p/c R.P. at Holy Ghost.
The pre-55 Easter Vigil’s 12th Prophesy (sung before Holy Mass) ends with a prayer naming God as the “Only Hope of the World” (Spes Única Mundi.) I went to that very long vigil on Saturday night at a traditional parish in my area and then on Sunday Morning, I offered my own low Mass in my hermitage. Later that day, I started wondering if I was too heard on modernism. Ultimately, my conclusion was: Yes, in personal conversations. No, in my online apostolate of Church reform.
One of the reasons I came to the latter conclusion was thinking about how slowly many of the Eastern Catholics in Turkey in the 7th century became Muslim. Granted, Islam usually converts by the sword, but not always. It wasn’t like all the Eastern Christians of Cappadocia just began to don fezzes or niqabs overnight. That move from Christianity to Islam must have been slow for some people living in modern day Turkey many centuries ago. Although I believe Islam to be inspired by satan himself, many people smarter than me consider it to be only a Christian “heresy.” I personally think it’s way worse than “a heresy.” But whether I’m right or Belloc is right, it claimed millions of orthodox Catholics (and ultimately billions of their progeny) away from the true religion to a false religion.
About seven years ago, one of the last times I concelebrated a Novus Ordo (“I’m helping!”—à la Ralph Wiggum) was at a parish called St. Anthony’s in Istanbul, Turkey. (Earlier this year at another parish in Istanbul called St. Mary’s, a Muslim gunman killed a man in an act of terrorism.) As you know, that city was once called Constantinople. Yet Constantinople used to be the most second most important center of Christianity next to only Rome. In fact, St. John the Apostle wrote the first couple chapters of the Apocalypse to the Churches of Turkey. God warned the “Churches of Asia” through St. John: I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.—Apo 2:5.
This was not an empty threat. The Churches of Asia (modern day Turkey) dropped the ball and now there are barely any Catholic Churches remaining in all of Turkey. The same can happen through modernism. It’s not like God “owes us a living” just because there was a pastoral-council apparently ratifying the errors that many bishops espoused to make peace with the world and the flesh and the devil for human respect. God owes none of us a living if we divert from the Truth.
The constant warnings on this blog about the dangers of modernism are not just my own personal wounds or inside-baseball debates within Catholicism. We now know statistically that nearly the entire hierarchy espousing modernism has tanked the number of Catholic baptisms and marriages and vocations in the United States in a similar way to what happened in Turkey in the 7th century. Granted, our current decline is slower than a conversion to heresy partly done by the sword, but modernism may be as destructive as Islam.
Let’s look at the heresy of modernism in non-statistical ways to see if that’s an exaggeration. First, consider that there’s an enormous overlap between Catholics today who believe in only the spiritual resurrection of Jesus and deny that 6th commandment sins are sins is obvious: They don’t see the importance of the body. They don’t understand that Jesus truly Rose in His Body. They don’t understand that we will be judged by what we did in the Body.
Secondly, let’s consider this Easter season how we as Catholics don’t believe in just a spiritual resurrection, but even a bodily and physical resurrection unto life for each person who is saved: If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.—Rom 8:11.
Thirdly, consider how we Apostolic Catholics believe in a physical resurrection. This means we also believe we will be judged by what we actually do in the body (not our emotions:) For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.—2 Cor 5:10.
Finally, see how modernist “Catholics” doing certain sins in their body can not go to heaven: Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, mor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.—1 Cor 6:9-11.
You see, the truth is not somewhere between traditionalism and modernism. God does not meet you “where we’re at” if you reject traditional Catholicism just to fit in to a young-adult Catholic volleyball game to find a cute spouse who is not-too-extreme but not-too-loose. Just as Muslims admit that Jesus was a prophet (true enough—but false in the fact they deny He is the Son of God) so also modernism has certain claims (like Jesus is God, but somehow other religions can get you to heaven) then both are not partial-truths and partial-lies but rather diabolical lies (as satan will always allow some truth as a vehicle for his lies.) The truth is not somewhere between truth and error, between traditional Catholicism and modernist Catholicism. It’s entirely on the side of true Catholicism as that’s the Church that Jesus Christ founded:
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God.—2 Cor 6:14-16a.
Just as Jesus Christ crucified and risen is the only hope of the world, so also the Blessed Trinity is the author of only one religion (which is Catholicism unchanged for 2000 years.) This is often called “traditional Catholicism” but that’s because it’s the only true version unchanged in dogma over 2000 years. God is truly the “world’s only hope.” And because God only established traditional Catholicism, this means Islam and “progressive Catholicism” are not “lesser lights” but only and exclusively hindrances to salvation. God is the Spes Única Mundi (the only hope of the world) and so is the dogma He inspired. All amalgamations of true Catholicism and other religions will land the US of A like Turkey—with our “lampstands” entirely “removed.”—Apo 2:5. After all, God does not “owe us a living” if we divert from his once-delivered Truth as found in Apostolic Catholicism.