The Grey Wolves of Modernist Ambiguity

[Michie]

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits.—Mt 7:15-16.

Many traditional Catholics today rip on the ultra-leftists because it’s easy to knock out of the park really low-hanging fruit like “Clown Masses” or social-justice warriors to oppose Eucharistic rallies because it detracts from the poor or even pro-abortion “Catholics.” Trads tackling people that far left on the political and theological spectrum are after “easy likes” on Twitter and Instagram.

The bigger problem is that neo-conservative (non-traditional) priests who may be found making pro-life statements or be seen headlining at a national “Eucharistic Congress” will often give heretical answers for nearly every doctrinal question except those two (pro-life and True Presence.) In other words, it’s not good enough to say “Don’t kill babies” and “Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist.”

In my article titled 40 “Smaller” Heresies of Modernism, I admitted that such heresies only seemed small. But really, there is no such thing as a small heresy. As you look through that list, I guarantee you that nearly every single American-based clergy-celebrity (except those who are traditionalists in the Catholic Church) will side against the Catholic Church’s classic Magisterium on those 40 issues. For example, if you were to ask a superstar bishop or priest headlining at the recent Eucharistic Congress about the death penalty or evolution or patriarchy or suicide or ecumenism or hell, you would get a radically different answer from me.

Continued below.

The Grey Wolves of Modernist Ambiguity

p/c North American Whitetail. Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits.—Mt 7:15-16. Many traditional Catholics today rip on the ultra-leftists because it's easy to knock out of the park really...

www.padreperegrino.org

 

[fide]

I hope the priest who posted this article on his website will check this forum to see any responses. I looked for a way to respond to him directly, but he sounded to me that he wanted to discourage "long" emails, considering time pressures. OK, but I hope he can read this here.

I agree with the padre about celebrity apologist/speakers/teachers ("American-based clergy-celebrity", "superstar bishop or priest headlining at the recent ____ Congress", "modernist superstar clergy", "The Novus Ordo superstar clergy", whom he suggests may be one the Lord warns us of, a wolf in sheep's clothing.

I agree the warning is serious and worth listening to. My criticism is that he is concerned about waffling and ambiguity of "smaller" doctrinal truths from these "other teachers", while agreeing they remain true to two important issues, namely the Real Presence in Holy Eucharist, and being pro-life. Yes, these are crucially important - no argument there.

BUT. It was painful to me to hear nothing from him, in this post of his (which was the perfect time and place to assert and affirm it) of the Crucially important place of the Blessed Mother in the Catholic Faith.

What did the Lord reveal to Don Bosco, concerning the two crucial pillars of our Faith that the Church must be anchored to, in the turmoil our Church faced in his time? 1) the Holy Eucharist! and 2) our Blessed Mother the Virgin Mary.

What did the Lord reveal to St. Louis de Montfort? In his True Devotion… he wrote:

The learned and pious Suarez the Jesuit, the erudite and devout Justus Lipsius doctor of Louvain, and many others, have proved invincibly, in consequence of the sentiments of the Fathers (and, among others, of St. Augustine, St. Ephrem deacon of Edessa, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Germanus of Constantinople, St. John Damascene, St. Anselm, St. Bernard, St. Bernardine, St. Thomas, and St. Bonaventure), that devotion to our Blessed Lady is necessary to salvation, and that, even in the opinion of Oecolampadius and some other heretics, it is an infallible mark of reprobation to have no esteem and love for the holy Virgin; while on the other hand it is an infallible mark of predestination to be entirely and truly devoted to her.

De Montfort wrote this of true and interior devotion to Mary:

To honour her as the worthy Mother of God, with the worship of hyperdulia; that is to say, to esteem her and honour her above all the other Saints, as the masterpiece of grace, and the first after Jesus Christ, true God and true Man;
To meditate her virtues, her privileges, and her actions;
To contemplate her grandeurs;
To make to her acts of love, of praise, of gratitude;
To invoke her cordially;
To offer ourselves to her, and unite ourselves with her;
To do all our actions with the view of pleasing her;
To begin, to continue, and to finish all our actions by her, in her, and with her, in order that we may do them by Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ, with Jesus Christ, and for Jesus Christ our Last End. We will presently explain this last practice.

What did the Lord move the Vatican II Church to insert in the Catechism?

CCC 971 “All generations will call me blessed”: “The Church’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship.”<Lk 1:48; Paul VI, MC 56> The Church rightly honors “the Blessed Virgin with special devotion. From the most ancient times the Blessed Virgin has been honored with the title of ‘Mother of God,’ to whose protection the faithful fly in all their dangers and needs.... This very special devotion ... differs essentially from the adoration which is given to the incarnate Word and equally to the Father and the Holy Spirit, and greatly fosters this adoration.”<LG 66> The liturgical feasts dedicated to the Mother of God and Marian prayer, such as the rosary, an “epitome of the whole Gospel,” express this devotion to the Virgin Mary.<Cf. Paul VI, MC 42; SC 103>

In my own words, if these might help a little:

We can understand this way of affirming the necessity of Marian devotion, I believe, by recognizing the Truth of “Lex orandi, lex credenti”. Our belief will be lacking if it is empty of true loving devotion to Our Mother. Jesus gave us this Blessed Virgin Mother from His Cross! The Commandment stands, Honor your father and your Mother! A heart lacking in true love for our Mother is lacking the living warmth “supernaturally natural” to true and eternal love for God and for all who are His own. This is a Truth found in prayer, concerning, appropriately, the Truth of the Interior Life in Christ.​