Go ahead… treat yourself… reject the heretics and their heresy!
In fidelity to Tradition is where the real Catholic Church is found.
Pope Leo XIII, in his encyclical Satis Cognitum (1896), articulated a fundamental principle of Catholicism: the unity of faith is indivisible.
To reject even a single truth taught by the Church is to sever oneself from the entirety of the faith. Leo XIII writes, “He who dissents even in one point from divinely revealed truth absolutely rejects all faith, since he thereby refuses to honor God as the supreme truth and the formal motive of faith” (Satis Cognitum, §9). From our traditional perspective, and let’s be clear that a true Catholic perspective can only be traditional, this principle not only underscores the gravity of heresy but also indicts a hierarchy that, through its embrace of modernist errors, has strayed from the immutable truths of the faith.
The essence of Catholic unity is fidelity to the deposit of faith handed down from the apostles. Satis Cognitum insists that this unity is not merely a superficial conformity but a profound adherence to revealed truth:
“Nothing is more dangerous than the heretics who, while conserving almost the entire doctrine, corrupt it by a single word, as that little leaven corrupts the whole lump of dough” (§9).
This teaching reflects the perennial wisdom of the Church, echoed by saints and theologians. St. Thomas Aquinas, for instance, argues in the Summa Theologica (II-II, Q.5, Art.3) that faith is an organic whole: to deny one article is to undermine the formal object of faith, which is divine revelation itself.
From this, we can reasonably conclude that the modern hierarchy, in embracing ecumenism, religious liberty, and other novelties promulgated since the Second Vatican Council, has effectively departed from Catholic orthodoxy. These innovations contradict the clear and authoritative teachings of pre-conciliar popes, councils, and saints.
The crisis in the Church today is rooted in a betrayal of the deposit of faith by those who hold ecclesiastical office. Leo XIII’s assertion that “the Church has received from on high a definite teaching mission, to be exercised authoritatively and perpetually” (Satis Cognitum, §3) implies that the magisterium is bound by divine revelation. Yet, as Pope St. Pius X warned in Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907), modernism seeks to reinterpret doctrine to conform to contemporary thought.
This modernist spirit has infiltrated the hierarchy. For instance, the Second Vatican Council's declaration on religious liberty, Dignitatis Humanae, is seen as a direct contradiction of Pope Pius IX's Quanta Cura and its accompanying Syllabus of Errors, which condemned the notion that individuals have a natural right to religious freedom irrespective of truth.
Similarly, the post-conciliar emphasis on ecumenism, exemplified by actions like the Assisi interreligious gatherings of John Paul II as well as Pope Francis’ recent denial of Christ as the only Way to the Father, is perceived as undermining the Church’s claim to be the sole ark of salvation, a teaching solemnly affirmed by the Council of Florence and reiterated by Pope Leo XIII:
“The Church... constitutes one and the same object of faith for all nations and all times, because it speaks with the authority of God Himself” (Satis Cognitum, §5).
Catholics need to wake up, wipe the drool from their chins and admit that these deviations amount to heresy, for they compromise the Church’s perennial truths under the guise of aggiornamento (updating). By rejecting the integrity of the faith, the modern hierarchy has severed itself from the Church of all ages. Once Catholics have assented to this truth, they then have to act accordingly which is the only reasonable thing to do.
At the same time, whether you accept this truth now or have always clung to the perennial traditional teachings of the Church, the words of St. Athanasius, written during the Arian crisis, take on profound relevance. (These words he wrote in a letter to his flock):
“May God console you! … What saddens you … is the fact that others have occupied the churches by violence, while during this time you are on the outside. It is a fact that they have the premises – but you have the Apostolic Faith. They can occupy our churches, but they are outside the true Faith. You remain outside the places of worship, but the Faith dwells within you. Let us consider: what is more important, the place or the Faith? The true Faith, obviously. Who has lost and who has won in the struggle – the one who keeps the premises or the one who keeps the Faith? True, the premises are good when the Apostolic Faith is preached there; they are holy if everything takes place there in a holy way …
“You are the ones who are happy; you who remain within the Church by your Faith, who hold firmly to the foundations of the Faith which has come down to you from Apostolic Tradition. And if an execrable jealousy has tried to shake it on a number of occasions, it has not succeeded. They are the ones who have broken away from it in the present crisis. No one, ever, will prevail against your Faith, beloved Brothers. And we believe that God will give us our churches back someday.
“Thus, the more violently they try to occupy the places of worship, the more they separate themselves from the Church. They claim that they represent the Church; but in reality, they are the ones who are expelling themselves from it and going astray. Even if Catholics faithful to Tradition are reduced to a handful, they are the ones who are the true Church of Jesus Christ.”
For us desiring to remain faithful to the Catholic Church of the ages, these words encapsulate our plight. The physical churches and the visible structures of authority have been occupied by those who have departed from the true faith. However, the essence of Catholicism lies not in buildings or titles but in adherence to the Apostolic Faith.
In light of this crisis, our adherence to tradition must not be seen as schismatic but faithful. Quoting St. Athanasius again: “Even if Catholics faithful to Tradition are reduced to a handful, they are the ones who are the true Church of Jesus Christ.”
Leo XIII himself acknowledged that authority in the Church is not absolute but contingent upon fidelity to truth:
“If anyone seeks to construe this authority so as to impair or retard the integrity of the faith in any part, he is already a heretic and an enemy of the Church” (Satis Cognitum, §9).
Thus, when traditional Catholics resist novelties that undermine the faith, they are acting in accordance with the very principles articulated by Leo XIII. Commentary on Satis Cognitum, such as that by theologian Monsignor Joseph Clifford Fenton, affirms that the Church’s magisterium cannot teach error. However, this does not preclude individuals from resisting erroneous applications of authority, as canonised by St. Robert Bellarmine’s principle that a pope or bishop “who deviates from the faith ceases to be a member of the Church.”
Satis Cognitum can be viewed as a prophetic condemnation of the current crisis in the Church. By rejecting even a single truth of the faith, as Pope Francis and his happy heretics have repeatedly done, the post-conciliar hierarchy has betrayed its divine mandate and undermined the unity of the Church. Far from being schismatic, those who cling to tradition are the true defenders of Catholic unity, standing in continuity with the Church of all ages. The words of Pope Leo XIII resound with urgency:
“In this one Church of Christ, no man can be or remain who does not accept, recognize and obey the authority and supremacy of Peter and his legitimate successors” (Satis Cognitum, §10).
By our continual steadfast fidelity to immutable truth, we are the authentic heirs of this unity. St. Athanasius’ encouragement provides the framework for our hope: fidelity to the Faith transcends physical structures. While we may be expelled from our churches, we will trust in God’s providence to one day restore the Church to Her rightful glory.
Ave Christus Rex!
Recognise and Resist!
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Nice analysis. I spent the first three decades of my life as a NO Catholic and it required a lot of deprogramming to fully embrace tradition and reject the Church revolution perpetrated in the 1960s. Nearly all contemporary Catholics, even those who call themselves traditional, have been infected to one degree or another by the subtle, modernist indoctrination of the "Conciliar Church." It is only by methodically contrasting our thinking, worship, and attitudes with Doctors of the Church and saints over the centuries that we can fully see the errors of our age. If modernist and "conservative" Catholics want to call us "rad-trads" so be it, because we're in good company with countless saints who are more rad and trad than we can ever aspire to! Saints Alphonsus, Pius X, Cure of Ars, Francis DeSales...
There are two heresies that I focus on in V2: the idea that salvific grace is available outside the Catholic Church (LG and UR) and the idea that a bishop receives jurisdiction from his "ordination" (LG). I know that many like to harp on DH and religious liberty, but that is a vague document, and thus can be interpreted in a means consistent with Quanta Cura and Pius IX. As Wojtyla pointed out in Ecclesia Dei, V2 taught many new things which cannot ("yet") be reconciled with Tradition.