“One of the most terrifying diseases in the Church present is the lethargy of the guardians of faith‘ wrote Dietrich von Hildebrand, published in 1973. A prominent philosopher and theologian zealously standing in defence of orthodoxy after the Second Vatican Council seems to have hit the point... and from his remarks many hierarchs – besides in the Polish Church – could inactive benefit from the defence of faith.
Dietrich von Hildebrand openly described the action of the “fifth column” in the Church. This name was given to clergymen recruited to strike the Church from Masonic and Communist backgrounds. As he pointed out, the rule of these hostile environments, seeking to destruct God’s Kingdom from within, is cooperation with “progressive theologians and shepherds.” These want the Mystical Body of Christ to be transformed into a “purely humanitarian community, secularized and devoid of holiness”, warned the author in a book published 50 years ago.
However, the theologian realized that a group of bishops guided by non-reformist impulses, and they believed statistically beyond the “progressors”. Why, then, would specified success be a change in doctrine? After all, behind the current pontificate they experience a golden age of success...
According to Hildebrand, the inactivity of more orthodox hierarchs contributes enormously to the triumph of heterodocsion. "When it comes to intervention against heretical theologians and priests or against blasphemous deformity of cultures, they make no usage of their authority. They either close their eyes and effort to ignore the severe infirmities and the work to intervene (...), or fear that they will be attacked by the press and mass media and will be hailed as reactionary, petty, medieval people,” explained the reasons for this neglect by the German theologian.
As the philosopher added, which is peculiarly painful, this attitude frequently involves hard dealing with faithful ones who, in view of the passiveness of shepherds, effort to stand up for the purity of the deposit of faith. "Some bishops who show indifference to heretics take a rigorously authoritarian attitude towards the faithful fighting for orthodoxy—doing what they themselves should do," the German student pointed out.
“The talk of heretics – clergy and laymen – is tolerated, and the poisoning of the faithful is silent, but the steadfast people, who advocate orthodoxy, want to close their mouths, treats themselves like an anxieties seeders,” he added.
"Is it expected of the faithful not to pay attention to things that are totally incompatible with the teaching of the Church in the sermons – while it is allowed to teach theologians, claiming that the Church must accept pluralism (...)?", the author of The Descended Vineyard asked with sadness.
von Hildebrand's comments seem peculiarly applicable in the case of Polish hierarchs. After all, it is hard to admit our native episcopate as a progressive one. Ba – the erstwhile president of KEP even reminded the authors of the German Synodical Way before heterodoxical proposals and the threat of expansion of hostile faiths of the Synod's demands about Synodality, and bishops from Poland were besides seen at the Synod about the 2015 household as a brake of progressive proposals.
The voices of the reminder of orthodoxy appear in the Polish episcopal. However, it must be felt that they are usually single or so ‘careful’ that there is no way that they become an open opposition. This painful conclusion was confirmed by the reaction of the native hierarchs to ‘Fiducia Supplicans’. The paper allowing the blessing of single-sex unions powerfully criticized the episcopals of Africa, and bishops of Ukraine or Hungary spoke against it. However, the Polish position was simply to powerfully convince that "Fiducia Supplicans" did not mention to homosexual couples.
However, the decisive voices of bishops are hard to find and on a global scale. Those hierarchs who dare to open “no” to the spoiling of religion by preaching errors about religion are unfortunately exceptions. Only “the rest” of those who want to put Catholic teaching on their heads is not close.
"There is nothing more incorrect than the thought that we should let ourselves be gloated and patiently wait until everything calms down," he flourished in his prophetic work von Hildebrand. “The failure to usage God’s authority is possibly the most serious mistake of the modern Church,” added the esteemed theologian.
In this situation, Hildebrand says that faithful laymen must not be convinced that obedience to bishops is superior to maintaining and proclaiming actual faith. "At the time of arianism, erstwhile most bishops were arians, faithful, alternatively of fighting against heresy, should they have been limited to polite and obediently fulfilling the orders of bishops?" the student emphasized.
Source: Dietrich von Hildebrand, “The Despoiled Vineyard”. Fronda
FA
