liberal principles that they have absorbed with milk, under the pretext that it is not contaminated with an evident malice and is not, according to them, detrimental to Religion, easily infect the minds, and thus propagate the seeds of those revolutions from which the world has been shaking for a long time.3
Nevertheless, and although the children of the world are more clever than the children of light, their ruses [of the enemies of the Church] would doubtless have less success if a great number among those who carry the name of Catholic did not extend to them a friendly hand. Yes, alas! There are those who seem to want to walk in agreement with our enemies, and do their best to establish an alliance between the light and the darkness, an accord between justice and iniquity, by means of those doctrines that are called “liberal-Catholic,” which, resting on the most pernicious principles, flatter the secular power when it invades spiritual things and impel minds to respect, or at least to tolerance, of the most iniquitous laws, absolutely as if it were not written that no one can serve two masters. Now these are assuredly more dangerous and more deadly than declared enemies. Both because they further their efforts without being noticed, perhaps without suspecting it…and because, living on the edge of formally condemned opinions, they give themselves a certain appearance of integrity and of irreproachable doctrine, thus alluring the imprudent lovers of conciliation and deceiving the honest people, who would revolt against a declared error. In this way they divide the minds, tear up unity, and weaken the forces that must be reunited in order to turn them all together against the enemy…4
We can do nothing but approve of your having undertaken to defend and to explain the decisions of our Syllabus, especially those which condemn the so-called Catholic Liberalism, which, counting a great number of adherents among upright men themselves, and seeming to deviate less from the truth, is more dangerous for the others; more easily deceives those who do not keep themselves on their guard; and, destroying the Catholic spirit imperceptibly and in a hidden manner, diminishes the forces of the Catholics and increases those of the enemy.5
Can Catholic Liberals dare, after such condemnations, to refuse the epithet of traitors, of turncoats, of dangerous enemies of the Church?
To finish with Catholic Liberalism considered in general, here is the judgement of an authorized witness: Emile Keller, French deputy in 1865, in his book The Syllabus of Pius IX—Pius IX and the Principles of 1789:
What is then this transaction which has been pursued for long years and which is formulated today in a manner more and more urgent? What place do they want to give to the Church in an edifice from which it was first to be excluded? Liberals and governors accept it willingly as an auxiliary. Their full independence, their sovereignty without limit, and their entire liberty of action are reserved outside it and its authority. They give up to it the realm of consciences, provided that on its side it leave politics to them and recognize the social efficacy of the modern ideas known by the name of principles of 1789. Captured by this seductive snare, many generous spirits do not understand that these principles, so moderate, can be rejected. Some go away from the Church, imagining, absurdly, that it really demands the sacrifice of progress and of liberty. Certain others, on the contrary, not daring to deny the virtue of the modern formulas, make laborious efforts to persuade the Church to accept, like them, the reconciliation that is offered to it. By dint of good will, they believe it proven to them that, some nuances aside, the principles of 1789 are pure Christian principles, that it would be artful to take possession of them and to bring them gradually and smoothly to be recognized and blessed by the Holy See.6
That is it! That is exactly what took place at the time of Vatican II: the Liberals succeeded in having the principles of 1789 blessed by the pope and by the Council. I will attempt to show this to you later.
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1 Liberalism and Catholicism, 1926.
2 To the pilgrims of Nevers, June, 1871.
3 Brief to a Catholic Circle in Quimper, 1873.
4 Brief to the Catholic Circle in Milan, 1873.
5 Brief to the editors of a Catholic newspaper in Rodez, December, 1876.
6 Op. cit., p. 13.