A friend shared a good podcast with me from Audio Sancto (which I believe others have mentioned here as well). The sermon talks about the problems of embracing modernism, which essentially is an attempt to break with tradition. The more I’m exposed to progressive Catholicism (going on 4 years now), the more I’m realizing that as bad as the errors are that are pushed by the progressives, the even greater tragedy is the failure to pass on our great Catholic patrimony. This is the experience of the majority of former-Catholics I talk to. They write off Catholicism because they think they’ve been exposed to it. They reject it for another world-view because they realize that the Catholicism they were taught just doesn’t hold water. What they don’t realize is that the haven’t even scratched the surface of what Catholicism is and that they’ve actually been taught a faux-Catholicism. In my opinion, this is really the great tragedy. This is the reason that mass attendance has plummeted in the past few decades. The Church has failed to pass on that which sustains her and her people. A friend described it as a “mass failure of catechesis”. Why do so many of our leaders waste their breath and ink talking and writing about their own personal experiences and feelings when our Catholic heritage is a great ocean filled with the writings of great popes, bishops, and saints? And why must we even waste our own energies combating them? One only needs to randomly open up a Church document or writing of a saint to discover that progressivism (or modernism) is simply incompatible with Catholicism. Take for example where St. Therese in “The Story of a Soul” talks of being the spiritual directress of the novices (Chap. 10 “The Way of Love” p162). She does not go easy on them, but for their own sakes points out their flaws. If a progressive were consistent with what they believe, they would have to condemn the little flower as an angry bigot who is uncharitable and who perverts the words of Jesus. They wouldn’t dare do so because it would be quite unpopular to chastise the little flower. I’m guessing, though, that if we created another pseudonymous writer here and simply plagiarized St. Therese’s writings I’d bet she would get her fair share of critics. I bet the CleansingFire haters would condemn her as they condemn us. I bet some homilists would even condemn her from the pulpit. Anyways, have a listen now or download it to your iPod.

Modernism is Still Scourging the Church
[podcast]http://www.audiosancto.org/auweb/20110731-Modernism-is-Still-Scourging-the-Church.mp3[/podcast]

The aforementioned Saint Pius X encyclical:
PASCENDI DOMINICI GREGIS

And here’s another one on the sacrilegious reception of communion. What I found interesting about this one is his assertion that anyone who pushes someone towards receiving communion in an unworthy state is somewhat culpable for that sacrilege. This could be parents questioning their children when they don’t receive. This could be making others feel awkward when they don’t receive. I had a friend once tell me that sometimes they abstain from receiving as solidarity for those who shouldn’t. That sounds like a decent idea. It sure seems like so few people actually do abstain, that when someone does, it’s like the whole world’s eyes are on them. Pray that we may comfort people who abstain by not inquiring, staring, or doing anything else which might make them feel uncomfortable.

[podcast]http://www.AudioSancto.org/auweb/20110626-Corpus-Christi-Sacrilege-Scandal-and-Souls.mp3[/podcast]

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