This post is part three in a series of posts on the Synod of the Family and Modernism. Read part two here.

The Synod of the Family inches ever closer. We must remember to spend our time in prayer and fasting for this event. We are in the fourth greatest crisis of the Church, according to Bishop Athanasius Schneider. Bishops, Cardinals, and even the Pope are speaking openly about the need for Church teaching to change. Many in attendance at the Synod are in favor of allowing the divorced, remarried, and openly homosexual to receive the Holy Eucharist, without amending their lives. This is scandalous to hear from those who have been ordained to safeguard Christ’s teachings with their very lives.

Pope St. Pius X authored the encyclical Pascendi Domini Grecis, or “On Modernism”. He examines how the enemies of the Church are working to corrupt her teachings. Without further ado, we continue:

Q. In their war against scholastic philosophy, how do the Modernists deal with the second obstacle, as they call Tradition?

A. They exercise all their ingenuity in diminishing the force and falsifying the character of Tradition, so as to rob it of all its weight.

We see in regards to the Synod of the Family how the Modernist and heretical bishops are trying to frame the perspective of traditional marriage, as unloving, unkind, or even bigoted towards those who have divorced, remarried or actively engage in homosexual activity. They frame the narrative in such a way that Tradition becomes a negative ideal. Tradition becomes an ideal worse than any other sin, and those who cling to it are enemies. Words are said such as “God is a God of surprises”, to imply that even God doesn’t cling to Tradition.

The Church which Jesus Christ instituted and gave the authority to establish Tradition is no longer in charge of determining what is and isn’t Tradition and that the Holy Spirit is moving hearts and minds. Of course, this is nonsensical as Jesus Christ, Who is the same yesterday as He is today and as He is tomorrow, would not change His mind. The Holy Spirit, Who is One with God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son, would not change His mind.

Tradition is an element of Catholicism that is of supreme importance because Tradition helps us to see that the Holy Catholic Church is indeed the One Church in which Jesus Christ established. With the Church’s unchanging stance on many issues over the course of 2,000 years, it shows that God is indeed with this Church, as the average Protestant church changes its mind depending on who its pastor is.

Tradition is important to our Catholic faith, as we will see declared in both the Council of Nicea and the Council of Constantinople below.

Q. In speaking of Tradition, what law of the second Council of Nicea should true Catholics have in mind?

A. But for Catholics the second Council of Nicea will always have the force of law, where it condemns those who dare, after the impious fashions of heretics, to deride the ecclesiastical traditions, to invent novelties of some kind … or endeavor by malice or craft to overthrow any one of the legitimate traditions of the Catholic Church.

Q. Give the law of the fourth Council of Constantinople on Tradition?

A. Catholics will hold for law, also, the profession of the fourth Council of Constantinople: We, therefore, profess to conserve and guard the rules bequeathed to the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church by the Holy and most illustrious Apostles, by the orthodox Councils, both general and local, and by every one of those divine interpreters, the Fathers and Doctors of the Church.

The bishops and cardinals who are in favor of changing doctrine in order to allow the divorced, remarried, and actively homosexual to receive Holy Communion without repentance, penance, and amending their lives have been condemned by the Church through both of these councils, which are still in full effect today. Tradition is not the enemy, but novelty is, as novelty by its nature deviates from Tradition. In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul warns us of those who try to deviate from the tradition which is handed down from us:

Now I beseech you, brethren, to mark them who make dissensions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them. For they that are such, serve not Christ our Lord, but their own belly; and by pleasing speeches and good words, seduce the hearts of the innocent. For your obedience is published in every place. I rejoice therefore in you. But I would have you to be wise in good, and simple in evil. Romans 16:17-19 DR

Only the teachings of the Holy Catholic Church and Our Blessed Lord, Jesus Christ, are worthy to be followed. Anything that deviates from these teachings is not of God, but of His adversary, the Devil.

Read part four here.