2. Heteropraxy : the Cult of Man

IN the Discourses you gave to the Fourth Session of the Council, we see how your sympathy for man, and your desire to understand and meet him halfway, to respect, admire and love him – which were “ apostolic ” and “ pastoral ” to begin with – have developed into a veritable cult of man himself.

THE LOVE OF MAN

On September 14, 1965 you expressed the Church’s love for man in very strange terms: “ And what was the Church doing at that particular moment ? the historian will be asking; and the reply will be: The Church was filled with love... The Council puts before the Church, before us in particular, a panoramic vision of the world: how can the Church, how can we ourselves, do other than behold this world and love it ? (Cf. Mk 10.21) It will be one of the chief acts of the Session which is now beginning to take such a look at the world: once again, and above all else, love; love for the men of today, whoever and wherever they may be, love for all... The Council is a solemn act of love for mankind. May Christ come to our aid, in order that it may indeed be so. ”

What is new about this love ? That it adores its object. It is a love which has no regard for the Truth of God, or His Law, or His Grace, but looks upon man, and upon the world, as worthy of admiration, service, and devotion, in their own right. As you quote, once again, Mark 10.21, I must protest at this repeated misapplication. Jesus did indeed love the rich young man, because the latter was one of the rare human beings who could claim that he had always observed the law of God. Does this apply to the world today ? And because He loves him, Jesus proposes to him the greater perfection of the Evangelical Counsels. This pains the man, and he turns away, for he remains attached to the goods of this world. There is nothing here to justify the adulation which you make into a characteristic of the Conciliar Church.

This is the idolatrous love which led to Religious Liberty being proclaimed as a fundamental and absolute right of man. I say absolute, because the limitations which might be imposed upon it by the police seem to me not worthy of mention. The same love led to the promulgation of the notorious Pastoral Constitution on The Church in the World of Today, which you referred to as “ the crowning achievement of the Council", entirely inspired by the cult of Man, “ the apex of nature ”.

FAITH AND CONFIDENCE IN MAN

Such a love knows no constraint because it is no longer dependent on and controlled by the love of God, and soon turns into idealisation and idolatry of its object. This applies in your case as in any other, and leads you, in your blind and unbridled passion, to preach a faith and confidence in man which are little short the absurd. Thus, on December 2, 1970, to the journalists in Sydney:

“ For we have faith in Man. We believe in the good which lies deep within each heart, we know that underlying man’s wonderful efforts are the motives of justice, truth, renewal, progress and brotherhood – even where they are accompanied by dissension or sometimes even, unfortunately, by violence. It is your task, not to flatter him but to help him become conscious of his true value and his true potential. It is up to you to plant in man the seeds of this ideal – not for the pursuit of selfish interests which ultimately only reduce him and sometimes degrade him – but an ideal by virtue of which he is able to attain the true stature of a creature made in the image of God, who desires him to aim higher and higher, to build together a city of brotherhood for which all yearn and to which all have the right... The Catholic Church, in particular since the impulse given her by the Conciliar Aggiornamento, goes out to meet this same man whom it is your ambition to serve. ”

Is it not written: “ CURSED BE THE MAN THAT TRUSTETH IN MAN AND MAKETH FLESH HIS ARM AND WHOSE HEART DEPARTETH FROM THE LORD ! ” (Jer. 17.5) ? And again, “ FOR WITHOUT ME YOU CAN DO NOTHING. ” (Jn 15.5) ? But you would encourage him to aim higher and higher, to outstrip himself... perhaps even to seek to be the equal of God ?

THE CULT OF MAN WHO MAKES HIMSELF GOD

Yes, Most Holy Father, it was you who, on that historic day of December 7, 1965, addressing the entire assembled Council, gave a Discourse unlike any other in the annals of the Church and unlike any other that is ever to come, a Discourse which enthroned within the Church of Christ, the CULT OF MAN:

“ The Conciliar Church has also, it is true, been much concerned with man, with man as he really is today, with living man, with man totally taken up with himself, with man who not only makes himself the centre of his own interests, but who dares to claim that he is the end and aim of all existence...

“ Secular, profane, humanism has finally revealed itself in its terrible shape and has, in a certain sense, challenged the Council. The religion of God made man has come up against a religion – for there is such a one – of man who makes himself God.

“ And what happened ? An impact, a battle, an anathema ? That might have taken place, but it did not. It was the old story of the Samaritan that formed the model for the Council’s spirituality. It was filled only with an endless sympathy. Its attention was taken up with the discovery of human needs – which become greater as the son of the earth (sic) makes himself greater…

“ Do you at least recognise this its merit, you modern humanists who have no place for the transcendence of the things supreme, and come to know our new humanism: we also, we more than anyone else, have the cult of man. ”

This shows how your heteropraxy is slipping into a heterodoxy which I must refer to not so much as heresy as apostasy. And all through your apostolic generosity ! Against all the wise counsels and infallible teaching of your Predecessors, you play the Good Samaritan, nodding good-naturedly to every man his brother… And in your unfettered love you make friends with the Goliath of the Modern World, kneeling before the Enemy of God who only feels hatred and defiance for you. Instead of fighting, like David, against the Adversary, you express yourself full of love for him, you flatter him, and end up in his exclusive service ! Your charity towards the Enemy of God turns into adoration and service, to the extent even of rivalling him in his error and blasphemy.

For you have allied yourself with Man-who-makes-himself-god ! You vie with the pride-intoxicated atheistic humanists of our day in the cult of man. Just read again this HYMN TO THE GLORY OF MAN which you intoned on the occasion of one of the voyages to the Moon and which is a blasphemous parody of the HYMN TO CHRIST THE KING OF THE AGES (Angelus, February 7, 1971):

“ Honour to Man !

"Honour to his thought; honour to his scientific knowledge;

“ Honour to his technical skill; honour to his work;

“ Honour to human endurance;

“ Honour to that combination of scientific activity and organisation by which man, unlike the other animals, can invest his spirit and his manual dexterity with instruments of conquest;

“ HONOUR TO MAN, KING OF THE EARTH, AND TODAY PRINCE OF THE HEAVENS !

“ Honour to our living being, in which is reflected the image of God and which, in its triumph over matter, obeys the biblical command: increase and rule. ”

It was on a similar occasion that you said:

“ Man is both giant and divine, in his origin and his destiny. Honour, therefore, to man, honour to his dignity, to his spirit, to his life. ” (July 13, 1969)

GOD MADE MAN GIVES WAY BEFORE MAN WHO MAKES HIMSELF GOD

You do, admittedly, make references to God and even, in passing to Christ the Son of God made Man, in that fantastic discourse of December 7, 1965. But you do not have anything to say about the Cross of Christ, or the gift of the Holy Spirit, about Baptismal Grace, indeed about the whole treasure of the Mysteries of the Faith which are the Truth, the Life, and the Virtue of the One Catholic Church.

The aim is always man... “ the first goal in that ascent towards the supreme and transcendent goal, towards the cause and origin of all love ”. The countenance of man reveals to you the countenance of Christ, as you tell us, quoting Mat. 25.40 out of context, and hence, the countenance of the Heavenly Father – and so you behold God in man. And you say triumphantly: “ Our humanism becomes Christian and our Christian faith becomes theocentric, so that we could equally well say that, in order to know God, we must know man. ”

But, saving your respect, Most Holy Father, this is surely idolatry ! And I would ask you whether you have not yielded to that third kind of temptation, that of making a bargain with Satan, which Jesus resisted in those words that are a condemnation of yours: “ Begone Satan ! For it is written: the Lord thy God sha1t thou adore, and Him only shalt thou serve. ” Jesus refused, even for the sake of seeing all the kingdoms of the earth accepting His rule, to pay to anyone else that homage which belongs to God alone. Whereas you in order to win the world, for the sake, no doubt, of making it more disposed towards that conversion of which it stands in need, you dare to proclaim, in the name of the whole Church and of the greatest Council of all time, your sympathy for man in his efforts to make himself god, and to declare your own homage of Man.

Compare this Discourse with that of St. Pius X in his first Encyclical which served also as the blueprint of his pontificate:

“ He who considers these things is entitled to fear that such a perversion of minds might represent the beginning of those evils foretold for the end of time, forming as it were, their stepping stone on to the earth, and that the Son of Perdition, of whom the Apostle speaks, might already be coming amongst us. For religion is being attacked with the greatest boldness and vigour, the dogmas of the Faith are being battered, and no effort is spared to tear asunder man’s link with the divine. Moreover – and this is what the same Apostle tells us is typical of Antichrist – man in his unspeakable temerity is usurping the place of the Creator, and placing himself above all that bears the name of God. Powerless to extinguish within himself entirely the concept of God, he yet shakes off the yoke of His majesty and dedicates to himself a temple in the form of the visible world, where he receives the homage of his own kind...

“ That is why all our efforts must be directed towards bringing mankind back under the rule of Christ. To achieve the result of Our hopes, it is vital to spare no efforts in uprooting entirely this monstrous iniquity peculiar to the times we live in, which leads man to set himself up in place of God. ” (E Supremi Apostolatus, October 4, 1903)

The teaching and sentiments expressed here are totally different – are they not ? – in their inspiration and indeed in their SPIRIT. St. Pius X, for whom you have little affection and whom you avoid quoting, even when such quotation would be imperative upon you, St. Pius X preaches Christ in accordance with the fullness of the Catholic Faith and Law. He resists the temptation by Satan and bravely takes up the battle against him... And you, Most Holy Father ? Your liberalism has moved from the pastoral sphere into the doctrinal, and from the practical level to the theoretical. Was this done deliberately ? It was already evidence of greatest temerity to override the condemnations of your Predecessors in order to adopt this liberal policy, even for the best of apostolic intentions. But taken in its entire context, it seems rather that, having first yielded to the second of the three temptations – that of tempting God through foolhardiness – you have let yourself fall into the third, which consists in abandoning God in order to serve Satan, so that you finish up by adoring man who puts himself into the place of God – and this is a mark of Antichrist.

You announced this new Credo on December 7, 1965, in the presence of the bishops of the whole world. How far these were inattentive, or your accomplices, or fascinated by you, I do not know. But Holy Mother Church cannot, can never subscribe to such a philosophy. That day marked the point of no return along the road that leads away from the Church of Christ in order to proceed towards that other Church which is truly yours – the Antichurch or Synagogue of Satan, where man makes himself God. But in the meantime, through men’s indifference or cowardice, you are still on the Throne of Peter, in the capacity of Supreme Judge of the Church. The capital charge we bring against you concerns your liberalism and your cult of man, which we maintain are blasphemous, heretical, schismatic and finally apostate. The decision is for you to make, for you are still the Vicar of Jesus Christ upon earth. Pass judgement upon yourself and, if I have lied, cut me off from the Church. But you know that I am not lying. If I have told the truth, then cut yourself off from this Sacred Body which you have betrayed !