CARDINAL PIE: A VOICE FOR OUR APOSTATE TIMES
Here are some fantastic thoughts from Cardinal Pie,
Bishop of Poitiers, who lived from 1815-1880. His
writings were among the favorites of the great Saint
Pius X. I read this with amazement over at
De Fide Catholica
and thought this should be spread far and wide. For
more on the man and his life visit
De Fide.
ON THE “SO-CALLED” CATHOLICS WHO PLAY WITH VAIN
NOVELTIES: "Hear this
maxim, O you, Catholics full of temerity, who so
quickly adopt the ideas and the language of your
time, you who speak of reconciling the faith and of
reconciling the Church with the modern spirit and
with the new law. And you who accept with so much
confidence the most dangerous pursuits of what our
age so pridefully labels "Science," see to what
extent you are straying from the program set out by
the great Apostle, "O Timothy, keep that which is
committed to thy trust, avoiding the profane
novelties of words, and oppositions of knowledge
falsely so-called" (I Tim. 6:20). But take heed. With
such temerities, one is soon led farther than he
first had thought. And in placing themselves on the
slope of profane novelties—in obeying the currents of
so-called science—many have lost the Faith.
“Have you not often been saddened, and taken fright,
my venerable brothers, on hearing the language of
certain men, who believe themselves still to be sons
of the Church, men who still practice occasionally as
Catholics and who often approach the Lord's Table? Do
you still believe them to be sons, do you still
believe them to be members of the Church, those who,
wrapping themselves in such vague phrases as modern
aspirations and the force of progress and
civilization, proclaim the existence of a
"consciousness of the laity," of a secular and
political conscience opposed to the "conscience of
the Church," against which they assume the right to
react, for its correction and renewal? Ah! So many
passengers, and even pilots, who, believing
themselves to be yet in the barque, and playing with
profane novelties and the lying science of their
time, have already sunk and are in the abyss. "
(Homily ,
nov 25th 1864)
A CULTURE OF WILTED MEN: "Is not
ours an age of miss lived lives, of unmanned men?
Why?...Because Jesus Christ has disappeared.
Wherever the people are true Christians, there are
men to be found in large numbers, but everywhere and
always, if Christianity wilts, the men
wilt. Look
closely, they are no longer men but shadows of men.
Thus what do you hear on all sides today. The world
is dwindling away, for lack of men; the nations are
perishing for scarcity of men, for the rareness of
men...I do believe: there are no men where there is
no character; there is no character where there are
no principles, doctrines, stands taken; there are no
stands taken, no doctrines, no principles, where
there is no religious faith and consequently no
religion of society. Do what you will: only from God
you will get men".
(Homily
for Christmas 1871)
BEWAIL EVIL AND SOULLESS GOVERNMENTS:
"My
brothers, all of you, if you are condemned to see the
triumph of evil, never applaud it.
Never say to evil: you are good; to decadence: you
are progress; to death: you are life. Sanctify
yourselves in the times wherein God has placed you;
bewail the evils and the disorders which God
tolerates; oppose them with the energy of your works
and your efforts, your life uncontaminated by error,
free from being led astray, in such a way that having
lived here below, united with the Spirit of the Lord,
you will be admitted to be made but one with Him
forever and ever: But he who is joined to the Lord is
one in spirit."
"Do
you know why during the past half century we have
seen perish among us every form of government,
including even that to which we are returning today?
I am going to tell you. All these forms in which
society has dressed itself have perished because,
beneath the forms, a soul was lacking.
Now, it
may be wonderfully provided with joints and a network
of muscles, but a body without a soul is a cadaver,
and it is the lot of a cadaver eventually to fall
apart.
The soul of every human society is belief, doctrine,
religion, God. Our modern societies have been too
long divorced from God.” (1848)
"Neither in His Person, nor in the exercise of His
rights, can Jesus Christ be divided, dissolved, split
up; in Him the distinction of natures and operations
can never be separated or opposed; the divine cannot
be incompatible to the human, nor the human to the
divine. On the contrary, it is the peace, the drawing
together, the reconciliation; it is the very
character of union which has made the two things one:
'He is our peace, Who hat made both one. . .' (Eph.
2:14). This is why St. John told us: 'every spirit
that dissolveth Jesus is not of God. And this is
Antichrist, of whom you have heard that he cometh:
and is now already in the world' (1 John 4:3; cf.
also 1 John 2:18, 22; 2 John: 7).
When I hear certain talk being spread around, certain
pithy statements (i.e., 'Separation of Church and
State,' for one, and the enigmatic axiom 'A free
Church in a free State,' for another) prevailing from
day to day, and which are being introduced into the
heart of societies, the dissolvent by which the world
must perish, I utter this cry of alarm: Beware the
Antichrist !...France will be Christian, or she will
not be!"
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