Individualism
Denial of Objective Truth
Denial of Sin
Sexual Anarchy
Reinterpretation of the Family
Sanctification of the State
The Culture of Death
The above-related ideas, brought together, represent Modernism – potentially the most powerful of all heresies! The heart of Modernism is directed by a relatively small number of revolutionary enthusiasts, but that does not lessen its chance of effectiveness. This dedicated minority directs government, education, and the press and is supported by what can only be said to be the willing spirit of the age among both Catholics and non-Catholics.
Powerful to destroy, but powerless to build, these ideas represent the greatest threat to the Church in history. The attacks are not directed at a single dogma or doctrine, but rather at the entire edifice of Church teachings and structure.
In 1864, now Blessed Pius IX, better known as Pio Nono, published his famous “Syllabus of Errors” in which, in eighty propositions, he condemned the radical liberal thinking of the age, both within and outside the Church.
These condemnations were followed by Leo XIII condemning “Americanism,” in 1899. It was an attempt by liberal Catholics to decentralize the American Church and accommodate its dogmas and doctrines to American thought.
Pius X, followed in 1907 with double encyclicals condemning Modernism, again within and outside the Church. These bold, unpopular moves by three Vicars of Christ stemmed the tide of such heresies for half a century. Our own times are now seeing the resurrection of these same such errors in a more virulent form.
Individualism: Here the individual stands alone and is beholden to neither God nor his fellow man.
Denial of Objective Truth: the Supreme Court of the United States, the modern university, and the high priests of secularism have rejected objective truth.
Denial of Sin: Modernity has abolished Original Sin and its consequences, man’s proclivity to follow his baser instincts.
Sexual Anarchy: By divorcing sexuality from procreation, pleasure is now the ultimate guide to human behavior.
Culture of Death: Abortion, euthanasia, and capital punishment have become extolled virtues.
Reinterpretation of the Family: Feminism, in its aggressive determination to pursue its goal, has obliterated the family unit by advocating divorce, abortion, and homosexual marriage.
Sanctification of the State: Having usurped the powers of the Church in education and in defining the meaning of marriage it has now assumed a mantle of sanctity and in the field of foreign policy it now views itself as “Savior of the world.”
--Xavier Rynne
