PART I
THE ERRORS OF THE MODERNISTS
CHAPTER IV
THE RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY OF THE MODERNISTS
(Continued) BRANCHES OF THE FAITH
I. DOGMA
II. WORSHIP
III. SACRED SCRIPTURE INSPIRATION
IV. THE CHURCH: HER ORIGIN, HER NATURE, AND HER RIGHTS
V. CHURCH AND STATE
VI. EVOLUTION
VII. CAUSES OF EVOLUTION: CONSERVATIVE AND PROGRESSIVE FORCES IN THE CHURCH
VIII. PRACTICAL CONSEQUENCES
Q. What, then, must the Modernists think when they are reprimanded or punished by religious authority ?
A. With all this in mind, one understands how it is that the Modernists express astonishment when they are reprimanded or punished. What is imputed to them as a fault they regard as a sacred duty. They understand the needs of consciences better than any one else, since they come into closer touch with them than does the ecclesiastical authority nay, they embody them, so to speak, in themselves. Hence for them to speak and to write publicly is a bounden duty. Let authority rebuke them if it pleases they have their own conscience on their side, and an intimate experience which tells them with certainty that what they deserve is not blame, but praise.
Q. What attitude do Modernists adopt when punished by the Church ?
A. They reflect that, after all, there is no progress without a battle, and no battle without its victims ; and victims they are willing to be, like the prophets and Christ Himself. They have no bitterness in their hearts against the authority which uses them roughly, for, after all, they readily admit that it is only doing its duty as authority. Their sole grief is that it remains deaf to their warnings, for in this way it impedes the progress of souls.
Q. Have they any hope left ?
A. They assure us that the hour will most surely come when further delay will be impossible ; for if the laws of evolution may be checked for a while, they cannot be finally evaded.
Q. Do they at least pause in following out their plans ?
A. They go their way, reprimands and condemnations notwithstanding, masking an incredible audacity under a mock semblance of humility. While they make a pretence of bowing their heads, their minds and hands are more boldly intent than ever on carrying out their purposes.
Q. Why do the Modernists pretend to submit ? Why, like heretics, do they not leave the Church ?
A. This policy they follow willingly and wittingly, both because it is part of their system that authority is to be stimulated but not dethroned, and because it is necessary for them to remain within the ranks of the Church, in order that they may gradually transform the collective conscience.
Q. Transform the collective conscience ? But, according to their principles, ought they not to submit themselves to this collective conscience ?
A. In saying this, they fail to perceive that they are avowing that the collective conscience is not with them, and that they have no right to claim to be its interpreters.