PART I
THE ERRORS OF THE MODERNISTS
CHAPTER VII
THE MODERNIST AS REFORMER
Q. What remains to be said in order fully to describe the Modernist?
A. It remains for Us now to say a few words about the Modernist as reformer.
Q. Cannot we already discover in the Modernists a marked mania for reform?
A. From all that has preceded, it is abundantly clear how great and how eager is the passion of such men for innovation.
Q. Does this mania for reform extend to many matters?
A. In all Catholicism there is absolutely nothing on which it does not fasten.
Q. What is the first reform the Modernists demand?
A. They wish philosophy to be reformed, especially in the ecclesiastical seminaries.
Q. What kind of reform in philosophy do they desire, especially in seminaries?
A. They wish the scholastic philosophy to be relegated to the history of philosophy and to be classed among obsolete systems, and the young men to be taught modern philosophy.
Q. Why do they wish that modern philosophy should be taught in seminaries?
A. Because they consider it alone is true and suited to the times in which we live.
Q. After this reform of philosophy, what other do they call for?
A. They desire the reform of theology.
Q. What kind of reform do they desire in theology?
A. Rational theology is to have modern philosophy for its foundation, and positive theology is to be founded on the history of dogma.
Q. And as for history, what reform do they demand?
A. As for history, it must be written and taught only according to their methods and modern principles.
Q. What reform in dogma do they want?
A. Dogmas and their evolution, they affirm, are to be harmonized with science and history.
Q. How is the Catechism to be reformed?
A. In the Catechism no dogmas are to be inserted except those that have been reformed and are within the capacity of the people.
Q. And what reform is to be effected in worship?
A. Regarding worship, they say, the number of external devotions is to be reduced, and steps must be taken to prevent their further increase.
Q. Are not certain Modernists more indulgent with regard to ceremonies?
A. Some of the admirers of symbolism are disposed to be more indulgent on this head.
Q. What more serious reforms do the Modernists call for in the government of the Church?
A. They cry out that ecclesiastical government requires to be reformed in all its branches, but especially in its disciplinary and dogmatic departments. They insist that both outwardly and inwardly it must be brought into harmony with the modern conscience, which now wholly tends towards democracy. A share in ecclesiastical government should, therefore, be given to the lower ranks of the clergy, and even to the laity, and authority, which is too much concentrated, should be decentralized.
Q. What further reform do they ask for?
A. The Roman Congregations, and especially the Index and the Holy Office, must be likewise modified.
Q. What reform do they demand in the exercise of ecclesiastical authority in the social and political world?
A. The ecclesiastical authority must alter its line of conduct in the social and political world; while keeping outside political organizations, it must adapt itself to them, in order to penetrate them with its spirit.
Q. And in morals?
A. With regard to morals, they adopt the principle of the Americanists –that the active virtues are more important than the passive, and are to be more encouraged in practice.
Q. What do they ask of the clergy?
A. They ask that the clergy should return to their primitive humility and poverty, and that in their ideas and action they should admit the principles of Modernism.
Q. If they desire to see so many virtues in the clergy, they exalt ecclesiastical celibacy, do they not?
A. There are some who, gladly listening to the teaching of their Protestant masters, would desire the suppression of the celibacy of the clergy.
Q. Seeing that all these reforms are demanded by the Modernists, what question rises naturally to one’s lips?
A. What is there left in the Church which is not to be reformed by them and according to their principles?
CRITICISM OF THE MODERNIST SYSTEM THE RENDEZVOUS OF ALL THE HERESIES THE WAY TO ATHEISM