Truth cannot grow old. The years follow one another, men die, and all things pass, but only Truth remains, unspoiled, intact. Fruit of the intrinsic relation existing between intelligence and reality, Truth escapes indeed the frailty of events and of men. Even better, Truth transcends it by attaining the very being of things. What is true one day cannot become false the following day. Truth also keeps intact its power of attraction. As our intelligence naturally aspires to understand the world that surrounds us, it cannot be satisfied for long with the fables it is fed. Only Truth satisfies the intelligence.
Dear Friends and Benefactors,
Truth cannot grow old. The years follow one another, men die, and all things pass, but only Truth remains, unspoiled, intact. Fruit of the intrinsic relation existing between intelligence and reality, Truth escapes indeed the frailty of events and of men. Even better, Truth transcends it by attaining the very being of things. What is true one day cannot become false the following day. Truth also keeps intact its power of attraction. As our intelligence naturally aspires to understand the world that surrounds us, it cannot be satisfied for long with the fables it is fed. Only Truth satisfies the intelligence.
Immutable in itself, Truth is however always new. We could easily imagine that with the passing of time Truth would lose its newness, obliged to repeat tirelessly the same thing to every generation, one after the other, forever stuck in the same ruts! But it is not so: Truth, although being always essentially the same, remains always to be discovered. We can never tire of Truth, since it puts our souls in relation with reality.
It is different with error. Error ages badly! And it grows old taking jealous care of putting on all the artifices of its make-up. Aren't they its single weapon of seduction? We must not be impressed by the aggressive campaigns of its publicity agents, who well know that behind their masks there is only a void, but still try to put us off track! This emptiness of error explains why it fears the light so much and prefers going to ground, as the common rodents with which it shares more than one trait... be it only its disgusting aspect!
The Modernist can boast of being a past master in this art of dissimulation. Leo XIII and St. Pius X multiplied in vain their increasingly precise and solemn warnings against the innovations which were being introduced into the Church. Such warnings were ineffective. They were not enough. The troublemakers - let us call them by their true name: the heretics - cried out and claimed to be the unhappy and innocent victims of malicious interpretations! Saint Pius X then decided to reveal their hidden intentions in the luminous encyclical Pascendi, of which we celebrate the centenary this September. Advancing disguised, the heretics refused, indeed, to leave the Church, undermining it from the interior. They could not have followed better the instructions and the methods of Freemasonry, the true parent of this pernicious error.
Born in those strange and hidden, noxious chambers where, during long years, was prepared the ruin of Holy Mother Church, Modernism refused to be presented as a coherent doctrine. Thus enabling the modernists, spread throughout the Church, to deny shamelessly the existence of any such organization! This absence of official doctrine and this dishonest refusal to show themselves openly gave them the advantage of settling with impunity at the very heart of the Church, corrupting many promising young souls, surreptitiously gaining them to their cause. One of glories of St. Pius X, and not the least, is to have managed to present in Pascendi the synthesis of this scattered, diffuse, elusive system which Modernism was at that time and to brand it, qualifying it very precisely as the "main sewer of all heresies"!
We should read this encyclical to know the modernistic heresy and to learn how to recognize it behind its multiple and hideous masks. An error is always defined by its comparison to the truth! Saint Pius X denounces this heresy vigorously and with a high degree of accuracy. We may affirm that Pascendi remains the best and the surest synthesis, unequalled to date, of the modernistic heresy! Moreover, firmly established upon the immutable principles of a sound philosophy and a sounder theology, the encyclical transcends fashions and remains today, more than ever, relevant - since Modernism, raising again its ugly head, enjoys what it thinks to be its final triumph.
Within the limits of this simple letter, we cannot have the pretension of exposing in detail the dense contents of the encyclical, but we will limit ourselves to indicate its plan, hoping that this rapid overview will be an invitation to read directly its text.
Saint Pius X does not hide that his task is particularly delicate because the heresy has already established itself within the sanctuary of doctrine, in the very bosom of Holy Mother Church. This infiltration is so profound that the saint Pope wonders whether the "Man of Perdition" (of whom the Apocalypse speaks) is not already at work! After a few lines of introduction, which underline the urgency and importance of the encyclical, the Pope exposes in a masterly way in what the modernistic doctrine consists, and then he explains, by showing some of its causes, why this heresy is from now on installed at the very center of the Church. Lastly, faithful to his role of Shepherd, he presents the remedies necessary to fight this effectively pernicious error and which are of a practical nature solemnly asking the bishops of the whole world to assist him in his fight.
Unmasked, the modernists themselves were forced to acknowledge that the Pope denounced perfectly their error! In fact, he took away all its means of seduction by revealing its true nature, and he clearly showed the way to victory by pointing out with which weapons it was necessary to fight this monstrous heresy. How come, then, that this powerful encyclical did not stop Modernism dead on its tracks?
In fact, the modernists reacted in accordance with their own nature, as rats! The latter indeed, when they are flushed out, build quickly new holes where they can, at leisure, continue their gnawing away. And so they did. Immense holes were dug, such as the "Liturgical Movement", while theology was undermined by the disastrous "New Theology".
Pius XII tried in vain to oppose the progression of the error. His condemnations were useless. Hidden away, in the shadows of its dark holes, the modernist heresy waited patiently until the arrival of the hour for emerging in the daylight to its final triumph. And thus, we had the Second Vatican Council.
Pascendi is today more relevant than ever. If we were to doubt it, the miserable state of Holy Mother Church, corroded by the modernistic error, would remind us of it! Let us not be easily deceived: the evolution of Modernism is only one effect of its make-up. The error does not change, it only evolves. The principles stated in the encyclical are always valid to judge Modernism... and to condemn it as an unbearable insult made against intelligence and the virtue of faith.
In the hope that you will not hesitate to open this encyclical to celebrate with dignity the centenary of such noble document!
In Christo sacerdote et Maria,
Fr. Yves le Roux