A rougher drive than Michigan’s wonderful roads…

Jan. 18, 2026

Over the last couple of years (who would have thought I would still be around here and still writing to boot) we have been on a relatively rough journey, taking a look at some of the heresies that have come about and the damage they inflicted. While, we only looked at a relative small smattering of them, the goal was to give us a general overview and help us understand a little more of our Faith and why the Church teaches what she does and why she teaches it in a particular way.

As we may remember, heresy is generally divided into a few categories, among these the main are: Trinitarian (dealing with the Trinity and the Persons of the Trinity) and Christological (dealing only with the person of Christ). We began by looking at the first heresies which began in the time of the Apostles – the Nicolaitan heresy and the worshipping of angels and such and then all the way until the 17th and 18th centuries with the heresy of Jansenism. While all heresy is bad, the good thing that happens as a result is the clarification and deepening of what Christ and His Church actually teach. We can single out the heresies of Arianism from the 4th century, followed by Martin Luther’s Protestantism from the 16th century, as being the most damaging and worst heresies up until the late 19th century.

As a quick recap, Arianism was the heresy the taught, in a nutshell, that Jesus was not a Divine and Human being. It taught that since the Godhead is absolutely unique, it would not be possible for it to coexist with a human nature. We say every Sunday that Christ is “consubstantial with the Father” = that Christ shares the same Divine Nature as the Father while still possessing a human nature through His Incarnation. This is a direct repudiation of Arianism.

The heresy of Martin Luther - commonly called Protestantism - basically denies the efficacy of the Sacraments, the reality of the Eucharist as the Body and Blood of Christ, the power of the Church to forgive sins, the necessity of works to accompany the declaration of faith, the existence of purgatory, et cetera. It denies parts of the canon of Sacred Scripture and many other things that we know and believe to be true and handed on from Christ through His one Church. As we say on Sundays - “I believe in One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church”.

To round out our general study of heresy and the fruits of the heresies that have come about over the centuries, we will finish with a look at what is called the “synthesis of all heresies” and was built in particular upon the heresies of Arianism and Protestantism. It is a heresy that is still affecting us today and many do not even realize how much they have not only gone along with it but have even accepted it and defend it. This heresy really comes into view around the end of the 19th century, and was called to our attention in particular by none other than one of its staunchest enemies – St. Pope Pius X. That heresy is called “Modernism”. Now before anyone jumps to a false conclusion about what it is, remember that prematurely jumping to conclusions can be a dangerous thing. The conclusions we sometimes are jumping to, are often nothing more than clouds and mist and offer no solid surface, and we end up banging our heads on the ground. We are then rewarded with a headache and the knowledge that we made a bad decision. The heresy of Modernism does not mean rejecting all things that are new or modern.

And on that, we will begin our deep dive into the heresy of Modernism int the coming weeks.

God love you, Fr. Anthony