Long before his election, the great Pope Saint Pius X used to read, and re-read, the writings of the great French Cardinal Pie who issued this 1864 caution in a sermon:
Hear this maxim, O you, Catholics full of temerity, who so quickly adopt the ideas and the language of your time, you who speak of reconciling the faith and of reconciling the Church with the modern spirit and with the new law. And you who accept with so much confidence the most dangerous pursuits of what our age so pridefully labels "Science," see to what extent you are straying from the program set out by the great Apostle, "O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding the profane novelties of words, and oppositions of knowledge falsely so-called" (I Tim. 6:20). But take heed. With such temerities, one is soon led farther than he first had thought. And in placing themselves on the slope of profane novelties—in obeying the currents of so-called science—many have lost the Faith.
Have you not often been saddened, and taken fright, my venerable brothers, on hearing the language of certain men, who believe themselves still to be sons of the Church, men who still practice occasionally as Catholics and who often approach the Lord's Table? Do you still believe them to be sons, do you still believe them to be members of the Church, those who, wrapping themselves in such vague phrases as modern aspirations and the force of progress and civilization, proclaim the existence of a "consciousness of the laity," of a secular and political conscience opposed to the "conscience of the Church," against which they assume the right to react, for its correction and renewal? Ah! So many passengers, and even pilots, who, believing themselves to be yet in the barque, and playing with profane novelties and the lying science of their time, have already sunk and are in the abyss.
And now read this declaration from Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger:
Let us content ourselves here with stating that the text [of Gaudium et spes] plays the role of a counter-Syllabus to the measure that it represents an attempt to officially reconcile the Church with the world as it had become after 1789. On one hand, this visualization alone clarifies the ghetto complex that we mentioned before. On the other hand, it permits us to understand the meaning of this new relationship between the Church and the Modern World. "World" is understood here, at depth, as the spirit of modern times. The consciousness of being a detached group that existed in the Church viewed this spirit as something separate from herself and, after the hot as well as cold wars were over, she sought dialogue and cooperation with it.
We at ABE Ministry contacted Professor Herman NuDix, Professor of Progressivism at UCon (University of Continuity) for a comment on these wildly divergent ideas of how the Church ought to relate with the world, its ancient and permanent enemy.
Prof Herman NuDix says, The average layman is out of his depths in trying to analyse the deeper meaning of these two superficially different approaches to the world but, in reality, there is an absolute and unbreakable continuity at work here.
First of all, the plain and simple truth is that each Cardinal, although speaking in different ages, addresses the situation of the Church vis a vis the world and that, my friends, is an undeniable example of continuity.
Let us content ourselves here with stating that the text [of Gaudium et spes] plays the role of a counter-Syllabus to the measure that it represents an attempt to officially reconcile the Church with the world as it had become after 1789. On one hand, this visualization alone clarifies the ghetto complex that we mentioned before. On the other hand, it permits us to understand the meaning of this new relationship between the Church and the Modern World. "World" is understood here, at depth, as the spirit of modern times. The consciousness of being a detached group that existed in the Church viewed this spirit as something separate from herself and, after the hot as well as cold wars were over, she sought dialogue and cooperation with it.
We at ABE Ministry contacted Professor Herman NuDix, Professor of Progressivism at UCon (University of Continuity) for a comment on these wildly divergent ideas of how the Church ought to relate with the world, its ancient and permanent enemy.
Prof Herman NuDix says, The average layman is out of his depths in trying to analyse the deeper meaning of these two superficially different approaches to the world but, in reality, there is an absolute and unbreakable continuity at work here.
First of all, the plain and simple truth is that each Cardinal, although speaking in different ages, addresses the situation of the Church vis a vis the world and that, my friends, is an undeniable example of continuity.
The modern Magisterium desires to chat and be friends with the world, our ancient and permanent enemy.
And what, pray tell, do these men think the world wants from us, our friendship or our death?