The Two Hundred Year War of Liberal Catholicism
Text approved by Rev. Fr. Bernard Rulleau, O.S.B., 21st September, 2011
Liberal Catholicism, the Church enemies’ Trojan horse and a proponent of Masonic Liberalism among Catholics, has engaged a formidable war, that, though bound to fail in the end, is yet a real danger and drastic challenge for the faithful today.
Defeats
These victories were obtained each time the Vatican made a serious “faux pas”:
The following condemnations are directly or indirectly related to the political and social doctrine of the Church:
Liberal Catholicism, the Church enemies’ Trojan horse and a proponent of Masonic Liberalism among Catholics, has engaged a formidable war, that, though bound to fail in the end, is yet a real danger and drastic challenge for the faithful today.
Defeats
- 1832, Encyclical Mirari Vos by Gregory XVI, which condemned Fr. de Lamennais’ liberal and democratic thinking. In 1830, he had founded the daily paper L’Avenir (The Future), advocating the Sovereignty of the People (“vox populi, vox Dei”). He eventually apostatized. He was supported by Fr. Lacordaire and Montalembert, famous for his “a Free Church in a Free State”, meaning of course separation of Church and State. They went on fighting with the support of Bishop Dupanloup, of Orléans (who opposed Papal infallibility), and Fr. Maret, who, in 1848, founded L’Ère nouvelle (The New Era), another daily journal, the manifesto of which was signed by Fr. Lacordaire and Ozanam.
- 1864, Encyclical Quanta Cura by Pius IX, along with the Syllabus, which condemned Liberalism.
- 1895, Encyclical Longinqua Oceani by Leo XIII, which condemned Americanism, a form of Liberalism conceived by Americans wishing to show they loved their country as much as Protestants and supporting its Secular and Masonic Constitution and institutions. This Encyclical was confirmed by a letter to Cardinal Gibbons in 1899.
- 1906, Encyclical Vehementer by St Pius X, which condemned the Separation of Church and State (and consequently the Secular State), which Liberal Catholics advocated in the same vein as Chateaubriand’s The Genius of Christianity: “neither truth nor the Church need any temporal protection”.
- 1910, Letter Our Apostolic Mandate by St Pius X, which condemned the Progressivism and Democratism promoted by Marc Sangnier’s Le Sillon movement.
- 1925, Encyclical Quas Primas by Pius XI about the Kingship of Christ, which confirmed that “not only private individuals but also rulers and princes are bound to give public honour and obedience to Christ” and “nor is there any difference in this matter between the individual and the family or the State; for all men, whether collectively or individually, are under the dominion of Christ.”
These victories were obtained each time the Vatican made a serious “faux pas”:
- 1892, the Ralliement (Rallying) by Leo XIII (spurred on by his Secretary of State and most trusted adviser, Cardinal Rampolla) to the Masonic Republic: it was meant to be tactical and not ideological. Yet, according to Archbishop Lefebvre, it resulted in a “political and religious catastrophe”, adding: “it is clear that he was forgetting the irremediably Liberal, Masonic, and anti-Catholic origin and constitution of French democracy”.
- “particularly devoted” to “the work of restoring Christian civilization under its various aspects” and “combating anti-Christian civilization by every just and lawful means,” i.e. in the temporal field, where the Church only has an Indirect Power. On the contrary, Pius XI defined it as “the participation and collaboration of the laity with the Apostolic Hierarchy” in the work of evangelization, i.e. in the spiritual field, under the direction of the clergy and the Direct Power of the Church. The aim of this operation was to do away with the Catholics, who, in the political arena, were opposing the “Ralliement” with their Bishops’ support.
- 1926, the condemnation of Action Française by Pius XI (instigated by his Secretary of State, Cardinal Gasparri, who was Cardinal Rampolla’s protégé) to counter the main opposition movement refusing the Ralliement, just like the French Bishops. This condemnation was an opportunity to replace many Bishops and religious superiors by liberals. It was lifted by Pius XII, as soon as he was elected in 1939, not as an “act of charity, but a work of justice”, he said. It was however too late: WW.II was to break out a few weeks later and the Catholic opposition had received the death blow.
- 1940, an alliance with the U.S.S.R.: President Roosevelt assured Pius XII that the Soviet dictatorship was less dangerous for the world than the Nazis and that “a true religious freedom in Russia” was much more likely than what “that liberty enjoys in Germany today”. Despite Divini Redemptoris forbidding any kind of cooperation with the Communists, Pius XII accepted this alliance, which American Catholics opposed, and the Archbishop of Cincinnati was asked to preach in favour of it.
- 1945, the victory of the Crusade for Democracy. In his 1944 Christmas Message, Pius XII declared that “many considered” Democracy “as a postulate of nature imposed by reason itself” and noticed: “to express one’s opinion on the duties and sacrifices which are imposed on oneself, and not to be forced to obey without being heard first, these are two rights of the citizen, which can be found in democracy, as indicated by the word itself”. The Pope however seemed to harbour no illusions in “this time when pressing necessities overexcite” the people “making them more impressionable and easy to lead astray”, adding: “Undoubtedly one may well discuss the worth, the feasibility, the efficacy of this or that proposal; judgment may well be suspended in their regard, but it remains nonetheless true that the process has begun”. Despite the superiority of monarchy traditionally taught by the Church, the Pope emphasized that “it is not forbidden to prefer temperate, popular forms of government, without prejudice, however, to Catholic teaching on the origin and use of authority”, which Christian Democracy was forgetting since it supported the Sovereignty of the People. On the same day, the Pope commented to the Curia that, for some, “words like liberty, independence, democracy” are but a means to “lessen the vigilance” of those who uphold the “Christian past.” Madiran commented: “In 1944, Pius XII was speaking as if one were at the beginning of a new democratic experience (which was largely true) in no way mortgaged by the 1789 revolutionary tradition (which of course was a utopia).” St Thomas Aquinas confirms that Democracy “is suited only if the multitude as a whole is virtuous” (De Regno). Pius XII’s 1956 Christmas Message was on the other hand a serious warning cry about the “frightening problems faced in modern democracy”.
- John Duns Scott, William of Ockham, Pico della Mirandola (in his Dignitatis Humanae, a title used anew for the Vatican II “personalist” Declaration), and to some extent Jesuit Francisco Suarez’s political philosophy. Sources outside the Church were English Liberalism (Hobbes, Locke, and Berkeley) and the “Philosophy of the Enlightenment.” Finally Jesuit Fr. Taparelli d’Azeglio’s influence was paramount on Leo XIII and Pius XI, i.e. long before Vatican II: the protection of “individual rights” was then superseding the “common good” as the end of the State.
The following condemnations are directly or indirectly related to the political and social doctrine of the Church:
- 1884, Encyclical Humanum Genus of Leo XIII against Freemasonry
- 1891, Encyclical Rerum Novarum of Leo XIII against Socialism
- 1907, Decree Lamentabili (the 2nd “Syllabus”) and Encyclical Pascendi of St Pie X against Modernism
- 1931, Encyclical Quadragesimo Anno of Pius XI against Socialism
- 1931, Encyclical Non abbiamo bisogno of Pius XI against Fascism
- 1937, Encyclical Mit brennender Sorge of Pius XI against National Socialism
- 1937, Encyclical Divini Redemptoris of Pius XI against Communism.
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