It is Eden all over again

Feb. 22, 2026

Last week we gave a general overview of the main points of the heresy of modernism. In summarizing them we can see that it is a heresy that in reality preys upon the human weakness to pride and disordered curiosity. Recall for a moment how Satan used pride and curiosity to deceive Adam and Eve: Now the snake was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the LORD God had made. He asked the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You shall not eat from any of the trees in the garden’?” The woman answered the snake: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘You shall not eat it or even touch it, or else you will die.’” But the snake said to the woman: “You certainly will not die! God knows well that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, who know * good and evil.” The woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and the tree was desirable for gaining wisdom. (Genesis 3, 1-6)

Remember, modernism tells us to give priority to the purely earthly and human above all else – one’s emotions, feelings, opinions, human government and science – effectively eliminating any sort of eternal and constant truth that comes from God or rises above purely earthly ideas. Truth is exclusively in the possession and at the disposal of the given person. It becomes a horizontal reality: leading from humans to humans, from man to his times and opinions, not as the vertical reality the Scriptures and Church have always insisted: from God to man and man to God. It is inherently based upon the rationalist and relativist – often godless - philosophies of much of the so called “enlightenment” period. We recall that the major and overt spread of this heresy begins to be very visible during the time leading up to and during the pontificate of St. Pope Pius X. It is then that it begins a direct assault – openly and unapologetically - against the Catholic Faith and its authority and influence on the world at large and individual believers.

St. Pius X begins reiterating the official position of the Church and the condemnation of the heresy in 1907 with the decree Lamentabili Sane Exitu (With truly lamentable results). This decree addresses 65 of the propositions of the heresy of modernism. In particular the ideas that you can separate the historical Christ from the religious Christ, reducing faith to feeling and subordinating revelation to the personal conscience. In 1907 he also released an entire encyclical dedicated to the condemnation of modernism. In Pascendi Dominici Gregis (Feeding the Lord’s Flock) Pope Pius X systematically went over the errors of modernism and emphasized that the heretics want to reinterpret dogma according to human reason and experience, and in doing so attempt to undermine the authority of the Church and the objective truth of revelation. In 1910 St. Pope Pius X promulgated the Oath Against Modernism, and it was required that all clergy, pastors, preachers, confessors, religious superiors and seminary professors take the oath publicly. This was the case until the year 1967 when Pope Paul the VI made a fatal mistake and an unexplainably bad decision that has had reverberating consequences throughout the world and the Church. This actual headline appeared in the New York times on July 18th, 1967: Pope Said to Cancel Antimodernist Oath.

And we see the results of that bad decision in our time. More to come in the future.

God love you, in the Faith,

Fr. Anthony