Heresies, Faith, and Chivalry

" ...thirsty traveller(s) trudging doggedly and dogmatically through a spiritual desert, ... carr(ying) the burdens of bereavement with resignation "

What Pope Pius X condemned in his encyclical, Pascendi, namely the heresy of Modernism, is today shown to have a tedious and tenacious ability to harass and damage the human race, damning souls with error and lies.

World War I ended with two of the twentieth century's greatest apologists grieving. Hilaire Belloc lost his nineteen-year old son, Louis, in the air war over France, and G. K. Chesterton lost his brother, Cecil, to trench fever. And yet how prolific, how invaluable would be their continuing contributions to the remnants of Christendom and to the faithful in the Church for many, many years to come amidst the darkening, post World War I wasteland.

Today, the faithful seem to be experiencing a kind of grief as well. The heresy of Modernism has never been so rigidly deployed and enforced in the West. Many who call themselves Catholics not only voted for a president who embodies and exemplifies Modernism with a great if naive sincerity, but seem to regard the Magisterium of Mother Church as something optional, conditional, lower than their personal, subjective "choice".

The power of Modernism to attenuate Catholic truth - downstream from which all - ALL - Christianities gain any access to certainty - is only, astonishingly, matched by Modernism's working hand-in-glove with the Scimitar against remnants of the Christian faith and morality in the West. Political encroachment by both seem an ever rising tide whose lapping waves threaten to swamp what is left of truth, goodness, and beauty of Christendom.

As the twenty-first century enters its fledging years and nearly the mile-marker of its first decade, we have much to learn and glean from both Hilaire Belloc and G. K. Chesterton as well as a great many other champions of the Catholic faith in the early twentieth century. It is not a time for despair and hand-wringing. In the very least, we must be prepared to rescue refugees and shipwreck survivors. For, in the wise words of Joseph Pearce, "... the faltering, flickering candle of the sincere sinner (is) in as much need of the oxygen of grace as (is) the flaming faith of saints." (I know, being much nearer the former than the latter.)

We must stay in a state of grace, receive sacramental power from Our Lord who has "overcome the world," and practice the virtues in Marian chivalry.

It is our moment to be faithful in a world darkened by sin, death, scandal, and idolatry. God bless each of us. What a great time to be alive!