Pastor Column: Modernism II

From the bulletin of March 28, 2021      Continuing our look at the heresy of Modernism, we come to how they view the Church’s authority. Since Modernists say that Christ is only human and that all religion is the product of a vague internal “religious sense,” they go on to reject the idea that the Church has real authority coming from God. They see the Church’s authority as the product of the “collective conscience” of all believers. In other words, they argue that the Church should be democratic about it’s beliefs because it’s authority is really based on the opinion...Read More

Pastor Column: Modernism I

From the bulletin of March 21, 2021      Continuing with the documents of Pope St. Pius X, we come to one of his better known encyclicals, Pascendi Dominici Gregis, subtitled “On the Doctrine of the Modernists,” published in 1907. “Modernism” is the name that the pope uses to describe a collection of erroneous beliefs which were becoming popular at the time. As the pope, he sees it as his responsibility to point out and correct these errors as directly as possible.      The first error he tackles is what he calls “agnosticism.” This refers to the belief that human reason...Read More

Pastor Column: Pope St. Pius X

From the bulletin of February 21      Returning to our journey through major documents of recent popes, it is time to move on to Pope St. Pius X. Born with the name Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, he lived from 1835 to 1914. He lived in Riese, which was in the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, though it is now Italy. He became a priest in 1858. He served in a few placed, including as spiritual director and rector (president) of the seminary. By 1880, he was a teacher at the seminary until he was named the Bishop of Treviso in 1884 by Pope...Read More