(Part three plus conclusion)
The changes experienced in the diocese of Antigonish over the past fifty years are the result of the influences of the Modernist Ideology which gained a new foothold following the Second Vatican Council. We must be careful not to write off the Council when we have not be given an authentic interpretation of its documents. How the modernists interpreted and taught the documents is what resulted in the current devastation. In the diocese of Antigonish, priests at St. F.X. were among the first public dissenters against ‘Humanae Vitae’ and then Bishop William Power sided with them. The university degenerated from its Catholic roots until finally the Board of Governors formally voted to no longer be Catholic and started promoting St. F X as being an undergraduate university with a “Catholic Heritage”. This measure to portray St. F X as still somehow Catholic, was promoted in the hopes of retaining continued funding from their still Catholic alumnae. From that time the secularization at St. F.X. progressed more rapidly to the point that today it exhibits the characteristics of anti-Catholicism. Recently this new image was demonstrated when it became the first university in the Maritimes to dispense the abortifacient morning after pill to its students. For it to continue bearing the name of a revered Catholic saint, St. Francis Xavier, only shows further contempt for the Church. As the university deteriorated it seemed that the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Martha, who were part of the founding of St. F.X., also became very secular. Embracing psychology as religion and promoting non-Catholic practices such as centering prayer, Reiki and hosting local pagan mystics, sadly, it appears to have become a community of women with a Catholic heritage. The breaking of trust by bishops, priests and religious led to homilies, empty of doctrinal and moral teaching and watered down religious education programs. This betrayal has led to almost total ignorance of the moral teachings of the Church and is responsible for widespread Catholic participation in contraception, fornication, adultery, divorce, homosexual acts, the sexual abuse of children, and abortions. Over the past 50 years we have lost a diocesan wide Catholic school system, five Catholic hospitals, a Catholic university and a Catholic junior college. Not surprisingly, this new unwanted theology has emptied the pews of our churches and spawned an abysmal failure in attracting converts or candidates to the priesthood and religious life.
To add to our problems, in 2010 the former bishop of Antigonish, Raymond Lahey invited a known Modernist heretic, Dr. Paul Lakeland, to give a conference for his priests which was expanded to include a presentation for the laity. His successor, Bishop Brian Dunn approved of Lakeland’s presence and the promotion of his heretical books, ‘Catholicism at a Crossroads, How to Fix the Church.’ and ‘The Spirit of Catholicism.’ What Lakeland promotes in these two books perfectly lines up with everything that Pope Pius X condemned as heresy in his 1910 encyclical, “Against Modernism” As a follow up to the Lakeland conference, Bishop Dunn announced a “Diocesan Synod” (Later referred to as a congress), which would be based on the format proposed by Dr. Lakeland in his book, Catholicism at the Crossroads. The Congress opened with presentations by five local Protestant ministers. The facilitator, Ann Walsh, who is the Executive Assistant to Archbishop Martin Currie of St. Johns NL, was at the time working on a doctoral theses at the Protestant St. Stephan College in Alberta. On a radio talk show in NL, discussing women in the priesthood, she made the statement, “If there ever was a Last Supper then women were there”. The overall format for running the congress was designed by a Presbyterian minister from the US and it was even criticized by her own Protestant peers for being manipulative.
CONCLUSION
Before I learned about the heresy of Modernism, it was a mystery to me how priests who obviously don’t believe in so many essential doctrines of the Church can stay in it, living double lives. When they are confronted with their disloyalty to the Church, they answer that they are following their consciences and that they are loyal to Jesus. But how can this be? How can one claim to be loyal to Christ and at the same time have contempt for the persons to whom Jesus said, “He who hears you hears me.”? What kind of conscience can reconcile making a solemn oath before God to teach what the Church teaches and do just the opposite? I thought maybe they were suffering from some mental disorder.
Modernists don’t think like Catholics and they don’t see with Catholic eyes. Consequently, the remedies they put forward for ‘fixing the Church’ are not Catholic remedies. The famous Catholic apologist, Peter Kreeft, asked the question, “How is it that twelve fishermen could proclaim the Gospel and change the world and now a billion Catholics can’t match the feat?” We supposedly have the most brilliant scripture scholars, biblical exegetes and theologians in the history of the Church, so what is it that they don’t have? Could it be that they don’t believe that Jesus is who he says he is? Indeed, Modernists have created their own Jesus to whom they can be loyal but who doesn’t resemble the Jesus of the Bible as taught by the Catholic Church.
It is said that “Judas is the patron of heretics” and certainly a parallel to the Modernist can be made. In the 6th chapter of John’s Gospel when Jesus gave his discourse on the Real Presence in the Eucharist, Judas was among those who didn’t believe. Instead of leaving the Church he became a hypocrite and a thief, helping himself to the common fund and finally betrayed Jesus to death on a cross. Like Judas, heretical priests reject the authority which Jesus gave to the Church and following don’t believe in the ‘Real Presence’ of Jesus in the Eucharist. Again, like Judas, they don’t leave the Church but rather become frauds and thieves, helping themselves to the common fund. They betray Jesus by leading members of His Mystical Body to a spiritual death. Judas betrayed Jesus at the celebration of the first Eucharist and we are reminded of this when in the Eucharistic prayers of the Mass we hear that it was, “At the time He was betrayed, He took bread…” Judas, the first heretic, was a priest. They cannot say that they are acting in conscience and are faithful to Jesus when they are traitors, who like Judas refuse to leave Christ’s Church. Jesus said, “…but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” (Matt. 26:24)
We are all affected by the Modernist heresy. Because the official teachings of the Church have been withheld by bishops and priests over the past 50 years many Catholics are not aware of what the Church requires of its members. Some examples include to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of obligation, go to confession at least once a year, to receive Holy Communion at least once a year during the Easter Season, that you are forbidden to receive Holy Communion while in the state of serious sin, Catholics are prohibited from using artificial contraception, they are prohibited from voting for a politician who promotes abortion. Have Catholics heard recently the teaching that the Catholic is the one true Church established by Jesus Christ and that there is no salvation outside this Church. Another critical teaching of the Church that you almost never hear mentioned is about ‘The Four Last Things’, Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell. Modernists are particularly averse to this teaching because they themselves don’t want to contemplate these realities. They prefer to promote the heretical idea that, ‘there is a reasonable hope that all men will be saved’.
Lay Catholics have been desensitized from recognizing what is wrong in many of the celebrations of the Mass. They tolerate the events where they see a priest who refuses to wear the proper vestments and conform to the rubrics of the Mass. (Rubrics are the written instructions in the book the priest uses for celebrating Mass describing all of the gestures and liturgical actions the priest is required to carry out during the celebration. They are written in red ink, thus the name rubrics). Dissident priests will use inclusive language, change the words of the Mass and even change the words of Consecration. These abuses undermine the Church’s teaching that at the Mass in the Consecration the bread and wine become the Body, Blood Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. An alarming number of Catholics do not believe in this doctrine of the Church in part because the behavior of too many priests gives the impression that they themselves don’t believe. In many cases the laity haven’t been taught this essential doctrine. With a sense of helplessness faithful Catholics tolerate these abuses. They hope that because the priest is sacramentally ordained, even if the Mass celebration is illicit, it could still be valid, meaning they will receive the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ in Communion.
The Modernist environment has made it very difficult for faithful priests to teach what the Church teaches. When they do, it can prick consciences and cause a backlash from Modernist affected laity, fellow priests and even from bishops. We must support and pray for the Holy Spirit to guide and strengthen our faithful priests while we also pray for the conversion of those who have been deceived by the heresy of Modernism.
As with all of the former heresies in the Church, the Holy Spirit will ultimately defeat Modernism. The Church teaches that, “Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the ‘mystery of iniquity’ in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah to come in the flesh.” (CCC 675) Whether we are experiencing this stage in Church history is yet to be determined.
For Catholics the articles of faith are not based on mere opinion, but on truth and therefore cannot possibly change. Fr. John Hardon SJ, states this clearly saying “Divine faith, properly so called, is the assent of the intellect to what God has revealed, not because we comprehend what God tells us is true, but only because we accept a truth on His authority who can neither deceive or be deceived. God cannot deceive because He is all good and therefore cannot tell a lie. He cannot be deceived because He knows all things and therefore can never be wrong”
Catholics have the right to hear the truth from ‘faithful shepherds’ who demonstrate loyalty to the Church in union with the pope. They want to be able to trust their priests to be faithful to their vows of obedience and to know that what they are being taught is what the Church teaches.
* Quotes taken from Ignatius Catholic Study Bible