Pope Saint Pius X: Model of Papal Authority Part II

Catholic Family News ^ | September 2003 | John Vennari

[Land of the Irish]

Pope Saint Pius X clearly recognized that his first duty as Pope was to protect his flock from false teaching, and to preserve the integrity of the Catholic Faith. It is a theme to which he returned constantly throughout his Pontificate.1

Last month, we focused on Pope Saint Pius X’s successful efforts to combat Modernism, the synthesis of all heresies. To fulfill his sacred duty of protecting his flock against poisonous doctrine, he issued three documents against Modernism: Lamen- tabile sane exitu (The Syllabus of Errors, 1907), Pascendi dominici gregis (Encyclical against Modernism, 1907) and Sacrorum antistitum (The Oath Against Modernism, 1910).

In the 1960 article, “The Sacrorum Antistitum and the Background to the Oath Against Modernism,” the eminent theologian Msgr. Joseph Clifford Fenton, praised the Oath Against Modernism as “the most important and the most influential document issued by the Holy See during the course of the 20th Century”. He called it a “magnificent statement of Catholic truth, in the face of the errors which were being disseminated within the Church by the cleverest enemies the Mystical Body of Christ has encountered in the course of its history”.

This Oath was a profession of Catholic belief intended primarily for those engaged in the spiritual and intellectual formation of candidates for Holy Orders. Msgr. Fenton summarized:

“According to the strict command of the Sacrorum antistitum, the men for whom the Oath against Modernism was primarily intended were also obliged to show their Bishops, at the beginning of each academic year, the textbooks they were employing in class, and the thesis they intended to teach and to defend. The Bishops themselves were not only reminded of their obligation, but were strictly commanded to watch over the teaching being given in the institutions of higher learning under their direction and control.

“The Bishops were also commanded to see to it that no man tainted with Modernism, either as a teacher of the errors condemned in the Lamentabli and the Pascendi, or as one who supported these errors by working to discredit the teachers of Catholic truth who opposed and unmasked Modernism was to be admitted to or permitted to remain in the professorial corps or the administration of an ecclesiastical seminary or a Catholic university. And no young man who was infected by Modernist errors was to be allowed to become or to remain a candidate for Holy Orders.”

Msgr. Fenton concluded,

“This was the rigorous and powerful direction of the Sacrorum antistitum. Quite obviously it was not and it still is not in accord with the taste of liberal Catholics. But it was and it remains a great expression of St. Pius X’s desire to accomplish his mission as Christ’s Vicar on earth. It was and it remains a tremendously effective factor for the protection of the little ones of Jesus Christ against the virus of Modernism.”2

[Land of the Irish]

Everything I learned in grade school taught me to avoid men like Mr. Foxman.

When do you expect to graduate from grade school?

[Land of the Irish]

Oaths, smoaths....your hero did nothing different than does JPII.

THink about it...

Think about this:

Pope Paul VI (1963-1978) "This method [on the tongue] must be retained." (Memoriale Domini)

May 29, 1969 “In view of the gravity of this matter and the weight of the arguments proposed, the Sovereign Pontiff has decided that the long received manner of distributing Holy Communion to the faithful is not to be changed.”

Pope John Paul II "To touch the sacred species and to distribute them with their own hands is a privilege of the ordained. (Dominicae Cenae, 11)

"It is not permitted that the faithful should themselves pick up the consecrated bread and the sacred chalice, still less that they should hand them from one to another." (Inaestimabile Donum, April 17, 1980, sec. 9)