gives a side-by-side comparison of all the sacraments before and after the changes made in the spirit of Vatican II. Every concerned Catholic should know exactly what we've lost. I highly recommend Dan's book. Only when we understand what's been lost can we be like the woman in the parable who sweeps her house looking for her lost coin and rejoicing when she finds it. Those of us who defend the faith of our fathers are also like the man who sold everything to buy the pearl of great price. When one has a treasure, he protects it. And that is what Archbishop Lefebvre did. Those of us who go to SSPX chapels love the faith, love the Church, and love the papacy. Read the encyclicals of Pope St. Pius X and then read those of Pope Francis to see the conflict. Will the real defender of the faith please stand up. Don't get lost in the weeds. Be at peace and soldier on.
The Conflict between Modernism and Tradition
by Daniel Graham
Understanding “progressivism” helps us understand the conflict between Traditional Catholics (pre-Vatican II) and Novus Ordo Catholics (post-Vatican II). We need to understand the philosophical conflict because the two positions cannot be reconciled.
First, we need to define three key terms:
1. “Modernism,” is the current term most associated with the Novus Ordo. Modernism is a cultural and philosophical movement that rejects tradition in art and social structures to seek new, improved ways of human expression, for example, the New Mass.
2. “Liberalism,” is often used by Traditional Catholics to correlate the current culture to post-Vatican II Novus Ordo. Classical 18th Century Liberalism emphasized our God-given free will and sought to limit State control, in keeping with the Church tradition. Modern Liberalism emphasizes State control to manage progress and enforce equality.
3. “Progressivism” is the philosophy from Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Progressivism addresses all truth: science, politics, economics, arts, and social structures, and therefore, is the foundation of “Modernism” and modern “Liberalism.”
Progressivism is the rationalist attempt to answer the question, cynically asked by Pilate: What is Truth? The father of Progressivism, Hegel, published his masterpiece, the Phenomenology of Spirit in 1807.
A key element of Progressivism is Hegel’s Dialectic Logic that has three parts:
1. Thesis (the accepted understanding of Truth),
2. Antithesis (the necessary and certain contradiction to the accepted understanding of the Truth),
3. Synthesis (the integration of the thesis and antithesis into a new, more advanced perspective).
According to Hegel, Truth progresses or evolves. As the dialectic continues, so we progress toward perfection. Every generation, every State, every Pope is the next step in progress toward perfection—and therefore, more perfect than any predecessors. (One can imagine that persons in authority might like the notion that they are the “best” that has ever been.)
In fact, Hegel believed that God is the result of the evolution of human consciousness and ultimately perfection.
Progressivism creates a false optimism by assuring us that the world eventually becomes perfect. From the 1830s to the present, evangelicals (and now many Catholics) believe that we must bring about paradise on Earth and thereby hasten the Second Coming, also known as the Eschaton. Tradition teaches that the World is broken and that we find perfection only in Heaven—an idea that progressives believe to be pessimistic and traditionalists believe to be practical. A side issue for progressives is
whether the State or Religion must bring about paradise on Earth. So far, most Progressives choose the State.
In 1867, Karl Marx published Das Kapital. Using Hegelian Dialectic, Marx predicted that the State (not Religion) would create the Worker’s Paradise.
Now comes the bait and switch: Marx claimed that after the dialectic ends Capitalism and brings about perfect Communism, a dictatorship of the proletariat is necessary to “transition” to paradise—ironically quashing further dialectic synthesis. One sees a pattern whereby Vatican II ends Tradition in favor of Modernism, and now we need a dictatorship of the “faithful” to transition to paradise. The current Vatican’s approach to Tradition shows they want to end the dialect now that they have control. Marx would approve of the tactic.
Marxist ideas and Progressivism made major inroads in Europe and the United States through the 19th Century and throughout post World War II.
In 1891, Pope Leo XIII addressed some the consequences Marxist Socialism (Progressivism) in Rerum Novarum. Although Pope Leo XIII doesn’t name sources of Progressivism, he makes the case for Natural and Normative Law (Tradition) to defend private property and limits to State’s ability to create a paradise. He also predicts that progressive ideas are a slippery slope into heresies and will cause more misery rather than a paradise.
In 1907, Pope Pius X saw that Progressivism was creeping into the Church through universities and seminaries. He officially used the term “Modernism” calling it the “synthesis of all heresies.” Catholic “intellectuals” were reinterpreting catholic doctrines through Hegel’s progressive lens. The Thesis is Tradition; the Anti-thesis is the modern-secular way; the Synthesis is the improved way.
In 1910, Pope Pius X required an Oath Against Modernism that had 5 main points:
1. Man cannot know God through the power of human reason (Hegel rejected this idea, in particular St. Thomas Aquinas’s 5 proofs of God. Progressives like Marx took the next step saying God does not exist, but is just man’s imagination.)
2. Miracles and prophesies are definitive objective historical facts (Hegel dismissed physical miracles suggesting they are just symbolical.)
3. The Catholic Church was established by Jesus (Hegel argued that Jesus did not even intend to establish a church but simply taught morality. The Church and its dogmas were later established by Jesus’ disciples.)
4. Truth is unchangeable a doctrine cannot mean one thing in the Middle Ages and something different now. (This point is a direct contradiction of the Hegelian dialectic and Progressivism.)
5. Faith is the objective reality, an assent of the intellect to the Truth received. (Hegel defined “faith” as a subjective reality that grasps truth through feeling, imagery, and representation.)
Note that after Vatican II 1967, Pope Paul VI retired Pope Pius’ Oath Against Modernism because it was incompatible with Vatican II documents that promoted modernism. By rejecting the oath, Pope Paul VI, for the sake of Vatican II, accepts the arguments against the five key points.
In 1931, forty years after Rerum Novarum, Pope Pius XI issued Quadragesimo Anno. He reinforces Pope Leo XIII’s argument and introduces the principle of subsidiarity: decisions are best made at the lowest level by those affected by the decision and those capable of implementing it.
By the way, in 1891, 90% of the world's population lived in “dire poverty.” Today, only 10% live in dire poverty and most of those are in countries that embraced Totalitarian-State/Marxism-Communism.
Progressivism continued to advance after World War II. In the 1960s, progressive bishops from Germany, Austria, and France (known as the Rhine Alliance) rejected the more traditional Vatican II agenda and replaced it with a more progressive, forward-looking agenda. And so, the conflict between Traditional and Progressive Catholics began in earnest. The progressives won in Vatican II.
Recall that a logical consequence of the Hegelian dialectic is that a current Pope, having “progressed” or evolved ahead of former popes, naturally and rightly can contradict them. Therefore, we must not be shocked when modern popes reject the authoritative rulings of all the pre-Vatican II popes. Progressivism and Tradition are utterly incompatible.
Another way of stating the conflict is that Traditional Catholics embrace Revealed Truth; Novus Ordo (Progressive) Catholics embrace Relative Truth.
Moreover, modern progressives, like Marx, realize that after they define the new, improved governance and truth, they must quash any resistance. They feel perfectly and philosophically justified in being a dictatorship for the sake of paradise.
Therefore, we mustn’t be shocked as we watch a Progressive post-Vatican II Novus Ordo dictatorship ruthlessly try to quash any resistance by Traditional Catholics.
In conclusion, the conflict between Tradition and the Novus Ordo was centuries in the making and may take centuries to resolve. The conflict is between two opposite views of the Truth: Revealed and Relative. One side will eventually win; the other will lose. I believe that Revealed Truth and Tradition will prevail.
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