CATECHISM ON MODERNISM – PART I – THE ERRORS OF THE MODERNISTS – IX. VARIABILITY OF DOGMA

Published on: August 29, 2020August 29, 2020 by KOFPB

PART I
THE ERRORS OF THE MODERNISTS

CHAPTER I

THE RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY OF THE MODERNISTS
I. AGNOSTICISM
II. VITAL IMMANENCE
III. ORIGIN OF RELIGION IN GENERAL
IV. NOTION OF REVELATION
V. TRANSFIGURATION AND DISFIGURATION OF PHENOMENA THROUGH FAITH
VI. ORIGIN OF PARTICULAR RELIGIONS
VII. ACTION OF THE INTELLECT IN FAITH
VIII. DOGMA
IX. VARIABILITY OF DOGMA

Q. Are these dogmatic formulas, these symbols of the faith and instruments of the believer, at least invariable?

A. ‘The object of the religious sense, as something contained in the absolute, possesses an infinite variety of aspects, of which now one, now another, may present itself. In like manner, he who believes can avail him self of varying conditions. Consequently, the formulas which we call dogma must be subject to these vicissitudes, and are, therefore, liable to change.’

Q. But is there not thus substantial change in dogma?

A. ‘Thus the way is open to the intrinsic evolution of dogma. Here we have an immense structure of sophisms which ruin and wreck all religion.’

Q. Is this substantial change of dogma not only possible, but even necessary?

A. ‘Dogma is not only able, but ought to evolve and to be changed. This is strongly affirmed by the Modernists, and clearly flows from their principles.’

Q. What is the fundamental principle from which the Modernists deduce the necessity of the substantial change of dogma?

A. ‘Amongst the chief, points of their teaching is the following, which they deduce from the principle of vital immanence namely, that religious formulas, if they are to be really religious and not merely intellectual speculations, ought to be living and to live the life of the religious sense.’

Q. But, since these formulas ought to live the very life of the religious sense, must they not be constructed with a view to this sense?

A. ‘This is not to be understood to mean that these formulas, especially if merely imaginative, were to be invented for the religious sense. Their origin matters nothing, any more than their number or quality. What is necessary is that the religious sense with some modification when needful should vitally assimilate them.’

Q. What do you mean by this vital assimilation by the sense?

A. ‘In other words, it is necessary that the primitive formula be accepted and sanctioned by the heart; and, similarly, the subsequent work from which are
brought forth the secondary formulas must proceed under the guidance of the heart.’

Q. How does the necessity of this vital assimilation entail the substantial change of dogma ?

A. ‘These formulas, in order to be living, should be, and should remain, adapted to the faith and to him who believes. Wherefore, if for any reason this adaptation should cease to exist, they lose their first meaning, and accordingly need to be changed.’

Q. But, then, in what consideration do Modernists hold dogmatic formulas?

A. ‘In view of the fact that the character and lot of dogmatic formulas are so unstable, it is no wonder that Modernists should regard them so lightly and
with such open disrespect.’

Q. What do they unceasingly exalt?

A. ‘They have no consideration or praise for anything but the religious sense and the religious life.’

Q. What, with regard to the Church, is the attitude of Modernists in the matter of dogmatic formulas?

A. ‘With consummate audacity, they criticize the Church, as having strayed from the true path by failing to distinguish between the religious and moral sense of formulas and their surface meaning, and by clinging vainly and tenaciously to meaningless formulas, while religion itself is allowed to go to ruin.’

Q. What final judgment must we pass on the Modernists concerning dogmatic truth ?

A. ‘” Blind ” they are, and ” leaders of the blind,” puffed up with the proud name of science, they have reached that pitch of folly at which they pervert the eternal concept of truth and the true meaning of religion; in introducing a new system in which ” they are seen to be under the sway of a blind and unchecked passion for novelty, thinking not at all of finding some solid foundation of truth, but despising the holy and apostolic traditions, they embrace other and vain, futile, uncertain doctrines, unapproved by the Church, on which, in the height of their vanity, they think they
can base and maintain truth itself.”‘ *

* Gregory XVI., Encycl. Singulari Not, 7 Kal. Jul., 1834.

CHAPTER II – I. RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

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Meditation on Our Lord’s Most Precious Blood

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CATECHISM ON MODERNISM – PART I – THE ERRORS OF THE MODERNISTS – VIII. DOGMA

Published on: August 27, 2020August 29, 2020 by KOFPB

PART I
THE ERRORS OF THE MODERNISTS

CHAPTER I

Q. We have now reached dogma and is not this one of the most important points for the Modernist?

A. Yes. ‘One of the principal points in the* Modernists’ system (is) ‘the origin and the nature of dogma.’

Q. In what do they place the origin of dogma?

A. They place the origin of dogma in those primitive and simple formulas which, under a certain aspect, are necessary to faith; for revelation, to be truly such,
requires the clear knowledge of God in the consciousness. But dogma itself, they apparently hold, strictly consists in the secondary formulas.

Q. And now, how shall we ascertain what, according to the Modernists, is the nature of dogma?

A. To ascertain the nature of dogma, we must first find the relation which exists between the religious formulas and the religious sense.

Q. How shall we ascertain this relation?

A. This will be readily perceived by anyone who holds that these formulas have no other purpose than to furnish the believer with a means of giving to himself
an account of his faith.

Q. What do these formulas constitute as between the believer and his faith?

A. These formulas stand midway between the believer and his faith: in their relation to the faith they are the inadequate expression of its object, and
are usually called symbols; in their relation to the believer they are mere instruments

Q. What may one conclude from this with regard to the truth contained in these formulas?

A. That it is quite impossible to maintain that they absolutely contain the truth.

Q. According to the Modernists, what are formulas, considered as symbols?

A. In so far as they are symbols, they are the images of truth, and so must be adapted to the religious sense in its relation to man.

Q. What are they, considered as instruments ?

A. As instruments, they are the vehicles of truth, and must therefore in their turn be adapted to man in his relation to the religious sense.

IX. VARIABILITY OF DOGMA

BACK TO CONTENTS

“You, at least, strive to console me.” – Time is Running Out to Respond to Our Lady’s Call

Tomislav, the First Crowned King of the Unified Croatian Kingdom on the Adriatic – Part 3

Meditation on Our Lord’s Most Precious Blood

Hrvatska Zavjetna Krunica – Jubilarno ograničeno izdanje za 125. obljetnicu

Croatian Covenant Rosary – 125th Anniversary Jubilee Limited Edition

The Vices and other Very Grievous Sins

The Main Kinds of Sins

The Beatitudes

The Gifts of the Holy Ghost

On the Virtues and Vices – Cardinal Virtues

CATECHISM ON MODERNISM – PART I – THE ERRORS OF THE MODERNISTS – VII. ACTION OF THE INTELLECT IN FAITH

Published on: August 27, 2020August 29, 2020 by KOFPB

PART I
THE ERRORS OF THE MODERNISTS

CHAPTER I

Q. You have said that the Modernists find faith in sense has the human intellect, then, no part in faith?

A. ‘So far there has been no mention of the intellect. It also, according to the teaching of the Modernists, has its part in the act of faith. And it is of importance to see how.’

Q. But did not sense, according to the Modernists, seem to be sufficient to give us God, Object and Author of faith?

A. ‘In that sense of which we have frequently spoken, since sense is not knowledge, they say God indeed presents Himself to man, but in a manner so
confused and indistinct that He can hardly be perceived by the believer.’

Q. What, then, is wanting to this sense?

A. ‘It is necessary that a certain light should be cast upon this sense, so that God may clearly stand out in relief and be set apart from it.’

Q. Is this the task of the intellect in the Modernist’s act of faith?

A. ‘This is the task of the intellect, whose office it is to reflect and to analyse; and by means of it man first transforms into mental pictures the vital phenomena which arise within him, and then expresses them in words. Hence the common saying of Modernists, that the religious man must think his faith.’

Q. Can you give us the comparison which the Modernists employ to determine the role they attribute to the intellect in regard to this sense in the act of faith?

A. ‘The mind, encountering this sense, throws itself upon it, and works in it after the manner of a painter who restores to greater clearness the lines of a picture
that have been dimmed with age. The simile is that of one of the leaders of Modernism.’

Q. How does the intellect operate in this work of the formation of faith?

A. ‘The operation of the mind in this work is a double one.’

Q. What is the first operation?

A. First, by a natural and spontaneous act it expresses its concept in a simple, popular statement.

Q. What is the second?

A. ‘Then, on reflection and deeper consideration, or, as they say, by elaborating its thought, it expresses the idea in secondary propositions, which are derived
from the first, but are more precise and distinct.’

Q. How, then, do these formulas, the result of the action of the intellect upon its own thought, become dogma?

A. ‘These secondary propositions, if they finally receive the approval of the supreme magisterium of the Church, constitute dogma.’

VIII. DOGMA

BACK TO CONTENTS

“You, at least, strive to console me.” – Time is Running Out to Respond to Our Lady’s Call

Tomislav, the First Crowned King of the Unified Croatian Kingdom on the Adriatic – Part 3

Meditation on Our Lord’s Most Precious Blood

Hrvatska Zavjetna Krunica – Jubilarno ograničeno izdanje za 125. obljetnicu

Croatian Covenant Rosary – 125th Anniversary Jubilee Limited Edition

The Vices and other Very Grievous Sins

The Main Kinds of Sins

The Beatitudes

The Gifts of the Holy Ghost

On the Virtues and Vices – Cardinal Virtues

CATECHISM ON MODERNISM – PART I – THE ERRORS OF THE MODERNISTS – VI. ORIGIN OF PARTICULAR RELIGIONS

Published on: August 27, 2020August 29, 2020 by KOFPB

PART I
THE ERRORS OF THE MODERNISTS

CHAPTER I

Q. Is the religious sense, then, according to the Modernists, the real germ, and the entire explanation, of all religion?

A. ‘The religious sense, which through the agency of vital immanence emerges from the lurking-places of the subconsciousness, is the germ of all religion, and the explanation of everything that has been or ever will be in any religion.’

Q. How does this religious sense develop?

A. ‘This sense, which was at first only rudimentary and almost formless, under the influence of that mysterious principle from which it originated, gradually matured with the progress of human life, of which, as has been said, it is a certain form.’

Q. Do all religions, then, according to the Modernists, come from this?

A. ‘This is the origin of all.’

Q. Even of supernatural religion?

A. ‘Even of supernatural religion. For religions are mere developments of this religious sense?’

Q. But do they not make an exception for the Catholic religion?

A. ‘Nor is the Catholic religion an exception: it is quite on a level with the rest.’

Q. What consciousness, then, served as cradle for the Catholic religion?

A. ‘The consciousness of Christ,’ they say, ‘who was a Man of the choicest nature, whose like has never been, nor will be.’

Q. And from what principle do they dare to pretend it was engendered in the consciousness of Christ?

A. ‘It was engendered by the process of vital immanence, and by no other way.’

Q. Is it not a great audacity to say so, and a great blasphemy?

A. ‘In hearing these things, we shudder indeed at so great an audacity of assertion and so great a sacrilege.’

Q. But, Holy Father, surely it is only unbelievers who maintain such doctrines?

A. The Pope Badly replies: ‘These are not merely the foolish babblings of unbelievers. There are Catholics, yea, and priests too, who say these things
openly.’

Q. But what do these, Catholics, these priests, mean by all this?

A. ‘They boast that they are going to reform the Church by these ravings.’

Q. Does not this Modernism seem to be the ancient error of Pelagius?

A. ‘The question is no longer one of the old error which claimed for human nature a sort of right to the supernatural. It has gone far beyond that.’

Q. In what way?

A. ‘It has reached the point when it is affirmed that our most holy religion, in the man Christ as in us, emanated from nature spontaneously and of itself. Nothing assuredly could be more utterly destructive of the whole supernatural order.’

Q. What is, on these points, the doctrine of the Vatican Council?

A. ‘For this reason the Vatican Council most justly decreed: ” If anyone says that man cannot be raised by God to a knowledge and perfection which surpasses nature, but that he can and should, by his own efforts and by a constant development, attain finally to the possession of all truth and good, let him be anathema.”*

* De Bevel., can. 3.

VII. ACTION OF THE INTELLECT IN FAITH

BACK TO CONTENTS

“You, at least, strive to console me.” – Time is Running Out to Respond to Our Lady’s Call

Tomislav, the First Crowned King of the Unified Croatian Kingdom on the Adriatic – Part 3

Meditation on Our Lord’s Most Precious Blood

Hrvatska Zavjetna Krunica – Jubilarno ograničeno izdanje za 125. obljetnicu

Croatian Covenant Rosary – 125th Anniversary Jubilee Limited Edition

The Vices and other Very Grievous Sins

The Main Kinds of Sins

The Beatitudes

The Gifts of the Holy Ghost

On the Virtues and Vices – Cardinal Virtues

CATECHISM ON MODERNISM – PART I – THE ERRORS OF THE MODERNISTS – V. TRANSFIGURATION AND DISFIGURATION OF PHENOMENA THROUGH FAITH

Published on: August 27, 2020August 29, 2020 by KOFPB

PART I
THE ERRORS OF THE MODERNISTS

CHAPTER I

Q. What more is necessary in order to give a complete idea of the origin of faith and revelation, as these are understood by the Modernists?

A. ‘In all this process, from which, according to the Modernists, faith and revelation spring, one point is to be particularly noted, for it is of capital importance, on account of the historico-critical corollaries which they deduce from it.’

Q. How does the Unknowable of the Modernist philosophy, as this has been above explained, present itself to faith?

A. ‘The Unknowable they speak of does not present itself to faith as something solitary and isolated; but, on the contrary, in close conjunction with some phenomenon, which, though it belongs to the realms of science or history, yet to some extent exceeds their limits.’

Q. What phenomenon do you mean?

A. ‘Such a phenomenon may be a fact of nature containing within itself something mysterious; or it may be a man, whose character, actions and words
cannot, apparently, be reconciled with the ordinary laws of history.’

Q. From the fact of this connexion between the Unknowable and some phenomenon, what happens to faith?

A. ‘Faith, attracted by the Unknowable which is united with the phenomenon, seizes upon the whole phenomenon, and, as it were, permeates it with its own
life.’

Q. What follows from this extension of faith to the phenomenon and this penetrating it with life?

A. ‘From this two things follow.’

Q. What is the first consequence?

A. The first is a sort of transfiguration of the phenomenon, by its elevation above its own true conditions an elevation by which it becomes more adapted to clothe itself with the form of the divine character which faith will bestow upon it.’

Q. What is the second consequence?

A. ‘The second consequence is a certain disfiguration so it may be called of the same phenomenon, arising from the fact that faith attributes to it, when stripped of the circumstances of place and time, characteristics which it does not really possess.’

Q. In the case of what phenomena, particularly, according to the Modernists, does this double operation of transfiguration and disfiguration take place?

A. ‘This takes place especially in the case of the phenomena of the past, and the more fully in the measure of their antiquity.’

Q. And, what laws do the Modernists deduce from this double operation?

A. ‘From these two principles the Modernists deduce two laws, which, when united with a third which they have already derived from Agnosticism, constitute the foundation of historical criticism.’

Q. Can you explain to us these three laws by an example?

A. ‘An example may be sought in the Person of Christ. In the Person of Christ, they say, science and history encounter nothing that is not human. There fore, in virtue of the first canon deduced from Agnosticism, whatever there is in His history suggestive of the divine must be rejected. Then, according to the second canon, the historical Person of Christ was transfigured by faith; therefore everything that raises it above historical conditions must be removed. Lastly, the third canon, which lays down that the Person of Christ has been disfigured by faith, requires that everything should be excluded, deeds and words and all else, that is not in strict keeping with His character, condition, and education, and with the place and time in which He lived.’

Q. What kind of reasoning is that?

A. ‘A method of reasoning which is passing strange, but in it we have the Modernist criticism.’

VI. ORIGIN OF PARTICULAR RELIGIONS

BACK TO CONTENTS

“You, at least, strive to console me.” – Time is Running Out to Respond to Our Lady’s Call

Tomislav, the First Crowned King of the Unified Croatian Kingdom on the Adriatic – Part 3

Meditation on Our Lord’s Most Precious Blood

Hrvatska Zavjetna Krunica – Jubilarno ograničeno izdanje za 125. obljetnicu

Croatian Covenant Rosary – 125th Anniversary Jubilee Limited Edition

The Vices and other Very Grievous Sins

The Main Kinds of Sins

The Beatitudes

The Gifts of the Holy Ghost

On the Virtues and Vices – Cardinal Virtues

CATECHISM ON MODERNISM – PART I – THE ERRORS OF THE MODERNISTS – IV. NOTION OF REVELATION

Published on: August 27, 2020August 29, 2020 by KOFPB

PART I
THE ERRORS OF THE MODERNISTS

CHAPTER I

THE RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY OF THE MODERNISTS
I. AGNOSTICISM
II. VITAL IMMANENCE
III. ORIGIN OF RELIGION IN GENERAL
IV. NOTION OF REVELATION

Q. What a philosophy is this of the Modernists! but does it end there?

A. ‘We have not yet reached the end of their philosophizing, or, to speak more accurately, of their folly.’

Q. What more, then, can they find in their alleged sense of the divine?

A. ‘Modernists find in this sense, not only faith, but in and with faith, as they understand it, they affirm that there is also to be found revelation.’

Q. Revelation? But how?

A. ‘Indeed, what more is needed to constitute a revelation? Is not that religious sense which is perceptible in the conscience revelation, or at least the beginning of revelation? Nay, is it not God Himself manifesting Himself—indistinctly, it is true in this same religious sense, to the soul? And they add:
Since God is both the object and the cause of faith, this revelation is at the same time of God and from God, that is to say, God is both the Revealer and the Revealed.’

Q. What is the absurd doctrine that springs from this philosophy, or, rather, these divagations of the Modernists?

A. ‘From this springs that most absurd tenet of the Modernists, that every religion, according to the different aspect under which it is viewed, must be considered as both natural and supernatural.’

Q. What further follows from this?

A. ‘It is thus that they make consciousness and revelation synonymous.’

Q. From this, finally, what supreme and universal law do they seek to impose?

A. ‘From this they derive the law laid down as the universal standard, according to which religious consciousness is to be put on an equal footing with revelation, and that to it all must submit.’

Q. All must submit? Even the supreme authority of the Church?

A. ‘Even the supreme authority of the Church, whether in the capacity of teacher, or in that of legislator in the province of sacred liturgy or discipline.’

V. TRANSFIGURATION AND DISFIGURATION OF PHENOMENA THROUGH FAITH

BACK TO CONTENTS

“You, at least, strive to console me.” – Time is Running Out to Respond to Our Lady’s Call

Tomislav, the First Crowned King of the Unified Croatian Kingdom on the Adriatic – Part 3

Meditation on Our Lord’s Most Precious Blood

Hrvatska Zavjetna Krunica – Jubilarno ograničeno izdanje za 125. obljetnicu

Croatian Covenant Rosary – 125th Anniversary Jubilee Limited Edition

The Vices and other Very Grievous Sins

The Main Kinds of Sins

The Beatitudes

The Gifts of the Holy Ghost

On the Virtues and Vices – Cardinal Virtues

CATECHISM ON MODERNISM – PART I – THE ERRORS OF THE MODERNISTS – III. ORIGIN OF RELIGION IN GENERAL

Published on: August 27, 2020August 29, 2020 by KOFPB

PART I
THE ERRORS OF THE MODERNISTS

CHAPTER I

THE RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY OF THE MODERNISTS
I. AGNOSTICISM
II. VITAL IMMANENCE
III. ORIGIN OF RELIGION IN GENERAL

Q. ‘It may perhaps be asked how it is that this need of the divine which man experiences within himself resolves itself into religion.’ How is it?

A. ‘To this question the Modernist reply would be as follows: Science and history are confined within two boundaries, the one external, namely, the visible world, the other internal, which is consciousness. When one or other of these limits has been reached, there can be no further progress, for beyond is the unknowable. In the presence of this unknowable, whether it is outside man and beyond the visible world of nature, or lies hidden within the subconsciousness, the need of the divine in a soul which is prone to religion, excites according to the principles of Fideism, without any previous advertence of the mind a certain special sense, and this sense possesses, implied within itself both as its own object and as its intrinsic cause, the divine reality itself, and in a way unites man with God. It is this sense to which Modernists give the name of faith, and this is what they hold to be the beginning of religion.’

IV. NOTION OF REVELATION

BACK TO CONTENTS

“You, at least, strive to console me.” – Time is Running Out to Respond to Our Lady’s Call

Tomislav, the First Crowned King of the Unified Croatian Kingdom on the Adriatic – Part 3

Meditation on Our Lord’s Most Precious Blood

Hrvatska Zavjetna Krunica – Jubilarno ograničeno izdanje za 125. obljetnicu

Croatian Covenant Rosary – 125th Anniversary Jubilee Limited Edition

The Vices and other Very Grievous Sins

The Main Kinds of Sins

The Beatitudes

The Gifts of the Holy Ghost

On the Virtues and Vices – Cardinal Virtues

CATECHISM ON MODERNISM – PART I – THE ERRORS OF THE MODERNISTS – II. VITAL IMMANENCE

Published on: August 25, 2020August 25, 2020 by KOFPB

CHAPTER I

THE RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY OF THE MODERNISTS
I. AGNOSTICISM
II. VITAL IMMANENCE

Q. According to what you have just said, this Agnosticism is only the negative part of the system of the Modernists’ what is, then, its positive side?

A. ‘The positive part consists in what they call vital immanence.’

Q. How do the Modernists pass from Agnosticism to Immanentism?

A. ‘Thus they advance from one to the other. Religion, whether natural or supernatural, must, like every other fact, admit of some explanation. But
when natural theology has been destroyed, and the road to revelation closed by the rejection of the arguments of credibility, and all external revelation absolutely denied, it is clear that this explanation will be sought in vain outside of man himself. It must, therefore, be looked for in man; and since religion is a form
of life, the explanation must certainly be found in the life of man. In this way is formulated the principle of religious immanence.’

Q. I understand that the Modernists, partisans as they are of Agnosticism, can seek for no explanation of religion except in man and in man’s life itself.
And now, to explain this vital immanence, what do they assign as the primal stimulus and primal manifestation of every vital phenomenon, and particularly of religion?

A. ‘The first actuation, so to speak, of every vital Phenomenon–and religion, as noted above, belongs to this category–is due to a certain need or impulsion;
but speaking more particularly of life, it has its origin in a movement of the heart, which movement is called a sense.

Q. According to such principles, where is the principle of faith, and therefore of religion?

A. ‘As God is the object of religion, we must conclude that faith, which is the basis and foundation of all religion, must consist in a certain interior sense, originating in a need of the divine.’

Q. According to the Modernists, does this need of the divine belong at least to the domain of consciousness?

A. ‘This need of the divine, which is experienced only in special and favourable circumstances, cannot, of itself, appertain to the domain of consciousness.’

Q. Where, then, according to them, is to be found this need of the divine?

A. ‘It is first latent beneath consciousness, or, to borrow a term from modern philosophy, in the subconsciousness, where also its root lies hidden and undetected.’

“You, at least, strive to console me.” – Time is Running Out to Respond to Our Lady’s Call

Tomislav, the First Crowned King of the Unified Croatian Kingdom on the Adriatic – Part 3

Meditation on Our Lord’s Most Precious Blood

Hrvatska Zavjetna Krunica – Jubilarno ograničeno izdanje za 125. obljetnicu

Croatian Covenant Rosary – 125th Anniversary Jubilee Limited Edition

The Vices and other Very Grievous Sins

The Main Kinds of Sins

The Beatitudes

The Gifts of the Holy Ghost

On the Virtues and Vices – Cardinal Virtues

CATECHISM ON MODERNISM – PART I – THE ERRORS OF THE MODERNISTS – I. AGNOSTICISM

Published on: August 25, 2020August 27, 2020 by KOFPB

PRELUDE
Q. To proceed in an orderly manner in the statement of the errors of Modernism, how many characters are to be considered as playing their parts in the Modernist?

A. ‘To proceed in an orderly manner in this some what abstruse subject, it must first of all be noted that the Modernist sustains and includes within himself a manifold personality: he is a philosopher, a believer, a theologian, an historian, a critic, an apologist, a reformer. These roles must be clearly distinguished one from another by all who would accurately understand their system, and thoroughly grasp the principles and the outcome of their doctrines.’

CHAPTER I
THE RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY OF THE MODERNISTS
I. AGNOSTICISM.

Q. We begin, then, with the philosopher what doctrine do the Modernists lay down as the basis of their religious philosophy?

A. ‘Modernists place the foundation of religious philosophy in that doctrine which is commonly called Agnosticism.’

Q. How may the teaching of Agnosticism be summed up?

A. According to this teaching, human reason is confined entirely within the field of phenomena, that is to say, to things that appear, and in the manner in which they appear: it has neither the right nor the power to overstep these limits. Hence it is incapable of lifting itself up to God, and of recognizing His existence, even by means of visible things.

Q. What conclusion do the Modernists deduce from this teaching?

A. ‘From this it is inferred that God can never be the direct object of science, and that, as regards history, He must not be considered as an historical subject.’

Q. Given these premisses, what becomes of Natural Theology, of the motives of credibility, of external revelation?

A. ‘Every one will at once perceive. The Modernists simply sweep them entirely aside; they include them in Intellectualism, which they denounce as a system which is ridiculous and long since defunct.’

Q. Do not, at least, the, Church’s condemnations make them pause?

A. ‘Nor does the fact that the Church has formally condemned these portentous errors exercise the slightest restraint upon them.’

Q. What, in opposition to Modernism, is the doctrine of the Vatican Council upon this point?

A. ‘The Vatican Council has defined: ” If anyone says that the one true God, our Creator and Lord, cannot be known with certainty by the natural light of human reason by means of the things that are made, let him be anathema “;* and also : “If anyone says that it is not possible or not expedient that man be taught, through the medium of divine revelation, about God and the worship to be paid Him, let him be anathema “;** and finally: ” If anyone says that divine revelation cannot be made credible by external signs, and that therefore men should be drawn to the faith only by their personal internal experience or by private inspiration, let him be anathema.”***

Q. ‘It may be asked: In what way do the Modernists contrive to make the transition from Agnosticism, which is a state of pure nescience, to scientific and historic Atheism, which is a doctrine of positive denial; and, consequently, by what legitimate process of reasoning they proceed from the fact of ignorance as to whether God has in fact intervened in the history of the human race or not, to explain this history, leaving God out altogether, as if He really had not intervened?’

A. ‘Let him answer who can. Yet it is a fixed and established principle among them that both science and history must be atheistic; and within their boundaries there is room for nothing but phenomena; God and all that is divine are utterly excluded.’

Q. ‘What, as a consequence of this most absurd teaching, must be held touching the most sacred Person of Christ, and the mysteries of His life and death, and of His Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven?’

A. ‘We shall soon see clearly.’

* De Revel., can. 1.
**Ibid., can. 2.
***De Fide, can. 3.

II. VITAL IMMANANCE

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