In his recent talk at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, Bishop Joseph Strickland quoted words from Archbishop Fulton Sheen that are more true now than ever: 

“America, it is said, is suffering from intolerance — it is not. It is suffering from tolerance. Tolerance of right and wrong, truth and error, virtue and evil, Christ and chaos. Our country is not nearly so overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded.” (“A Plea for Intolerance,” from Archbishop Sheen’s Old Errors and New Labels)

When Archbishop Sheen wrote these words in 1931, most Americans would not risk losing their jobs if they were to insist that men could not become pregnant or that marriage should only be between a man and woman, but today that is often not the case. More and more, we are free to say just about anything other than the truth. In the name of toleration today, there can be no toleration for those who speak the truth. How has it become immeasurably worse since 1931?

As Archbishop Sheen knew then, and all Catholics ought to know today, Our Lord entrusted the Catholic Church with the task of defending and spreading the truths all souls need to please God and save their souls. One of the greatest tragedies that could ever befall mankind would be for apparent Catholic authorities to teach anything other than unadulterated Catholic truth. If the Church — which is the most important truth-teller in the world — were to stop defending the truths entrusted to it, there would be little hope for any other truth to withstand corrupting error.

For this reason, the pre-Vatican II popes frequently condemned the anti-Catholic errors threatening the Church. With Vatican II, however, we know that John XXIII opened the Council by refusing to condemn the errors the Church had always opposed:

“The Church has always opposed these errors. Frequently she has condemned them with the greatest severity. Nowadays, however, the spouse of Christ prefers to make use of the medicine of mercy rather than that of severity. She considers that she meets the needs of the present day by demonstrating the validity of her teaching rather than by condemnations. Not, certainly, that there is a lack of fallacious teaching, opinions and dangerous concepts to be guarded against and dissipated.”

John XXIII also appointed as Council experts certain theologians who had been previously disciplined for their heterodox teachings, notably Henri de Lubac, Yves Congar, and Karl Rahner. Thus, from the very beginning of the Council there was an evident truce with error.

Not only did Dignitatis Humanae directly contradict what Blessed Pius IX taught (which was consistent with what his predecessors and successors had taught), it did so in a way to effectively place God’s unique truth on the same footing with the anti-Catholic errors opposed to it.

The Council’s well-known battle over religious liberty also signaled a truce with error. Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre described the clash between Cardinals Ottaviani and Bea:

“[C]ardinal Ottaviani was so vigorously opposed to Cardinal Bea, who absolutely wanted to see the Council adopt religious liberty. He had written at the head of his schema De Libertate Religiosa, whereas Cardinal Ottaviani had written De Tolerantia Religiosa. The difference is quite clear: error is tolerated to the degree that it cannot be suppressed, but if one can, one should. The goal is always to pursue and destroy error and confront it with the truth. But in certain States, there comes a moment when, because of the circumstances or the number of Catholics, that is no longer possible, when public order could no longer be assured, and peace would be endangered. The Church has always recognized this. Pope Leo XIII states this in his encyclical Libertas: toleration is a legitimate course of action.” (Against the Heresies, pp. 202-203)

We no longer have Catholic nations, so this question does not have the same significance it did at the Council; but it remained a real issue of importance at the time of this debate. As Archbishop Lefebvre described, Cardinal Ottaviani held the same position that the pre-Vatican II popes had made clear. Archbishop Lefebvre continued by describing Bea’s position:

“But De Libertate Religiosa, as meant by Cardinal Bea, is freedom accorded in principle to all the religions, freedom of opinion, freedom for all to publicly express whatever they will. Such a view exactly contradicts what Pope Pius IX proclaimed in his encyclical Quanta Cura. It is unthinkable!” (p. 203)

Bea won that battle, just as he won almost all of his battles at the Council, much to the detriment of the Church and world. Most of these battles involved sacrificing some aspect of Catholic truth to accommodate the errors of the non-Catholics who Cardinal Bea and his fellow progressives were attempting to appease.

Archbishop Lefebvre provided a concrete example of the battle over religious liberty in his Against the Heresies, beginning with a statement that Blessed Pius IX condemned in the Syllabus of Errors (which accompanied his 1864 encyclical condemning current errors, Quanta Cura):

“‘Proposition 15: Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true.’ Stated otherwise, everyone has his own conscience and is free to choose his religion! This is to deny the existence of a unique true religion, its motives of credibility, and the need for grace to be able to adhere to it. This condemned proposition is to be found exactly in the Declaration on Religious Liberty (Dignitatis Humanae). Our critics will retort that it contains a sentence affirming that only the Catholic religion possesses the truth, but this sentence was added by Paul VI at the last minute to gain the votes of 250 bishops who refused to sign the declaration. And it contradicted the rest of the document . . .” (pp. 215-216)

So not only did Dignitatis Humanae directly contradict what Blessed Pius IX taught (which was consistent with what his predecessors and successors had taught), it did so in a way to effectively place God’s unique truth on the same footing with the anti-Catholic errors opposed to it. As Archbishop Lefebvre wrote, Paul VI’s last minute addition did nothing to change the entire body of the document — it was simply a bit of honey to make it easier for the Council Fathers to swallow the poison.

Post-Vatican II: God, now that we have emerged from the Middle Ages, we believe that human dignity demands freedom to practice religions opposed to the unique Catholic Faith You gave us. As such, we will no longer teach that the Catholic Faith is necessary for salvation, nor will we combat the religious viewpoints opposed to it.

Many of today’s defenders of Vatican II blind themselves so that they do not have to see how the Council contradicted what the popes had always taught. Even if they manage to avoid seeing how the Council’s documents conflict with settled pre-Vatican II teaching, though, the honest defenders of the Council would have to concede that it fundamentally changes the orientation to God’s truth. Accordingly, we can see that the pre-Conciliar and post-Conciliar approaches to truth and error communicate radically different things to God:

Pre-Vatican II: God, You have given us Your holy truth to save souls and bring goodness to the  entire world. We will therefore do our utmost to promote Your unadulterated truth and combat all errors opposed to it.

Post-Vatican II: God, now that we have emerged from the Middle Ages, we believe that human dignity demands freedom to practice religions opposed to the unique Catholic Faith You gave us. As such, we will no longer teach that the Catholic Faith is necessary for salvation, nor will we combat the religious viewpoints opposed to it.

Again, any honest defender of the Council must generally acknowledge this change in orientation. Tragically, this change in orientation is a grievous offense against God like the one St. Paul described in his letter to the Romans:

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and injustice of those men that detain the truth of God in injustice: Because that which is known of God is manifest in them. For God hath manifested it unto them. For the invisible things of Him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; His eternal power also, and divinity: so that they are inexcusable. Because that, when they knew God, they have not glorified Him as God, or given thanks; but became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened. For professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” (Romans 1:18-22)

The architects and promoters of Vatican II have committed these same offenses and, professing themselves to be wise, they have become fools. St. Paul proceeded to describe God’s punishment for this offense:

“Wherefore God gave them up to the desires of their heart, unto uncleanness, to dishonour their own bodies among themselves. Who changed the truth of God into a lie; and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.” (Romans 1:24-25)

So many defenders of the Council want to attribute the absolute catastrophe of the post-Conciliar period to incomplete or improper implementation of the Council, as if the Holy Ghost was still trying to figure out how to best guide the Church. Sixty years of such unholy madness has brought us to the Fiducia Supplicans moment, where we have Francis and the bishops condemning faithful Catholics for opposing the blessing of same-sex unions:

“For this cause God delivered them up to shameful affections. For their women have changed the natural use into that use which is against nature. And, in like manner, the men also, leaving the natural use of the women, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men working that which is filthy, and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to their error.  And as they liked not to have God in their knowledge, God delivered them up to a reprobate sense, to do those things which are not convenient;  Being filled with all iniquity, malice, fornication, avarice, wickedness, full of envy, murder, contention, deceit, malignity, whisperers, Detractors, hateful to God, contumelious, proud, haughty, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Foolish, dissolute, without affection, without fidelity, without mercy. Who, having known the justice of God, did not understand that they who do such things, are worthy of death; and not only they that do them, but they also that consent to them that do them.” (Romans 1:26-32)

As Michael Matt highlighted in his recent Remnant Underground, this is where we find ourselves today. Traditional Catholics are expelled from their churches, while those whom God has “delivered up to shameful affections” fall further and further into hideous sin.

We absolutely must end the truce with error. We must cooperate with God’s grace to declare the truth with vigor, and clearly denounce the errors opposed to it. Today this requires us to entirely renounce Vatican II’s emasculating surrender to anti-Catholic errors.

If God is permitting all of this, it is so that we may finally awaken from this nightmare and return to Him. And if we want to awaken, we should consider St. Paul’s description of the difference between those who are not ashamed of the truth on the one hand, and those who bury God’s truth on the other:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and to the Greek. For the justice of God is revealed therein, from faith unto faith, as it is written: The just man liveth by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and injustice of those men that detain the truth of God in injustice: Because that which is known of God is manifest in them. For God hath manifested it unto them.” (Romans 1:16-19)

This opposition described by St. Paul is essentially the same as the conflict described by Archbishop Lefebvre above: between Cardinal Ottaviani (on the side of those not ashamed of the Gospel) and Cardinal Bea (on the side of those who bury God’s truth). Far too many Catholics remain on the side of those who bury God’s truth, which appears to be a primary reason why the conditions in the Church and world have deteriorated so dramatically since Archbishop Sheen warned against placing truth and error on the same footing.

Archbishop Lefebvre described the way in which we must approach the battle at this point:

“What happened at the Council was very serious, because it was effected by the penetration of liberal ideas within the Church. Presently at Rome they do not know how to extricate themselves. The Catholic religion cannot exist in such an oppressive atmosphere. Truth cannot be mixed with error. Error is always against truth and ends by devouring it, that is, by making it disappear. On the contrary, if they would affirm the truth once again with vigor, the errors would disappear. But without having recourse to the firm declaration of truth, it is error that wins, at least apparently and for a limited time, for ultimately, only the truth will triumph.” (Against the Heresies, pp. 194-195)

We must affirm the truth with vigor if we want to overcome the errors we see today. Along these same lines, Michael Matt ended his recent Remnant Underground with words from Pope Leo XIII’s Sapientiae Christianae that we must truly follow today:

“To recoil before an enemy, or to keep silence when from all sides such clamors are raised against truth, is the part of a man either devoid of character or who entertains doubt as to the truth of what he professes to believe. In both cases such mode of behaving is base and is insulting to God, and both are incompatible with the salvation of mankind. This kind of conduct is profitable only to the enemies of the faith, for nothing emboldens the wicked so greatly as the lack of courage on the part of the good. Moreover, want of vigor on the part of Christians is so much the more blameworthy, as not seldom little would be needed on their part to bring to naught false charges and refute erroneous opinions, and by always exerting themselves more strenuously they might reckon upon being successful. After all, no one can be prevented from putting forth that strength of soul which is the characteristic of true Christians, and very frequently by such display of courage our enemies lose heart and their designs are thwarted. Christians are, moreover, born for combat, whereof the greater the vehemence, the more assured, God aiding, the triumph: ‘Have confidence; I have overcome the world.’”

We absolutely must end the truce with error. We must cooperate with God’s grace to declare the truth with vigor, and clearly denounce the errors opposed to it. Today this requires us to entirely renounce Vatican II’s emasculating surrender to anti-Catholic errors. If we love God, why in the world would we be ashamed to proclaim the truth He gave us and repudiate the heresies against His truth? Our “Romans 1:18-32” nightmare has lasted far too long and is poised to grow worse: now is the time to stop being ashamed of God’s truth. Now is the time for Catholics to unambiguously reject the anti-Catholic Vatican II revolution. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!

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