Something is off with the Catholic Church today but for many people it’s hard to nail down exactly what’s amiss. Is it the modern music? the rambling homilies? the smarmy glad-handing before communion? the chatting and general lack of reverence inside the church? Or is it something deeper like political liberalism within the hierarchy or a spineless approach to confronting disturbing social trends? These things are bad, but they are all symptoms of a much more grave reality – the scourge of modernism that is rotting the Church from within.
Pope St. Pius X identified the philosophical trend of modernism and its impact on theology and the humanities in the early 20th century. His encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis, published in 1907, exposed the modernist heresy and warned the Church against its alluring ideas and wiley promoters. It was in Pascendi that he established the imprimatur and the nihil obstat as a means to provide the faithful with a safeguard against modernism in materials designed for their consumption. So what exactly is modernism, how has it affected the Church and how can we clear out the rot?
Modernism is essentially a philosophy that starts with the premise that God and the things of God are unknowable. Consequently, as applied to theology, the modernist would argue that any system of belief that purports to identify God’s revelation isn’t really true, but instead is particularly adept at eliciting from its believers a feeling of connectedness to the divine (which is unknowable). The modernist would say that through repeatable formulas and rituals, religions can elicit this feeling of connectedness and such formulas and rituals must be adapted to the times to continue to inspire believers. The modernist further would argue that the dogmas (defined truths) of these religions are also valid only insofar as they continue to appeal to a majority of believers and when they cease to perform their function, should be changed. To the modernist, religions are essentially interchangeable so long as they elicit that feeling of connectedness to the unknowable divine. The founders of the great religions of the world, to the modernist, are merely men who were singularly gifted at developing formulas that resonated with people in creating that connectedness.
Thus, the modernist arrogantly attempts to “explain away” the virtue of Faith as nothing more than a feeling – one that is equally valid for the Muslim, the Confucian, the Buddhist and the Mormon, as it is for the Catholic. And to the modernist, Jesus was a singularly gifted individual, but certainly not God – who is unknowable.
This is a short distillation of the more comprehensive treatment of modernism in Pascendi. But you can easily see how the modernist heresy could produce the symptoms listed above. If the purpose of religion is merely to elicit the feeling of connectedness to God, and the rites and rituals are a means to that end, and Jesus is not really God but just an inspired and talented leader, why not “update” the liturgy to focus more on the congregation and less on an unknowable God? Why not play tunes and sing lyrics that drive an emotional response, complete with clapping and dancing, instead of an intellectual appreciation, rooted in beauty, for a mysterious but present reality? And why not modify the doctrine of the Church to get with the times – such as communion for the divorced and remarried, or acceptance of contraception or homosexual acts – so long as that’s what a majority of people are induced to want?
It would appear that many bishops and priests have fallen into the modernist heresy without understanding its philosophical roots and adopting its theories outright, but the resulting damage is just as bad as if they were openly defiant heretics. For example, priests it seems are loathe to offer a homily on the four last things for fear of sounding “preachy,” if they even believe in death, judgment, heaven and hell. They won’t preach the hard sayings against the predominant sexual sins of western culture, or educate the faithful with sermons on actual virtue (not values). Instead you’re often likely to hear some variation of the tired and oft repeated homily of reaching out to invite others to the table with gestures of friendship. Or exhortations to get outside your comfort zone and don’t just cling to your traditions (which he’ll tell you need to be updated). Or you’ll hear homilies that “explain away” the mysteries of faith, including the divinity of Jesus (he had to be reminded of his “mission” by certain people), the real presence (Jesus is just as “present” in the liturgy of the Word; or the gathering of the community ensures the presence of God), miracles (the multiplication of the loaves was really an inspiration to share what was already there) and the sacraments (the community confers the sacraments by their presence and desire). The hard sayings don’t get preached because they are not believed by the preacher or for fear of squelching that “feeling” of connectedness and driving people away. But the modernist theories often get a full audience because it’s easier to obtain assent to something that sounds reasonable to a large group of uncritical, half-hearted believers than nurture a budding or questioning faith with a challenging truth about the human person.
Many other bishops and priests have fully embraced the modernist heresy and lionize its philosophical founders. They hold key positions in the Church, including within the halls of power at the Vatican and apparently have held such positions for decades. They are actively seeking to modify the dogmas of the Church on key moral teachings (see Reinhard Marx, recently appointed cardinal from Germany, and his drive against marriage and John Dew, recent cardinal from New Zealand who openly promotes acceptance of homosexual acts). Unfortunately, they seem to have a willing tool in the present pontiff and they have become openly hostile to opposition. Cardinal Muller’s removal from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Cardinal Burke’s removal from the Congregation for Divine Worship are two clear examples of such retribution. Another was the removal of the head of the Knights of Malta after he had fired an underling that sought to fund a group promoting contraception.
The papal letter Amoris Laetitia, casting doubt on the prohibition against communion for divorced and remarried Catholics, and the recent motu proprio, Magnum Principium, allowing local translations of the liturgy (meaning an end to the universality of the Church’s liturgy – except for the Tridentine rite) demonstrate the heights to which modernism has climbed within the Church. They are either direct attacks on the Church’s teaching or modernist attempts to further “update the formulas” (the Mass) to get the desired feeling of connectedness.
This rot within the Church produces a feeble faith that, weakened by a lack of intellectual exercise and devoid of any semblance of beauty, ultimately ceases to elicit even the promised emotional feeling of connectedness with the divine. How many strains of Rain Down or Pescatores can you listen to without rolling your eyes? And after all, if Church leaders infected with modernism are basically not real believers, but merely managers tasked with propagating (and updating) formulas to elicit an emotional response, what can be expected? We reap what we sow.
But what can be done? First, it is essential to counter the philosophical argument of modernism. A philosophy just offers a worldview to explain the meaning of life. The modernist philosophy offers nothing more than agnosticism at best, and atheism at worst. In the end, it’s pure nihilism (nothingness of life). Countering atheism, agnosticism or nihilism in general is nothing new for the Church. It takes either an examined, lived experience, or simple faith. Honestly pondering even the natural world takes you off the road to atheism. To arrive at faithful Catholicism having left the nihilist highway, one has to ask questions, seek truth and keep both eyes open in a study of human experience and the action of God. This is not an emotional path to faith. It is pure reason, aided by empirical evidence. A couple examples may demonstrate what is hard to put into words. Nobody’s life is without trials, but for those witnesses of fidelity to the time-honored teachings of the Church, such trials are absorbed, understood and accepted in a meaningful life offered to a loving God. The result is serenity and peace, the fruit of the Church’s understanding of the meaning of human suffering. Another example is the life of a Catholic witness, over an extended period, marked with the deliberate self-sacrifice modeled by Jesus Christ. The many tangible and intangible benefits conferred on those who are blessed to be loved by such a faithful Catholic believer are profound – expressions of gratitude must always fall short.
And so, modernism is merely agnosticism or atheism masquerading as authoritative belief – easy to counter philosophically for those willing to undertake the exercise. But the disingenuous modernist heretics within the hierarchy of the Church, who won’t leave, create a singular challenge. Catholic modernists in the Church’s hierarchy are clever in their approach – purporting to support the Church, while undermining her doctrines, as so eloquently described by Pope Saint Pius X in Pascendi. But now his censors and list of prohibited books are gone with Vatican II (abolished in 1965). The enemy is within the gates and has seized the reins of power. The Church acts within her hierarchy and so how can the modernist frauds be removed now?
The simple answer, one most likely scoffed at by the modernists who wield the whip, is prayer and sacrifice. The Church is God’s church. She is rotting from within because man is sinful. But she will not die. Let us storm heaven with pleas of deliverance and rosaries of reparation, calling out modernism by name. Let us implore God to preserve His church and make her beautiful again – a sanctuary for the faithful and an oasis for those thirsting for truth. Modernism will fall like all other heresies. In the meantime, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4).