'Being is supernatural'
The Transfiguration (Titian - circa 1560)
a) Being is Supernatural
The silencing of the supernatural dimension of Being
or, in other words, Naturalism (and the rationalism which accompanies it), is a
feature of all the novel doctrines introduced by the Council, and of all the
doctrines that it suppresses. We shall proceed to give no less than 25
instances of this process of silencing. The process consists either in treating
the supernatural as natural or in elevating what is natural to some sort of
pseudo-supernatural status, in other words, by:
i) The Project
of Naturalizing the Supernatural;
ii) The Project
of Supernaturalizing the Natural.
i)
The Project of Naturalizing the Supernatural
This is seen in:
1. The Council’s
reduction of Faith [1],
and the other supernatural virtues, to the natural level;
2. Its reduction of
Hope [2] to
the emotion of hope: to a form of sentimental, Rousseauist optimism for the World and for the Church without
reference to Hell, and to excessive trust in ‘men of good will’;
3. Its reduction of
Charity, that is supernatural love, to the emotion of love (- to Affekt for, or to sentimental love for,
all men) particularly in the furtherance of Ecumenical or Indifferentist goals,
or to carnal love within marriage;
4. Its reduction of
the Church to the natural level by silencing Church teaching on the Mystical
Body of Christ and by eroding all Her supernatural properties: Her status as a
hierarchy; Her being One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic; Her necessity for
Salvation, Her superiority to the State;
5. Its silencing of
the supernatural final end of the Church [3];
6.
Its silencing of
the supernatural final end of the State [4];
7. Its allocation
to the Church of a purely natural goal, thereby suggesting that the Church
belongs to the purely natural order [5];
8. Its silencing of
the supernatural dignity of man [6];
9. Its
secularization of the priesthood [7];
10. Its
desacralization of the consecrated life [8];
11. Its
naturalization of baptism by placing it on the same level as ‘initiation’ ceremonies [9];
12. Its devaluation
of the Christological and sacramental dimensions of marriage [10];
13. Its devaluation
of the sacramental nature of the Holy Mass.
ii) The
Project of Supernaturalizing the Natural
This is seen in:
1. The indiscriminate attribution of ‘Truth’ and ‘Holiness’ to the non-Catholic Christian confessions [11];
2. The indiscriminate attribution of ‘Truth’ and ‘Holiness’ (sancta), ‘seeds of the word’, ‘light of the word’, and the recommendation of ‘reverence’ to the other religions [12];
3.The conciliatory appeal to Hindu ‘asceticism and mysticism’;
4. The conciliatory appeal to the Buddhist search for ‘liberation and illumination’;
5. The conciliatory appeal to the Moslem belief in, and subjection to, the One God, as well as their moral life;
6. The conciliatory appeal to the Jews’ possession of the Old Testament and the alleged adequacy of the Old Covenant for salvation [13];
7. The situation of man’s dignity tout court in his purely natural vocation to union with God [14];
8. The situation of man’s union with Christ in human nature elevated by the Incarnation [15];
9. The situation of man’s salvation in human nature redeemed by the Death and Resurrection of Christ [16];
10. The effective abolition of Original Sin [17];
11. The attribution to the World of a purely supernatural goal, thereby insinuating that the World belongs to the supernatural order [18];
12. The elevation of marriage to the status of a ‘vocation’ [19].
We note that Pope Leo XIII designates naturalism as
the very animating spirit of Freemasonry [20].
b) There is Such a
Thing as the Principle of Non-Contradiction
We here examine:
i)
The Principle of
Non-Contradiction in General;
ii)
Contradictions
in the Council;
iii) Effects of the Contradictions;
iv) The Contradiction set in their context
c) The Principle of
Non-Contradiction in General
The Principle of Non-Contradiction is one of the First
Principles of Thought, without which it is not possible to think at all.
Aristotle defines it as follows: ‘The same attribute cannot belong and not
belong to the same thing at the same time and in the same respect.’ Take the
example of the proposition: ‘A man is not a man.’ This proposition cannot be
thought at all: we can understand its component parts, but not the proposition
as a whole; it conveys nothing: it has no sense. If we accept it, then we must
accept every proposition whatsoever, because a contradiction in terms is the
ultimate non-sense, and anything else will have more sense than it. For example
the statement that ‘a man is a ship’ has more sense, more meaning, than the
statement that a man is not a man, because it is not a contradiction in terms:
it has more being to it, more substance than the latter proposition, since a
ship at least has being and shares this being with man, and therefore the
proposition ‘a man is a ship’ can be understood to a certain degree, unlike the
proposition ‘a man is not a man’.
ii) Contradictions in the Council
As we observed at the beginning of this book [21],
the Council is syncretist, comprising both Traditionalist and Modernist texts.
This entails that the Council as a whole offends against the principle of
Non-Contradiction. The Pope, as we mentioned above, did not favor one or other
side exclusively, but rather adopted the rôle of a conciliator oppositorum,
like a card-player dexterously shuffling two packs together: one of ordinary
cards, and the other ‘Tarot’: instant Gnosticism, before your very eyes.
Certainly the most notable example of the Pope's conciliatory stance is his
approving summary of the Council's achievement as the event by which: ‘The
Religion of God made Man has encountered the religion… of man who has made
himself God’ [22].
This means that if one cared to make the necessary
enquiry, one could presumably find many contradictions in the Council
documents, but we shall here limit ourselves merely to four contradictions in
the areas that we have covered above:
1. The Church as Possessor and Teacher
of the Truth;
2. The Nature of Ecumenism;
3. The Principle Function(s) of the
Priest;
4. The Moral Life.
1. The Church as Possessor and Teacher of the
Truth
‘The Catholic Church is, by
the will of Christ, the teacher of truth, it is its duty to proclaim and teach
with authority the truth that is Christ’ (DH 14).
Here we return to a contradiction that we have
discussed above. This orthodox text entails that the Church possesses the Truth
and can, and indeed should, teach it; but as we said above, such conciliar
texts contradict others such as those cited in the Introduction [23]. There it is stated that the Church should seek the Truth, and seek it with
non-Christians, that is to say with those who are outside the Church; that the
Church is in the process of attaining the truth in its fullness, and is in the
process of formulating it. These latter texts entail that the Church does not
possess the Truth, and so cannot teach it.
We are left then with the following contradictions as
to the possession and preaching of the Truth, placing the orthodox doctrine
first and the heterodox second:
i) The Church possesses the Truth and can preach it;
ii) The Church does not possess the Truth and cannot
preach it.
2.
The Nature of Ecumenism
The Council speaks of ‘obstacles to full ecclesiastical communion’ between the separated
communities and the Church which the ‘ecumenical
movement is striving to overcome’ (UR 3). It adds that when such ‘obstacles to perfect ecclesial communion
are overcome, all Christians will be gathered in a common celebration of the
Eucharist into the unity of the one and only Church’ (UR 4). However,
shortly after the latter phrase it states that: ‘the work of preparing and reconciling those who wish for full catholic
communion is of its nature different from the ecumenical movement’ (UR 4).
We may then state the contradiction as to the nature
of Ecumenism as follows:
i) Ecumenism consists in striving
for ecclesiastical communion;
ii) Ecumenism does not consist in striving for ecclesiastical communion.
3. The Principle Function(s) of the
Priesthood
a) ‘[Priests hold]…the sacred power of order, that of offering sacrifice and forgiving
sins’ (PO 2);
b) ‘It is the
first task of priests… to preach the Gospel to all.’ (PO 4).
Here the statements are less clear than those cited
above, not expressing, but rather suggesting, contradiction. The suggested
contradiction, which is of course that between Traditional Catholic doctrine
and Protestant heresy, may be illustrated in the following scheme:
i) The principal functions of the priest are to
celebrate the Holy Mass and to confess;
ii) The principal function of the priest is to
preach.
4. The Moral Life
We have observed that the Council silences the
Catholic doctrine of Hell and states that: ‘in the human nature united to
himself, the Son of God, by overcoming death through his own death and
resurrection, redeemed humanity…’ These factors imply that it is unnecessary to
lead a good life, so that effectively and for all practical purposes morality
is not a dualist system consisting of the two contradictory principles of good
and evil, but rather a monist system where good and evil together constitute
some sort of higher moral reality.
iii) Effects of the Council’s Denial of the
Principle of Non-Contradiction
The effects of the Council’s denial of this principle
are three in number:
a) The theme of such
doctrines becomes irrelevant;
b)
Truth as such
becomes irrelevant;
c)
The Church is
discredited.
a)
The Theme of such
Doctrines becomes Irrelevant
While all the Council’s heterodox doctrines have the
effect of introducing falsehood into the Magisterium, those that offend against
the principle of non-contradiction in particular have, when juxtaposed with the
respective orthodox doctrines, the additional effect of rendering the theme
treated by such doctrines entirely otiose. Because if the Council teaches for
instance both that the Church possesses the Truth and that She does not possess
the Truth, then the two statements cancel each other out and the whole question
about the Church’s possession of the Truth becomes irrelevant.
b)
Truth as Such becomes Irrelevant
The Principle of Non-Contradiction is a first
principle of thought. To renounce it is therefore to renounce thought, reason,
and Truth itself. As we have said above, the words that express the given
contradiction become non-sense, meaningless, mere flatus vocis, and if in some way we accept the contradiction, then
we must accept any statement at all. In other words we have opened the door to
madness.
But in renouncing thought, reason, and Truth we have
raised up another principle in their place, and that principle can be nothing
other than the Will: the will to power, the program, the agenda, the praxis.
Truth yields to Will, the Objective to the Subjective, the principle of
non-contradiction to the principle of subjectivism.
c)
The Church is Discredited
The net result is that the Church is discredited: The
Church, or at least the Church as the Council represents Her, in contradicting
Herself, loses credibility as the Divinely appointed Teacher of Truth to the
whole world; in renouncing Truth, She assumes the mantle of a Tyrant.
iv) The Contradictions as Part of a
Revolutionary Process
The Contradictions are part of a revolutionary
process. The new doctrines ‘in the beginning… at times seek a modus vivendi with the old doctrines,
expressing themselves in such a way as to maintain a semblance of harmony with
them. Generally, however this soon breaks out into open warfare’ [24].
We may express this process as follows: thesis, thesis and antithesis,
antithesis: A, A & - A, - A. An example has been seen in the Church’s
teaching on marriage where, as we have explained in our treatment of marriage
above, we have witnessed the following process:
-
The (primary) end of marriage is procreation;
-
The ends of marriage are love and procreation;
-
The end of marriage is love.
The same may be seen on a larger scale with the
Catholic Religion as a whole: in the period up till the 20th century
it admitted of only one authentic interpretation: that of Tradition; from the
Council onwards it admitted of two: Tradition and Modernism; from the onset of
the Franciscan Pontificate it is again tending to admit of only one authentic
interpretation: this time that of Modernism. In the present epoch Traditional
Catholics are consequently themselves being presented as heretics and
schismatics.
Tradition and Modernism –
contradicting interpretations of the Faith and Doctrine – both admitted by the
Second Vatican Council - thus Truth becomes irrelevant.
[1] Introduction B I a. 1
[2] that is to say Hope for eternal salvation and the vision of the
vicissitudes of this life in the light of the Faith
[3] ch.4, A.1
[4] ch.4, A. 1
[5] ch.5, A (b)
[6] ch.8, C.
[7] ch.6, B. 4 (b)
[8] ch. 6, C.
[9] ch.7, A
[10] ch.6, A
[11] ch.2
[12] ch.3, A
[13] ch.3, Conclusion to chapters
2 & 3
[14] ch.8, C. (c)
[15] ch.8, C. (d)
[16] ch.8, C. (d)
[17] ch.8, C. (d)
[18] ch.5, B
[19] ch.6, A. 6
[20] in Humanum Genus
[21] Preface A.1
[22] see chapter 8, D. 3
[23] B. I & II
[24] Revolution and
Counter-Revolution op. cit., ch V, 2
