(902) Mon 13 Oct 97 12:03 By: Richard Smith To: ALL Re: Sin of Liberalism 1/5 St: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ @EID:bd1c 234d6060 @MSGID: 1:203/9046.0 44247021 The other night I was on a friend's borrowed InterNet account, and I happened to stumble upon a very interesting book on the Catholic war against Liberalism. I'm going to publish some excerpts here, and if I get enough responses, I'd be glad to zip it up, UUEncode it, and post it for those who would like to have it for their home library of Xtian intolerance. Just let me know. There are some truly frightening things in this book and some very amusing things, as you shall see from the excerpts. If there is any doubt of the intentions of this author or his supporters, flip over to the epilogue to find the last, very telling, excerpt. Note to Judith, Lynda, and Katherine: In the first excerpt please find a lovely bit about Harpies. I've offset it with brackets so that you can find it easily. ------------------------------------------------------------ Liberalism is a Sin Translated And Adapted From The Spanish of Dr. Don Felix Sarda Y Salvany, By CONDE B. PALLEN, Ph.D., LL.D. INTRODUCTION Few errors have so firmly entrenched themselves for so long a time as has the Error of Liberalism. Few sins have been so misunderstood as has been the Sin of Liberalism. In reprinting this timely book, first printed in English in 1899, we hope to enlighten Catholics as to the causes and effect of and remedies for Liberalism. We dedicate this reprint to the Virgin Mother, Destroyer of all heresies. San Diego Catholics for Better Libraries P.O. Box 17034 San Diego, California 92117 Liberalism is a Sin Englished And Adapted From The Spanish of Dr. Don Felix Sarda Y Salvany, By Conde' B. Pallen, Ph.D., LL.D. St Louis, Mo. 1899 Published By B. Herder, 17 S. Broadway. PREFACE. In 1886 there appeared in Spain a little work under the title El Liberalismo es Pecado: "Liberalism Is A Sin," by Don Felix Sarda y Salvany, a priest of Barcelona and editor of a journal called La Revista Popular. The book excited considerable commotion. It was vigorously assailed by the Liberals. A Spanish Bishop, of a Liberal turn, instigated an answer to Dr. Sarda's work by another Spanish priest. Both books were sent to Rome praying the Sacred Congregation of the Index to put Dr. Sarda's work under the ban. The following letter, under date January 10, 1887, from the Sacred Congregation itself, explains the result of its consideration of the two volumes: Most Excellent Sir: The Sacred Congregation of the Index has received the denunciation of the little work bearing the title "El Liberalismo es Pecado" by Don Fexix Sarda y Salvany, a priest of your diocese; the denunciation (pg. iii) was accompanied at the same time by another little work entitled "El Proceso del Integrismo," that is "a refutation of the errors contained in the little work El Liberalismo es Pecado." The author of the second work is D. de Pazos, a canon of the diocese of Vich. Wherefore the Sacred Congregation has carefully examined both works, and decided as follows: In the first not only is nothing found contrary to sound doctrine, but its author, D. Felix Sarda merits great praise for his exposition and defense of the sound doctrine therein set forth with solidity, order and lucidity, and without personal offense to anyone. The same judgement, however, cannot be passed on the other work by D. de Pazos, for in matter it needs corrections. Moreover his injurious manner of speaking cannot be approved, for he inveighs rather against the person of D. Sarda, than against the latter's supposed errors. Therefore the Sacred Congregation has commanded D. de Pazos, admonished by his own Bishop, to withdraw his book, as far as he can, from circulation, and in future, if any discussion of the subject should arise, to abstain from all expressions personally injurious, according to the precept of true Christian charity; and this all the more (iv) since Our Holy Father Leo XIII., while he urgently recommends castigation of error, neither desires nor approves expressions personally injurious, especially when directed against those who are eminent for their doctrine and their piety. In communicating to you this order of the Sacred Congregation of the Index, that you may be able to make it known to the illustrious priest of your diocese, D. Sarda, for his peace of mind, I pray God to grant you all happiness and prosperity and subscribe myself with great respect, Your most obedient servant, Fr. Jerome Scheri, O.P. Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of the Index. To the Most Rev. Jacobo Catala et Alboso, Bishop of Barcelona. The following short chapters on Liberalism are mainly and substantially Dr. Sarda's book, put into English, and adapted to our American conditions. Their need and their use will be best understood and appreciated by their perusal. Note: Numbers in parenthesis throughout the text are the page numbers of the original reprint in 1963. CONTENTS I What Begets Liberalism 9 II. What Liberalism Is 16 III. Liberalism A Sin 22 IV. The Gravity Of The Sin Of Liberalism 27 V. The Degrees Of Liberalism 31 VI. Catholic Liberalism Or Liberal Catholicism 36 VII. Intrinsic Causes Of Liberal Catholicism 40 VIII. Shadow And Penumbra 46 IX. Two Kinds Of Liberalism 50 X. Liberalism Of All Shades Condemned By The Church 53 XI. The Solemn Condemnation Of Liberalism By The Syllabus 60 XII. Like Liberalism But Not Liberalism, Liberalism but not Like It 64 XIII. The Name Liberalism 69 XIII. Liberalism And FreeThought 76 XIV. Can A Liberal Be In Good Faith 80 (vii) XV. The Symptoms Of Liberalism 86 XVI. Christian Prudence And Liberalism 92 XVII. Liberalism And Literature 97 XVIII. Charity And Liberalism 103 XIX. Polemical Charity And Liberalism 107 XX. Personal Polemics And Liberalism 115 XXI. A Liberal Objection To Ultramontane Methods 119 XXII. The "Civilta Cattolica's" Charity To Liberals 123 XXIII. A Liberal Sophism And The Church's Diplomacy 128 XXIV. How Catholics Fall Into Liberalism 133 XXV. Permanent Causes of Liberalism 137 XXVI. How To Avoid Liberalism 141 XXVII. How To Distinguish Catholic From Liberal Works 146 XXVIII. Liberalism And Journalism 151 XXIX. Can Catholics And Liberals Ever Unite 155 XXX. An Illusion Of Liberal Catholics 160 XXXI. Liberalism And Authority In Particular Cases 164 XXXII. Liberalism As It Is In This Country 170 (viii) > Heresy has never been so insidious as under its present > form of Liberalism. Its range is so wide that it touches > upon every note in the scale, and finds an easy disguise > in its protean facilities. But its most fatal shaft is in > its plea for "liberty of mind." This in its own eyes is > its cardinal virtue. "Intellectual freedom from dogmatism" > is its boast, a boast in reality the mask of ignorance and > pride. To meet such an enemy requires no ordinary courage > guarded by a sleepless vigilance. When encountered it is > obligatory upon the Catholic conscience to resist it with > all the powers of the soul. Heresy and all its works are > sins; Liberalism is the root of heresy, the tree of evil > in whose branches (31) all the harpies of infidelity find > ample shelter; it is today the evil of all evils. It is not only through the avenues of disordered passions that this spiritual disease may gain an entrance; it may make its inroad through the intellect, and this under a disguise often calculated to deceive the unwary and incautious. The Trojans admitted the enemy into their walls under the impression that they were actually securing a valuable acquisition to their safety, and today their fatal experience has come down to us in the proverb: "Beware of the Greeks when they bring gifts." Intellectual torpidity, inexperience, ignorance, indifference, complaisance, or even virtues (10) such as benevolence, generosity, and pity may be the unsuspecting way open the foe, and lo! We are surprised to find him in possession of the citadel. We live in the midst of this religious anarchy. Fiftythree millions of our population is antiCatholic. From this mass, heretical and infidel, exhales an atmosphere filled with germs poisonous and fatal to Catholic life, if permitted to take root in the Catholic heart. The mere force of gravitation, which the larger mass ever exercises upon the smaller, is a power which the most energetic vigor alone can resist. A deadly inertia under this dangerous influence is apt to creep over the souls of the incautious and is only to be overcome by the liveliest exercise of Catholic faith. To live amidst an heretical and infidel population without enervation requires a robust religious constitution. And to this danger we are daily exposed, ever coming into contact in a thousand ways, in almost every (14) relation of life, with anti Catholic thought and customs. But outside of this spiritual inertia, a danger rather passive than active in its influence, our nonCatholic surroundings beget a still greater menace. Protestantism naturally begets toleration of error. Rejecting the principle of authority in religion, it has neither criterion nor definition of faith. On the principle that every individual or sect may interpret the deposit of revelation according to the dictates of private judgement, it gives birth to endless differences and contradictions. Impelled by the law of its own impotence, through lack of any decisive voice of authority in matters of faith, it is forced to recognize as valid and orthodox any belief that springs from the exercise of private judgement. Therefore does it finally arrive, by force of its own premises, at the conclusion that one creed is as good as another; it then seeks to (16) shelter its inconsistency under the false plea of liberty of conscience. Belief is not imposed by a legitimately and divinely constituted authority, but springs directly and freely from the unrestricted exercise of the individual's reason or caprice upon the subjectmatter of revelation. The individual or sect interprets as it pleases, rejecting or accepting what it chooses. This is popularly called liberty of conscience. Accepting this principle, Infidelity on the same plea rejects all revelation, and Protestantism, which handed over the premise, is powerless to protest against the conclusion; for it is clear that one, who under the plea of rational liberty has the right to repudiate any part of revelation that may displease him, can not logically quarrel with one, who on the same ground repudiates the whole. If one creed is as good as another on the plea of rational liberty, on the same plea no creed is as good as any. Taking the field with this fatal weapon of Rationalism, Infidelity has stormed and taken the very citadel of Protestantism helpless against the foe of its own making. Such is the mainspring of the heresy constantly dinned into our ears, flooding our current literature and our press. It is against this that we have to be perpetually vigilant. The more so as it insidiously attacks us on the grounds of a false charity and in the name of a false liberty. Nor does it appeal only to us on the ground of religious toleration. Hence we find Liberalism laying down as the basis of its propaganda the following principles: XXXIII. The absolute sovereignty of the individual in his entire independence of God and God's authority. XXXIV. The absolute sovereignty of society in its entire independence of everything which does not proceed from itself. (18) XXXV. Absolute civil sovereignty in the implied right of the people to make their own laws in entire independence and utter disregard of any other criterion than the popular will expressed at the polls and in parliamentary majorities. XXXVI. Absolute freedom of thought in politics, morals, or in religion. The unrestrained liberty of the press. Helping \/tian To Stop /\tortion \ Richard Smith --- timEd 1.01 * Origin: Syr Undry BBS ):> Bendigaid };> (916) 481-1301 (1:203/9046) SEEN-BY: 12/12 112/4 218/890 1001 270/101 353/250 396/1 3615/50 51 SEEN-BY: 3804/180 @PATH: 203/9046 1102 992 396/1 3615/50 218/1001 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (903) Mon 13 Oct 97 11:47 By: Richard Smith To: ALL Re: Sin of Liberalism 2/5 St: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ @EID:bdec 234d5de0 @MSGID: 1:203/9046.0 442429d9 < . . . Continued From Previous Post> Such are the radical principles of Liberalism. In the assumption of the absolute sovereignty of the individual, that is, his entire independence of God, we find the common source of all the others. To express them all in one term in the order of ideas, they are: RATIONALISM or the doctrine of the absolute sovereignty of human reason. Here human reason is made the measure and sum of truth. Hence we have individual, social and political Rationalism, the corrupt fountain head of liberal principles: absolute freedom of worship, the supremacy of the State, secular education repudiating any connection with religion, marriage sanctioned and legitimatized by the State alone, etc.; in one word, which synthesizes all, SECULARIZATION, which denies religion any active intervention in the concerns of public and of private life (19) whether it orate or assassinate; whether it call itself Liberty or Government or the State or Humanity or Reason, or what not, its fundamental characteristic is an uncompromising opposition to the Church. Liberalism is a world complete in itself; it has its maxims, its fashions, its art, its literature, its diplomacy, its laws, its conspiracies, its ambuscades. It is the world of Lucifer, disguised in our times under the name of Liberalism, in radical opposition and in perpetual warfare against that society composed of the Children of God, the Church of Jesus Christ. Catholic dogma is the authoritative declaration of revealed truth, or a truth consequent upon revelation, by its infallibly constituted exponent. This logically implies the obedient acceptance of the dogma on the part of the individual and of society. Liberalism refuses to acknowledge this rational obedience and denies the authority. (23) It asserts the sovereignty of the individual and the social reason, and enthrones Rationalism in the seat of Authority. It knows no dogma except the dogma of selfassertion. Hence is it heresy fundamental and radical, the rebellion of the human intellect against God. The divinity of Jesus Christ is beyond its horoscope. The Church is outside its comprehension. The submission of human reason to the Word of Christ or its divinely constituted exponent is to it intolerable. It is, therefore, the radical and universal denial of all divine truth and Christian dogma, the primal type of all heresy, and the supreme rebellion against the authority of God and His Church. With Lucifer its maxim is: "I will not serve." Such is the general negation uttered by Liberalism. The law, therefore, imposed by the Eternal Reason upon the creature, must be the principle or rule of morality. Hence obedience and submission in the moral order is an absolute requisite of morality. But Liberalism has proclaimed the absurd principle of the absolute sovereignty of human reason; it denies any reason beyond itself and asserts its (26) independence in the order of knowledge, and hence in the order of action or morality. Here we have morality without law, without order, freedom to do what one pleases, or what comes to the same thing, morality which is not morality, for morality implies the idea not only of direction, but also essentially demands that of restraint and limitation under the control of law. Liberalism in the order of action is license, recognizing no principle or rule beyond itself. Blasphemy, for instance, which directly attacks God Himself, is a sin of much graver character than theft, which directly attacks man. With the exception of formal hate against God, which constitutes the deadliest of all sins and of which the creature is rarely culpable unless he be in Hell, the gravest of all sins are those against faith. The reason is evident. Faith is the foundation of the supernatural order, and sin is sin in so far as it attacks this supernatural order at this or the other point; hence that is the greatest sin which attacks this order at its very foundations. To destroy the foundations is to destroy the entire superstructure. To cut off the branch of a tree will not kill it; but to lay the ax to the trunk or the roots is fatal to its life. Henceforth it bears neither blossom nor fruit. St. Augustine, Cited by St. Thomas, characterizes sin against faith in these words: Hoc est peccatum quo tenentur cuncta peccata. "This the sin which comprehends all other sins." Hence heretical doctrines, and works inspired by them, constitute the greatest of all sins with the exception of the formal hate against God, of which only the demons in hell and the damned are capable. Liberalism then, which is heresy, and all the works of Liberalism, which are heretical works, are the gravest sins known in the code of the Christian law. (29) Liberalism is, therefore, a greater sin than blasphemy, theft, adultery, homicide, or any other violation of the law of God, save in such case as where one acts in good faith, in ignorance, or thoughtlessly. If men were absolutely logical and followed the premises which they lay down, to their ultimate conclusions, they would become angels or devils in working out the consequences according to the goodness or badness of their first principles. But men are not always logical; they often stop short of the consequences logically flowing from the premises preceding. We, therefore, as a rule, see the good only half good and the bad not altogether bad. Hence we find few outandout Liberals. Not many go the full length of their principles. They are nevertheless true Liberals, that is, veritable disciples, partisans or followers of Liberalism, ranging themselves under the banner either as a school, sect, or party. Again, there are Liberals who accept such and such conclusions or their application, but scrupulously repudiate the principles whence they flow. They believe, for instance, in absolutely secularizing education, and yet reject the doctrine of atheism, which is the only soil congenial to its (33) growth. They applaud the result, while they repudiate the cause. From the Baptized or even surpliced Liberal, who boasts his breadth of mind in his easy toleration of error, to the avowed atheist who hurls his open defiance against God, the difference is only one of (34) degree. One simply stands on a higher rung of the same ladder than the other. Observe when pushed to the wall, how all alike claim the same denomination of liberal. They may even regard each other with aversion, but all invoke the same appellation as finally descriptive of each. Their common criterion is "liberality" and "independence of mind;" the degree of application will be measured by the individual disposition, the more or less in the matter depending upon the variety of elements in the makeup of the individual and his surroundings; selfinterest with one, temperament with another, education with a third impeding a too rapid gait on the road to absolute Liberalism; human respect may moderate another, serving as a balance weight to his rashness; family or school or business relations may clog the footsteps of a fourth. A thousand and one things may serve as a break to a too accelerated descent, not to mention that satanic prudence which counsels a conservative advance in order not to alarm the timid. This last fashion of procedure often serves as a mask to the most advanced Liberals, who hide their designs under the appearance of a frank demagoguery. Peace in war is an incongruity. Foes in the midst of battle cannot well be friends. Where the pressure of conflicting forces is intensest there is little opportunity of reconciliation. Yet this absurdity and contradiction we find in the odious and repulsive attempt to unite Liberalism with Catholicism. The monstrosity resulting is what is known as the Liberal Catholic or the (36) Catholic Liberal. Strange as it may seem, Catholics with good intentions have paid tribute to this absurdity and indulged the vain hope of peace with the eternal enemy. To the promoters of Catholic Liberalism the thing appears easy enough. "It is admirable," they say, "for the individual reason to be subject to the law of God if it so wishes, but we must distinguish between the public and the private reason, especially in an age like ours. The modern State does not recognize God or the Church. In the conflict of different religious creeds the public reason must stand neutral and impartial. Hence the necessary independence (37) of the public reason. The State as State can have no religion. Let the simple citizen if he wishes, submit to the revelation of Jesus Christ, but the statesman and the man in public life must comport himself as if no revelation existed." Now all this means civil or social atheism. It means that society is independent of God, its Author; that while individuals may recognize their dependence on the divine law, civil society should not; a distinction whose sophism is founded on an intolerable contradiction. Philosophy and theology teach that there are two kinds of atheism, doctrinal or speculative, and practical. The first consists in an open and direct denial of the existence of God; the second consists in acting and living without denying the existence of (50) God, but yet as if He did not really exist. Those who profess the first are called theoretical or doctrinal atheists; those who live according to the second, practical atheists: the latter are the more numerous. It is the same with Liberalism and Liberals. There are theoretical and practical Liberals. The first are the dogmatizers of the sect philosophers, the professors, the controversialists, the journalists. They teach Liberalism in books, in discourses, in articles, by argument or by authority, in conformity with a rationalistic criterion in disguised or open opposition to the criterion of the divine and supernatural revelation of Jesus Christ. To effect a confusion of ideas is an old scheme of the Devil. Not to understand clearly and precisely is generally the source of intellectual error. In time of schism and heresy, to cloud and distort the proper sense of words is a fruitful artifice of Satan, and it is as easy to lay snares for the intellectually proud as for the innocent. Every heresy in the Church bears testimony to Satan's success in deceiving the human intellect by obscuring and perverting the meaning of words. Arianism was a battle of words and owed its longcontinued success to its verbal chicanery. Pelagianism and Jansenism showed the same characteristic, and today Liberalism is as cunning and obscure as any of its heretical predecessors. (64) So has it always been. All heresies have begun in verbal disputes and ended in sanguinary conflicts of ideas. St. Paul exhorts Timothy to be on his guard not only against false science (oppositiones falsi nominis scientie) but also against profane novelties of words (profanas vocum novitates). What would the great apostle of the nations say if, today, he saw Catholics decorating themselves with the title of Liberal, when that term stands in such violent and open antithesis to all that is Catholic? It is not merely a question of words, but of what words represent. It is a question of truth and salvation. No; you cannot be a Liberal Catholic; incompatibles cannot be reconciled. You cannot assume this reprobated name although you may be able by subtle sophisms to discover some secret way of reconciling it with your faith. Christian charity will not defend you, (75) although you may repeatedly invoke it and would make it synonymous with the toleration of error. The first condition of charity is not to violate the truth, and charity cannot be the snare to surprise faith into the support of error. While we may admit the sincerity of those who are not Catholic, their error must always be held up to reprobation. We may pity them in their darkness, but we can never abet their error by ignoring it or tolerating it. Beyond dispute no Catholic can be consistently called Liberal. In our day the Catholic world, with as much justice as reason, attributes impiety to the quality of freethought, whether in a person, a journal or an institution. Freethinker is an odious epithet which few are willing to accept, but which many justly bear in spite of their protestations. They chafe under the appellation of the word, but find no inconvenience in being all that it implies. Persons, societies, books, governments which reject, in matters of faith and morals, the only and exclusive criterion of the Catholic Church are Liberals. They acknowledge themselves to be Liberals, they feel honored to be so recognized, and never dream of scandalizing anybody except us terrible irreconcilables. Now change the expression; instead of Liberals call them freethinkers they resent the epithet as a calumny and grow indignant at the insult, as they term it. But why this excruciating tenderness, this delicate sensitiveness over the variations of a simple term? Have you not, dear friends, banished from your conscience, your books, your journal and your society all recognition of the supreme authority of the Church? Have you not raised up as sole and fundamental criterion of your conduct and your thought your own untrammeled reason? Very properly then do you say that you are Liberal and no one will dispute the title with you. But you should remember that (77) the very principle, which makes you Liberal, constitutes you freethinkers. Every Liberal, no matter of what degree or shade, is ipso facto a freethinker, and every freethinker, as odious as the title may seem according to social conventionalities, is only a logical Liberal. He is simply a Liberal following his premises to their conclusions. This doctrine is as precise and as exact as a mathematical proposition. It is based on the laws of the strictest logic. It is a simple syllogism, whose premise is Liberalism and whose conclusion freethought. Helping \/tian To Stop /\tortion \ Richard Smith --- timEd 1.01 * Origin: Syr Undry BBS ):> Bendigaid };> (916) 481-1301 (1:203/9046) SEEN-BY: 12/12 112/4 218/890 1001 270/101 353/250 396/1 3615/50 51 SEEN-BY: 3804/180 @PATH: 203/9046 1102 992 396/1 3615/50 218/1001 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (904) Mon 13 Oct 97 11:50 By: Richard Smith To: ALL Re: Sin of Liberalism 3/5 St: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ @EID:7dbd 234d5e40 @SPLIT: 13 Oct 97 19:00:31 @203/9046 183 01/02 +++++++++++ @MSGID: 1:203/9046.0 4424ad00 < . . . Continued From Previous Post> In the history of heresy we frequently find some individuals even many who in spite of themselves, are dragged into the torrent of error for no other reason than their supreme ignorance. But it must be admitted that, if ever an error has been deprived of any excuse on this score, that error is Liberalism as it exists today. Most heresies, which have rent the bosom of the Church, have attempted to disguise their errors under an exterior of affected piety. Jansenism, perhaps the most subtle of all heresies, won over a great number of adherents by its cunning simulation of sanctity. Its morals were rigid to the extreme; its dogmas formidable; the exterior conduct of its promoters ascetic and apparently enlightened. It wore the visage of a saint, while at heart it reeked with the corruption of pride. The majority of ancient heresies turned upon every subtle points of doctrine, which only the skilled theologian could discern, and upon which the ignorant multitude could give no judgement save such as they received in confidence from their leaders. By a very natural consequence, when the hierarchy of a diocese fell into error, most of his subordinates, clerics and laity, full of confidence in their pastor, fell with (81) him. This was all the easier owing to the difficulty of communication with Rome in ancient times, when the infallible voice of the Universal Pastor could not readily reach the flock in parts remote from the Chair of Peter. The diffusion of many ancient heresies, which were mostly purely theological, was nearly always due to this cause. Hence we find St. Jerome crying out in the fourth century: Ingemuit universus orbis se esse Arianum: "The whole world groaned to find itself Arian." This also explains how in the midst of great schisms and great heresies, such as the Greek schisms and Anglican heresies, there may be numbers of souls in whom the roots of the true faith are not dead, although in its exterior profession this faith may appear deformed and vicious. Such was the case in England for many years after the rebellion of Henry VIII., and such in some instances is the case in our own times; for the ready acceptance of the true faith by many English converts, of recent years, bears ample witness to the vitality of the faith in souls so grossly betrayed into heresy by apostate guides three centuries ago. Such souls united to the mystical body of the Church by Baptism, to its soul by interior sanctifying grace, are able to gain eternal salvation with ourselves. (82) The new doctrines, which it preached and which it wished to substitute for ancient truth, had nothing abstract nor metaphysical; it rejected everything but brutal facts, which betrayed it as the offspring of Satan and the enemy of mankind. The terrors of the French Revolution were the evidence of its origin as sprung from the corruptions of a society that had abandoned God and battened on the bestial results of Voltarian skepticism. No wonder it avoided the abstract and the metaphysical to revel in the atrociousdeeds of a bloody revolution which proclaimed the absolute sovereignty of man against his Creator and the Church. To facilitate the matter we will divide Liberals, whether persons or writings, into three classes: 1. Extreme Liberals; 2. Moderate Liberals; 3. Quasi Liberals or those only tainted with Liberalism. We will essay a description of each of these types. The study of their physiognomy will not be without interest and profit; for in the types we shall find a rule for our guidance in distinguishing Liberalism in its practical details. The Extreme Liberal is easily recognized; he does not attempt to deny or conceal his perversity. He is the declared enemy of the Pope, of priests, of everything ecclesiastical; a thing has only to be sacred to rouse his implacable wrath; priestcraft is his favorite shibboleth. He subscribes for all the most violent and incendiary journals, the more impious and blasphemous the better to his liking. He is ready to go to the furthermost conclusions of his baneful system. His premise of destruction once laid down, his conclusion of nihilism is a mere matter of logic. He would put into practical execution with pleasure and exultation if circumstances permitted. He is a revolutionist, socialist, anarchist. He glories in living a life devoid of all religion. He belongs to secret societies, died in their embrace, and is buried by their ritual. He has always defied religion and dies in his defiance. The moderate Liberal is just as bad as his extreme confrere; but he takes good care not to appear so. Social conventionalities and (87) good manners are every thing to him; the rest is of little importance. Provided his iniquity is kidgloved, it finds ready extenuation in his own mind. The niceties of polite society preserved, his liberalism knows no bounds. He would not burn a convent that would appear too brutal; but the convent once burned he has no scruple in seizing upon the outraged property. The cheap impiety of a penny paper grates on his wellbred nerves; the vulgar blasphemy of Ingersoll he deprecates; but let the same impiety and the same blasphemy appear in the columns of a socalled reputable journal or be couched in the silken phraseology of a Huxley in the name of science, and he applauds the polished sin. It is with him a question of manner not matter. At the mere mention of the name of a nihilistic or socialistic club he is thrown into a cold sweat, for there, he declares, the masses are seduced into principles which lead to the destruction of the foundations of society; yet, according to him, there is no danger, no inconvenience in a free lyceum where the same principles are elegantly debated and sympathetically applauded; for who could dare to condemn the scientific discussion of social problems? The moderate Liberal does not detest the Pope; he may even express admiration for (88) his sagacity; he only blames certain pretensions of the Roman Curia and certain exaggerations of Ultramontanism, which do not fall in with the trend of modern thought. He may even like priests, above all those who are enlightened, that is, such as have caught the twang of modern progress; as for fanatics and reactionaries he simply avoids or pities them. He may even go to Church and, stranger still, sometimes approach the sacraments; but his maxim is, in the Church to live as the world lives, according to the times in which one is born and not obstinately swim against the stream. He dies with the priest on one side, his infidel literature on the other and imagines that his Creator will applaud his breadth of mind. The Catholic simply tainted with Liberalism is generally a good man and sincerely pious; he exhales nevertheless an odor of Liberalism in everything he says, writes or takes up. Like Madam de Sevigne he can say, "I am not the rose, but standing by it, I have caught some of its perfume." This courageous man reasons, speaks, and acts as a Liberal without knowing it. His strong point is charity; he is charity itself. What horror fills his soul at the exaggerations of the Ultramontane press! To treat as a liar (89) the man who propagates false ideas, is, in the eyes of this singular theologian, to sin against the Holy Spirit.. To him the falsifier is simply misguided; it is not the poor fellow's fault; he has, simple soul, been misled. We ought neither to resist nor combat him; we must strive to attract him by soft words and pretty compliments. How the Devil must chuckle over the mushy charity held out as a bait to abet his own cause! To smother evil under an abundance of good is the tainted Catholic's favorite maxim, read one day by chance in Balmes, and the only thing he has ever retained of the great Spanish philosopher. From the Gospel he is careful to cite only those texts flavored with honey and milk. The terrible invectives of our Lord against Pharisaism astonish and confound him; they seem to be an excess of language on the part of our Divine Savior! He reserves these denunciatory texts to use against those provoking Ultramontanes, who every day compromise, by their exaggerated and harsh language, the cause of a religion all peace and love. Against them his Liberalism, ordinarily so sweet and gentle, grows bitter and violent. Against them his zeal flames up, his polemics grow sharp and his charity aggressive. In a celebrated discourse delivered apropos certain accusations (90) against Louis Veuillot, Pere Felix once cried out, "Gentlemen, let us love and respect even our friends." But no, our Catholic tainted with Liberalism will do nothing of the kind. He saves the treasures of his tolerance and his charity for the sworn enemies of the faith! What more natural? Does not the poor man want to attract them? On the other hand for the most heroic defenders of the faith he has only sarcasm and invective. Let us illustrate. When Arnold's Light of Asia appeared not a few Catholics joined in the chorus of fulsome praise which greeted it. How charming, how beautiful, how tender, how pathetic, how humane; what lofty morality, what exquisite sentiment! Now what was the real purport of the book and what was its essence? To lift up Gautama, the founder of Budhism, at the expense of Jesus Christ, the Founder of Christianity! The intention was to show that Gautama was equally a divine teacher with as high an aspiration, as great a mission, as lofty a morality as our Divine Lord Himself. This was the object of the book; what was its essence? A falsification of history by weaving a series of poetical legends around a character, about whose actual life practically nothing is known; but not only this; the character was built upon the model of Our Lord, which the author had in his own mind as the precious heirloom of Christianity, and his Gautama, whom he intended to standout as at least the divine equal of the Founder of Christianity, (100) became in his hands in reality a mere echo of Christ, the image of Christ, made to rival the Word made flesh! Buddhism in the borrowed garments of Christianity was thus made to appeal to the ideals of Christian peoples, and gaining a footing in their admiration and affections, to usurp the throne in the Christian sanctuary. Here was a work of literary merit, although it has been greatly exaggerated in this respect, praised extravagantly by some Catholics, who in their excessive desire to appear impartial failed or refused to see in Edwin Arnold's Light of Asia a most vicious antiChristian book! What difference does it make whether a book be excellent in a literary sense or not, if its effect be the loss of souls and not their salvation? What if the weapon in the hands of the assassin be bright or not, if it be fatal? Though spiritual assassination be brilliant it is none the less deadly. Heresy under a charming disguise is a thousand times more dangerous than heresy exposed to the harsh and arid garb of the scholastic syllogism, through which the death's skull grins in unadorned hideousness. Arianism had its poets to propagate its errors in popular verse. Lutheranism had its humanists amongst whom the elegant Erasmus shone as a brilliant writer. (101) Arnauld, Nicole, Pascal threw the glamour of their belles lettres over the serpentine doublings of Jansenism. Voltaire's wretched infidelity won its frightful popularity from the grace of his style and the flash of his wit. Shall we, against whom they aimed the keenest and deadliest shafts, contribute to their name and their renown! Shall we assist them in fascinating and corrupting youth! Shall we crown these contemners of our faith with the laurels of our praises, and laud them for the very qualities which alone make them dangerous! And for what purpose? That we may appear impartial? No; impartiality is not permissible when it is distorted to the offense of truth, whose rights are imprescriptible. A woman of bad life is infamous, be she ever so beautiful, and the more beautiful, the more dangerous. Shall we praise Liberal books out of gratitude? Follow the Liberals themselves in this, far more prudent than we; they do not recommend and praise our books whatever they be. They, with the instinct of evil, fully appreciate where the danger lies. They either seek to discredit us or pass us by in silence. Si quis non amat Dominum Nostrum Jesum Christum sit anathema, says St. Paul. Liberal literature is the written (102) hatred of our Lord and his Church. If its blasphemy were open, direct, no Catholic would tolerate it for an instant; is it any more tolerable because, like a courtesan, it seeks to disguise its sordid features by the artifice of paint and powder? It follows, therefore, that we can love our neighbor, when displeasing him, when opposing him, when causing him some material injury and even, on certain occasions, when depriving him of life. All is reduced to this in short: Whether in the instance where we displease, oppose or humiliate him, it is or is not for his own good, or for the good of someone whose rights are superior to his, or simply for the greater service of God. If it is shown, that in displeasing or offending our neighbor, we act for his (104) good, it is evident that we love him even when opposing or crossing him. The physician cauterizing his patient or cutting off his gangrened limb may none the less love him. When we correct the wicked by restraining or by punishing them none the less do we love them. This is charity and perfect charity. It is often necessary to displease or offend one person, not for his own good, but to deliver another from the evil he is inflicting. It is then an obligation of charity to repel the unjust violence of the aggressor; one may inflict as much injury on the aggressor as is necessary for the defense. Such would be the case should one see a highwayman attacking a traveler. In this instance, to kill, wound, or at least take such measures as to render the aggressor impotent, would be an act of true charity. This charity is practiced in relation to our neighbor when in his own interest, he is crossed, humiliated and chastised. it is practiced in relation to a third party, --- timEd 1.01 * Origin: Syr Undry BBS ):> Bendigaid };> (916) 481-1301 (1:203/9046) SEEN-BY: 12/12 112/4 218/890 1001 270/101 353/250 396/1 3615/50 51 SEEN-BY: 3804/180 @PATH: 203/9046 1102 992 396/1 3615/50 218/1001 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (905) Mon 13 Oct 97 11:50 By: Richard Smith To: ALL Re: 2 Sin of Liberalism 3/5 St: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ @EID:ea52 234d5e40 @SPLIT: 13 Oct 97 19:00:31 @203/9046 183 02/02 +++++++++++ when he is defended from the unjust aggression of another, as when he is protected from the contagion of error by unmasking its authors and abettors and showing them in their true light as iniquitous and pervert, by holding them up to the contempt, horror and execration of all. It is practiced in relation to God when, for His glory and in His service, it becomes necessary to silence all human considerations, to trample under foot all human (106) respect, to sacrifice all human interests, and even life itself to attain this highest of all ends. All this is Catholic inflexibility and inflexible Catholicity in the practice of that pure love which constitutes sovereign charity. The saints are the types of this unswerving and sovereign fidelity to God, the heroes of charity and religion. Because in our times there are so few true inflexibles in the love of God, so also are there few uncompromisers in the order of charity. Liberal charity is condescending, affectionate, even tender in appearance, but at bottom it is an essential contempt for the true good of men, of the supreme interests of truth and of God. It is human selflove usurping the throne of he Most High and demanding that worship which belongs to God alone. Helping \/tian To Stop /\tortion \ Richard Smith --- timEd 1.01 * Origin: Syr Undry BBS ):> Bendigaid };> (916) 481-1301 (1:203/9046) SEEN-BY: 12/12 112/4 218/890 1001 270/101 353/250 396/1 3615/50 51 SEEN-BY: 3804/180 @PATH: 203/9046 1102 992 396/1 3615/50 218/1001 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (906) Mon 13 Oct 97 11:52 By: Richard Smith To: ALL Re: Sin of Liberalism 4/5 St: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ @EID:bc0c 234d5e80 @MSGID: 1:203/9046.0 442429d7 < . . . Continued From Previous Post> The authors and propagators of heretical doctrines are soldiers with poisoned weapons in their hands. Their arms are the book, (116) the journal, the lecture, their personal influence. Is it sufficient to dodge their blows? Not at all; the first thing necessary is to demolish the combatant himself. When he is hors de combat, he can do no more mischief. It is therefore perfectly proper not only to discredit any book, journal or discourse of the enemy, but it is also proper, in certain cases, to even discredit his person; for in warfare, beyond question, the principal element is the person engaged, as the gunner is the principal factor in an artillery fight and not the cannon, the powder and the bomb. It is thus lawful, in certain cases, to expose the infamy of a Liberal opponent, to bring his habits into contempt, and drag his name in the mire. Yes, this is permissible, permissible in prose, in verse, in caricature, in a serious vein or in badinage, by every means and ;method within reach. The only restriction is not to employ a lie in the service of justice. This never. Under no pretext may we sully the truth, even to the dotting of an i. As a French writer says: "Truth is the only charity allowed in history," and, we may add, in the defense of religion and society. The Liberals tell us that our violent methods of warfare against them are not in conformity with the Pope's counsels to moderation and charity. Has he not exhorted Catholic writers to a love of peace and union; to avoid harsh, aggressive and personal polemics? How then can we Ultramontanes reconcile the Holy Father's wishes with our fierce methods? Let us consider the force of the Liberals' objection. To whom does the Holy Father address these repeated admonitions? Always to the Catholic press, to Catholic journalists, to those who are supposed to be worthy of the name. These counsels to moderation and charity, therefore, are always addressed to Catholics, discussing with other Catholics free questions, i.e., not involving established principles of faith and morality, and do not in any sense apply to Catholics waging a mortal combat with the declared enemies of the faith. There is no doubt that the Pope here makes no allusion to the incessant battles between Catholics and Liberals, for the simple reason that Catholicity is truth and (119) Liberalism heresy, between which there can be no peace, but war to the death. It is certain by consequence, therefore, that the Pope intends his counsels to apply to our family quarrels, unhappily much too frequent; and that by no means does he seek to forbid us from waging an unrelenting stiff with the eternal enemies of the Church, whose hands, filled with deadly weapons, are ever lifted against the faith and its defenders. Common sense itself shows this. Imagine a general in the midst of a raging battle issuing an order to his soldiers not to injure the enemy too severely! "Be careful! Don't hurt the enemy! Attention there! Don't aim at the heart!" What more be said! Pius IX has given us an an explanation of the proper meaning of his words. On a memorable occasion he calls the sectaries of the Commune demons, and worse than demons the sectaries of Liberalism. Who then need fear to thunderbolt such an enemy with epithets too harsh and severe? (121) In vain do the Liberals cite the words of Leo XIII in the Encyclical Cum Multa, exhorting Catholics to avoid violence in the discussion of the sacred rights of the Church, and to rely rather upon the weight of reason to gain victory; for the words have reference to polemics between Catholics discussing the best means to preserve their common cause, and by no means apply as a rule to govern polemics with the sectaries of Liberalism. The intrinsic evidence of the encyclical proves this beyond cavil. The Pope concludes by exhorting all associations and individual Catholics to a still closer and more intimate union, and, after pointing out the inestimable advantages of such a union, he instances, as the means of preserving it, that moderation of language and charity of which we are speaking. The argument is plain: the Pope recommends moderation and charity to Catholic writers, as a means of preserving peace and mutual union. Clearly this peace and union is between Catholics and not between Catholics and their enemies. Therefore the moderation and charity recommended by the Pope to Catholic writers applies only to Catholic polemics between Catholics on free questions. Would it not be absurd to imagine that there could be any union between truth and error, therefore between (122) the advocates of truth on the one side and error on the other? Irreconcilable opposites never unite. One or the other must disappear. Charity in controversy with Liberals would be like taking a serpent to one's bosom. It would be as if one embraced some loathsome contagious disease with the foolish notion that to court it would secure immunity from its fearful ravages. Notwithstanding the plain common sense of the situation, and the memorable warning of our Lord that he who loves the fire shall perish in it, some foolish Catholics join with the Liberals in their cry for a magnanimous display of charity on our part when we wage war against them. Does the Church sanction the Koran, when she enters into negotiations, power to power, with the sectaries of the Koran? Does she approve of polygamy because she receives the presents and embassies of the Grand Turk? Well, it is in this way that the Church approves of Liberalism, when she (132) decorates its kings or its ministers, when she sends her benedictions, simple formulae of Christian courtesy which the Pope extends even to Protestants. It is a sophism to pretend that the Church authorizes by such acts what she has always condemned by other acts. Her diplomatic can never frustrate her apostolic ministration, and it is in this latter that we must seek the seeming contradictions of her diplomatic career. Philosophy teaches us that the same sources which produce, preserve and increase things. Per quae gignitur, per eadem et servatur et augetur. What then are the permanent causes of Liberalism? 1. Corruption of morals. The theater, literature, public and private morals are saturated with obscenity and impurity. The result is inevitable; a corrupt generation necessarily begets a revolutionary generation. Liberalism is the program of naturalism. Freethought begets freemorals or immorality. Restraint is thrown off, and a free rein given to the passions. Who thinks what he pleases will do what he pleases. Liberalism in the intellectual order is license in the moral order. Disorder in the intellect begets disorder in the heart, and vice versa. Thus does Liberalism propagate immorality, and immorality Liberalism. 2. Journalism. The influence exercised without ceasing by the numerous publications which Liberalism spreads broadcast is incalculable. In spite of themselves, by the ubiquity of the press, people are forced to live in a Liberal atmosphere. Commerce, the arts, literature, science, politics, domestic and foreign news, all reach us in some way through Liberal channels, and come clothed in a Liberal dress. Unless one is on his guard he finds himself thinking, speaking and acting as a Liberal. Such is the tainted character of the empoisoned air we breathe! Poor people, by very reason of their simple good faith, (138) more easily absorb the poison than anyone else; they absorb it in prose, in verse, in pictures, in public, in private, in the city, in the country, everywhere. Liberal doctrines ever pursue them, and like leeches fasten on them never to relax their hold. Its work is rendered much more harmful by the particular condition of the disciple, as we shall see in our third count: 3. General ignorance in matters of religion. In weaving its meshes around the people, Liberalism has applied itself to the task of cutting them off from all communication with that alone which is able to lay bare its imposture the Church. For the past hundred years Liberalism has striven to paralyze the action of the Church, to render her mute, and especially in the old world to leave her merely an official character, so as to sever her connections with the people. The Liberals themselves have avowed this to be their aim. To destroy the religious life, to place every hindrance possible in the way of Catholic teaching, to ridicule the clergy and to deprive them of their prestige. In Italy and France today see the thousand and one artificial arrangements thrown around her to hinder and hamper her actions, to render her opposition to the flood of Liberalism ineffectual. The Concordats, such as are observed (139) at the present time, are so many iron collars which Liberalism has placed around her neck to stifle her. Freemasonry in Europe and South America are constantly seeking to bind her hand and foot that she may be put at its satanic mercy. By open and secret means this organization has sought to undermine her discipline in every country where it has obtained a footing. Between her and the people it seeks to dig a deeper and deeper abyss of hate, prejudice, and calumny. Naturalism, the denial of the supernatural, it inculcates everywhere. To divorce the entire life of the people from her influence by the institution of civil marriage, civil burial, and divorce; to teach the insidious doctrine that society, as such, has no religious relations or obligations; that man as a social and civil being is absolutely independent of God and His Church, that religion is a mere private opinion to be entertained or not entertained as one pleases, such is the program, such is the effect, and such in turn is the cause of Liberalism. But the most pernicious, because the most successful and lasting, propagator of Liberalism is: 4. Secular education. To gain the child is to secure the man. To educate a generation apart from God and the Church is to feed the fires of Liberalism to repletion. (140) When religion is divorced from the school Liberalism becomes its paramour. Secularism is naturalism, the denial of the supernatural. When that denial is instilled into the soul of the child the soil of the supernatural becomes sterilized. Liberalism has realized the terrific power of education, and with satanic energy is now striving the world over for the possession of the child. With what success we have only to look around us to realize. In its effort to slay Christ it decrees the slaughter of the innocents. "Snatch the soul of the child from the breast of its mother the Church," says Liberalism, "and I will conquer the world." Here is the real battle ground between faith and infidelity. Who is victor here is victor everywhere. Helping \/tian To Stop /\tortion \ Richard Smith --- timEd 1.01 * Origin: Syr Undry BBS ):> Bendigaid };> (916) 481-1301 (1:203/9046) SEEN-BY: 12/12 112/4 218/890 1001 270/101 353/250 396/1 3615/50 51 SEEN-BY: 3804/180 @PATH: 203/9046 1102 992 396/1 3615/50 218/1001 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (907) Mon 13 Oct 97 11:54 By: Richard Smith To: ALL Re: Sin of Liberalism 5/5 St: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ @EID:7c5d 234d5ec0 @SPLIT: 13 Oct 97 19:00:31 @203/9046 186 01/02 +++++++++++ @MSGID: 1:203/9046.0 442429d6 < . . . Continued From Previous Post> How may Catholics, who are perpetually surrounded by the snares of Liberalism, guard themselves securely against its dangers? 1. By the organization of all good Catholics, be their number great or small. They should become known to each other, (141) meet each other, unite together, in every locality, every city, town or village, should have a nucleus of Catholic men of action. Such an organization will attract the undecided, give courage to the hesitating, counteract the influence of hostile or indifferent surroundings. If you number only a dozen men of spirit, no matter. Found societies, especially of young men. Put yourselves in correspondence with older societies in your neighborhood, or even at a distance. Link your associations together, association with association, as the Roman legions used to form the military tortoise by uniting shield with shield over their heads. Thus united, be your number ever so small, lift on high the banner of a sound, pure and uncompromising doctrine, without disguise, without attenuation, yielding not an inch to the enemy. Uncompromising courage is always noble, commands sympathy and wins over the chivalric. To see a man battered by the floods yet standing firm as a rock, upright, immovable, is an inspiring sight! Above all good example, good example always. What you preach do. You will soon see how easily you force people to respect you; when you have gained their admiration, their sympathy will soon follow. Proselytes will be forthcoming. If Catholics only understood what (142) a brilliant secular apostolate they could exercise by being open, straightforward, uncompromising practical Catholics in word and deed, Liberalism and heresy would die a quick death. 2. Good journals. Choose among good journals that which is best, the one best adapted to the needs and the intelligence of the people who surround you. Read it; but not content with that, give it to others to read; explain it, comment on it, let it be your basis of operations. Busy yourself in securing subscriptions for it. Encourage the reluctant to take it; make it easy for those, to whom it seems troublesome to send in their subscriptions. Place it in the hands of young people who are beginning their career. Impress on them the necessity of reading it, show them its merits and its value. They will begin by tasting the sauce and at last eat the fish. This is the way the advocates of Liberalism and impiety work for their journals; so then ought we work for ours. A good Catholic journal is a preemptory necessity in our day. Whatever be its defects or inconveniences, its advantages and its benefits will a thousand fold outweigh them. The Holy Father has said that "a Catholic paper is a perpetual mission in every parish." It is ever an antidote to the (143) false journalism that meets you on every side. In general do all in your power to further the circulation of Catholic literature, sermon or pastoral letter. The weapon of the crusader of our times is the printed word. 3. The Catholic school. Support the Catholic school with all your power in deed and in word, with your whole heart and your whole soul. The Catholic school has become in this age the only secure bridge of the faith from generation to generation. In our own country we have been compelled to establish our own schools unaided and alone. The prejudice and intolerance of Liberalism has refused us common justice. While we protest against the wrong and never cease demanding our clear and peremptory duty is to provide the best possible schools of our own, where our children may be educated in the full and only true sense of the word. Where Catholic schools are needed, build them, build them, build them. Never tire in this absolutely necessary work. Bend every energy to it. Archbishop Hughes said "not until I have built my school, shall one stone of my Cathedral be laid upon another." This great prelate fully realized what every Catholic should make his motto (144) today, "the foundation of the parishchurch is the schoolhouse." Be the support of the school a burden, be it built and perpetuated at a great sacrifice, its value is beyond estimation, the burden and the sacrifice are feather weights in comparison to the good that arises from the Catholic school. The spiritual life of a parish without a school is tepid, neither hot nor cold. Let the school be the best possible. Too much time or too much care cannot be given to it, for Catholic education amidst the deluge of Liberalism, which has overwhelmed the world, is the ark of salvation. Speak out fearlessly on this matter of education. Say squarely and frankly that irreligious education leads to the Devil. An irreligious school is the school of Satin. Danton, a celebrated French revolutionist, continually cried, "Boldness!" Let our constant cry be "Frankness! Frankness! Light! Light!" Nothing will more quickly put to flight the legions of hell, who seduce only under the shelter of darkness. It is possible, however, in very rare cases that union on the part of Catholics with a Liberal group against the Radicals may prove useful under given conditions. Where such a union is really opportune, it must be established on the following basis: 1. The bond of union should never be neutrality or the conciliation of interests and principles essentially opposed, such as are the interests and principles of Catholics and Liberals. This neutrality or conciliation has been condemned by the Syllabus, (156) and is, consequently, a false basis. Such a union would be a betrayal, an abandonment of the Catholic camp by those who are bound to defend it. An instance would be to compromise Catholic education with Secularism by banishing religious instruction and influences from the school room. The basis of such conciliation is false, as it necessarily sacrifices Catholic interests and principles. It concedes to Secularism what is essential to the integrity of Catholic education, viz., the formation of the Catholic character in children, and admits the validity of the principle of neutrality. It can never be said, "Let us abstract from our differences of doctrine, etc." Such a loose abdication of principle can never obtain in the Catholic estimation. It would be the same as to say: "In spite of the radical and essential opposition of principles between us, we can after all agree in the practical application of these principles." This is simply an intolerable contradiction. 2. Much less could we accord to the Liberal group, with whom a temporary and accidental alliance is formed, the honor of enrolling ourselves under its banner. Let each party keep distinct its own proper device, or let the Liberals in question range themselves under our ensign, if they wish (157) to fight with us against a common enemy. We can never assume their emblem under any circumstances. In other words let them unite themselves to us; we can never unite ourselves to them. Accustomed as they are to a varying and motley ensign, it cannot be difficult for them to accept our colors. For us there can be but one flag, the one emblem of the one unvarying faith which we ever profess. 3. We must never consider this alliance constant and normal. It can never be any thing else than a fortuitous and transient condition, passing away the moment the immediate exigency of its existence ceases. There can be no constant and normal union except between homogeneous elements. For people of convictions radically opposed to harmonize for any length of time would require continual acts of heroic virtue on the part of both sides. Now heroism is no ordinary thing nor of daily exercise. Such radical incompatibility would simply be to expose the undertaking to lamentable failure, and to build upon contradictory opinions, whose only accord is accidental. For a transitory act of common defense or attack, such an attempt at a coalition of forces is permissible, and even praiseworthy and extremely useful, provided, however, that we never forget the (158) conditions or rules we have already laid down as governing the exceptional circumstances obtaining in a given case; these rules are an imprescriptible necessity. Outside of these conditions, not only should we hold that such union with any group for any enterprise whatever, would be unfavorable to Catholics, but actually detrimental. Instead of augmenting our forces, as would be the case in the union of homogeneous elements, it would paralyze and nullify the vigor of those, who would be able , if alone, to do something for the defense of the truth. Without doubt, as the proverb runs, "Unhappy the one who walks alone." But there is another proverb equally true which says: "Better seek solitude than bad company." It was St. Thomas, we believe, who said: Bona est unio sed potior est unitas: "Union is good, but unity is better." If we have to sacrifice true unity for the sake of an artificial and forced union not only is nothing gained, but much is lost. The legal rigorism invoked by the Liberalists, in matters pertaining to faith, is as absurd as the ascetic rigorism once preached at Port Royal; it would result even more disastrously. If you doubt this look around you. The greatest rigorists on this point are the most hardened sectaries of the Liberal school. But how explain this apparent contradiction? It is easily explained, if we only reflect that nothing could be more convenient for Liberalism than to put this legal muzzle upon the lips and the pens of their most determined adversaries. It would be in truth a great triumph for them, under the pretext that no one except the Pope and the Bishops could speak with the least authority, to this impose silence upon the lay champions of the faith, such as were DeMaistre, (169) Cortes, Veuillot, Ward, Lucas, McMaster, who once bore, and others, who now bear, the banner of the faith so boldly and unflinchingly against its most insidious foes. Liberalism would like to see such crusaders disarmed, and would prefer, above all, if they could succeed in getting the Church herself to do the disarming. Liberalism, while essentially one and the same everywhere, presents various spects in different countries. In its essence it is the denial of the supernatural in whole or in part, but that denial takes a local coloring from place or circumstances. The traditions, customs, prejudices, idiosyncrasies of a people reflect it at various angles. It is protean in its presentations throughout the world, and to the casual observer, who fails to probe below the appearances of things, it may not seem to manifest itself at all where it in reality exists in its subtlest and therefore most dangerous form. In America it would scarcely seem to exist at all, so ingrained is it in our social conditions, so natural is it to the prevailing modes of thought, so congenital is it with the dominant religious notions about us, so congenial a habitat to the Protestant sects. Indeed it is a very constituent of the pseudoreligious notions about us, so congenial a habitat to the Protestant sects. Indeed it is a very constituent of the pseudoreligious and pseudomoral atmosphere we daily breathe. We can hope to escape its taint only by copious and frequent draughts of orthodox doctrine, by the strictest intellectual vigilance, fortified by supernatural grace. Its aspect in this country is peculiar, and fraught with especial danger to the negligent either in faith or morals. Its chief manifestation in the United States is in the form of what is popularly called nonsectarianism. It is a current fallacy, laid down as a fundamental truth, that one religion is as good as another, that everyone has the right to believe what he pleases; that differences in creed are after all but differences in forms of expression; that everyone may select his own creed or sect according to his taste, or even altogether repudiate religious beliefs, and finally, that religion is a thing entirely apart from civic and social life. This of course is secularism in its various degrees, denial of the supernatural. In practice this principle ingratiates itself into social and civic life directly or indirectly working out to the prejudice of (171) religion and morality. Civil marriage and divorce, mixed marriages and the consequent degeneration of family life, business standards, morality in general pitched on a low key, vicious literature, a materialistic journalism, catering to lax thinking and lax living, religion publicly mocked, scoffed, denied or held indifferently; all this coldly regarded as a matter of course, a necessary expediency condoned and applauded on the ground that it is the fruit of liberty. But the most virulent effect crops out in the prevailing educational theory. Here Liberalism manifests itself in its most direful and fullest effects, for it denies to religion the very sphere where it has the strongest right and the fullest reason to use its widest and most lasting influence, viz., in the mind of childhood. Secularism with the instinct of a foe, has here most positively and triumphantly asserted its claim and, under the disguise of strict impartiality and even patriotism, has banished religion from the school room. --- timEd 1.01 * Origin: Syr Undry BBS ):> Bendigaid };> (916) 481-1301 (1:203/9046) SEEN-BY: 12/12 112/4 218/890 1001 270/101 353/250 396/1 3615/50 51 SEEN-BY: 3804/180 @PATH: 203/9046 1102 992 396/1 3615/50 218/1001 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (908) Mon 13 Oct 97 11:54 By: Richard Smith To: ALL Re: 2 Sin of Liberalism 5/5 St: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ @EID:ebb2 234d5ec0 @SPLIT: 13 Oct 97 19:00:31 @203/9046 186 02/02 +++++++++++ In this, above all other countries, do Catholics need to be watchful, constant and unshaken in their faith, for the disease of Liberalism is virulently endemic. Its assault is perpetual, its weapons invisible, (175) save to the enlightened eye of a resolute and undaunted faith. In Europe, at least on the continent, Liberalism is violent, aggressive, openly breathing its hatred and opposition. There the war is open, here it is concealed; there the battlefield is the public arena in civic and political life; here the contest is within the social, business and even domestic circle; there it is declared foe against declared foe, here it is friend against friend, even brother against brother and all the more dangerous in results because friendly, social or domestic relations endure without injury amidst the struggle; dangerous to the Catholic because these various ties are so many embarrassments to his free action, so many bonds of affection or interest to enchain him. Therefore must he be all vigilant, therefore should his courage be great, his attitude firm and his stand bold; for while his circumstances make him friendly to his foe, he must wage a deadly battle for his faith. His task is doubly difficult, he must conquer an enemy who appears his dearest friend. Helping \/tian To Stop /\tortion \ Richard Smith --- timEd 1.01 * Origin: Syr Undry BBS ):> Bendigaid };> (916) 481-1301 (1:203/9046) SEEN-BY: 12/12 112/4 218/890 1001 270/101 353/250 396/1 3615/50 51 SEEN-BY: 3804/180 @PATH: 203/9046 1102 992 396/1 3615/50 218/1001 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (909) Mon 13 Oct 97 12:22 By: Richard Smith To: ALL Re: Sin of Liberalism: Addendum St: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ @EID:f553 234d62c0 @MSGID: 1:203/9046.0 4424ad01 One last little quote from the book in case anyone ever doubted the standing of other faiths to the Catholic Church: > In order to combat and discredit false ideas, we must > inspire contempt and horror in the hearts of the multitude > for those who seek to seduce and debauch them. A disease is > inseparable from the persons of the diseased. The cholera > threatening a country comes in the persons of the infected. > If we wish to exclude it we must exclude them. Helping \/tian To Stop /\tortion \ Richard Smith --- timEd 1.01 * Origin: Syr Undry BBS ):> Bendigaid };> (916) 481-1301 (1:203/9046) SEEN-BY: 12/12 112/4 218/890 1001 270/101 353/250 396/1 3615/50 51 SEEN-BY: 3804/180 @PATH: 203/9046 1102 992 396/1 3615/50 218/1001 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (910) Mon 13 Oct 97 11:56 By: Richard Smith To: ALL Re: Sin of Liberalism: epilogue St: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ @EID:4df1 234d5f00 @MSGID: 1:203/9046.0 442429d5 < . . . Continued From Previous Post> The Fathers of the Church support this thesis. The very title of their works clearly show that, in their contests with heresy, (117) their first blow was at the heresiarchs. The works of St. Augustine almost always bear the name of the author of the heresy against which they are written: Contra Fortunatum Manichoeum; Adversus Adamanctum; Contra Felicem; Contra Secundinum; Quis fuerit Petiamus; De gestis Pelagii; Quis fuerit Julianus, etc. Thus the greater part of the polemics of this great doctor was personal, aggressive, biographical, as well as doctrinal, a handtohand struggle with heretics as well as with heresy. What we here say of St. Augustine we can say of the other Fathers. Whence do the Liberals derive their power to impose upon us the new obligation of fighting error only in the abstract and of lavishing smiles and flattery upon them? We, the Ultramontanes, will fight our battles according to Christian tradition, and defend the faith as it has always been defended in the Church of God. When it strikes let the sword of the Catholic polemist wound, and when it wounds, wound mortally. This is the only real and efficacious means of waging war. ************************************************************ Well, what can you say to that sort of thinking? Helping \/tian To Stop /\tortion \ Richard Smith --- timEd 1.01 * Origin: Syr Undry BBS ):> Bendigaid };> (916) 481-1301 (1:203/9046) SEEN-BY: 12/12 112/4 218/890 1001 270/101 353/250 396/1 3615/50 51 SEEN-BY: 3804/180 @PATH: 203/9046 1102 992 396/1 3615/50 218/1001