Edward Pentin has another disturbing revelation regarding Cardinal Baldisseri’s statements to the conclave at the Vatican last month of many large pro-family organizations. In a quote I have not seen elsewhere, Baldisseri discusses his views on Dogma, and how it can “evolve,” using the term in the same sense as the modernists condemned over a century ago by Saint Pius X. If one reads the entire Oath Against Modernism, it is quite easy to find that Pius X completely repudiated the concept that Dogmas could “evolve” into contradictory meanings, or even be watered down to the point that they have essentially no meaning or force, even as a “pastoral” recourse.
First, Cardinal Baldiserri’s quote. It should be mentioned that he is the man hand-picked by Pope Francis to lead both sessions of the Extraordinary Synod on the Family, both last year’s, and that coming this October:
The head of the Synod of Bishops secretariat, responsible for organizing the highly controversial October Synod on the Family, told Aleteia last week: “There’s no reason to be scandalized that there is a cardinal or a theologian saying something that’s different than the so-called ‘common doctrine.’ This doesn’t imply a going against. It means reflecting. Because dogma has its own evolution; that is a development, not a change.”The contrast between his comments and St. Pius’ ‘Oath Against Modernism’ is striking, and worth highlighting given the confusion surrounding this synod and the engineering that seems to be taking place behind the scenes.
Now a few choice quotes from the Oath in rebuttal:
I entirely reject the heretical’ misrepresentation that dogmas evolve and change from one meaning to another different from the one which the Church held previously….. [Is that not what is being proposed in the “openings” to adulterers, fornicators, and the perverse? Is it not an “evolution” of belief that winds up being completely opposed to the prior belief and practice of the Church?]……I also reject the error of those who say that the faith held by the Church can contradict history, and that Catholic dogmas, in the sense in which they are now understood, are irreconcilable with a more realistic view of the origins of the Christian religion……[Which rejects the modernist error of antiquarianism, which posits that the earliest practice of the Faith was the purest and best. Of course, since the earliest practice of the Faith is somewhat unclear, that gives the modernists ample room to altar the Faith out of all recognition, changing it in just about any way to please them. Antiquarianism, by the way, was the principle argument in favor of the liturgical revolution and the Novus Ordo, even though the final “manufactured product,” as Pope Benedict described it, would have been in many respects completely alien to the early Church]…….I firmly hold, then, and shall hold to my dying breath the belief of the Fathers in the charism of truth, which certainly is, was, and always will be in the succession of the episcopacy from the apostles. The purpose of this is, then, not that dogma may be tailored according to what seems better and more suited to the culture of each age; rather, that the absolute and immutable truth preached by the apostles from the beginning may never be believed to be different, may never be understood in any other way.
That last sentence was both a warning by Pope Saint Pius X to our own time, and a rejection of the principle argument of the modernists – that Dogma not just can, but must change, to suit the changing moods and emphases of men in different times. Thus, to the modernist, the very idea of unchanging, immutable Dogma, always interpreted and practiced in the same manner, is not just wrong, but evil. To the modernist, there was no Resurrection, there was no God Incarnate, there was just a group of fanatical followers of one of many intinerant preachers to be found in what is now Palestine at that time, and they got together and willed this religion – a creation of man, not “God” (if he even exists) – into being. The religion known as Christianity/Catholicism was formed to be the “ideal” religious product for its time, and thus contained the beliefs it did to appeal to the people in those ancient days (I guess being burned alive, stoned to death, and tortured/martyred in innumerable ways was just wildly popular back then).
Times are different now, of course, and so the Church must have different beliefs. That this just happens to be exactly what the world (and the devil) has always wanted the Church to do is just a happy coincidence, I suppose. That is why men like Kung, Kasper, and their ilk, speak of the Resurrection as a myth or fantasy, cobbled together to wow the easily fooled masses of the Roman era. That speaks both to their own preening elitism (believing men of previous times, and the great mass of people today, to be gullible dupes), and complete lack of faith.
But for people of faith, people don’t just believe but KNOW that Jesus Christ is God Incarnate, that He walked this earth, that He died for our sins, and was resurrected from the dead on the third day, modernists are the height of folly and even, I dare say, stupidity. That is why Pope Saint Pius X decried them in such strident terms. Unfortunately, modernism went underground and survived that great Saint’s efforts to crush it. It exploded to the surface at Vatican II, and is still very much alive today, if increasingly elderly and decrepit. But wherever we encounter modernism, we must always keep in mind this great saintly Pope’s condemnation of it. Tragically, that modernism remains so widespread it fills almost every corner of the Church, even those who would, if they could, remain innocent of it. But a time will come when it shall be beaten back and the glory of Christ’s Truth shine to the entire world again. I do not know when that time will be, but I know, as you know, that God, and his Church, shall triumph in the end.
So let the modernists rave. Let them spout their errors. We shall oppose them even as we pray for them in the charity Christ commands us to have. And in the end, once again, the Church shall be the Church and the Truth shall be set free.
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