Modernism is simply the application of this system to the Church. It began with Immanuel Kant at the end of the 18th century, but it was transferred inside the Church only at the beginning of the 20th century. For the whole 19th century, the Church successfully resisted. Pope Pius X recognized the enormous danger in his of this seductive system, seductive since dreams are so much nicer than reality. Reality is a valley of tears, but in my head, everything can be Disneyland. Blessed Pius X, in his 1907 encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis against modernism, called it „the synthesis of all heresies.‟

The heart of modernism lies in its philosophy. Traditionally, the mind accepts reality as it is. It turns around reality, not the other way around. What does common sense say? Does my mind turn around the microphone before me, or does the microphone turn around my mind? Obviously, common sense says my mind turns around the object. Reality dominates my mind. Reality tells me what it is. I don’t tell reality what it is.

But Immanuel Kant said it’s reality that turns around the mind – what he called the „Copernican Revolution‟ in philosophy. This completely undermines all truth. As Pius X wrote, this is like „trying to fit together two and two are four, and two and two are five.‟ If I say what things are, if I need something to sit down on, I call it a chair. If I need something to drink, I call the liquid in my cup coffee rather than poison. But I’m still pretending that it’s my mind making them what they are.

This system is very selective. I apply it when I want to make myself God. I will not apply it when I want to live and eat and drink and work and drive a car. It’s a system that I apply only when I want to be liberated from anything I don’t like – especially the Church’s past and the Commandments of God.

On the other hand, for modernism, the subject is the center. What goes on in his insides is what controls what he will plaster all over the poor appearances. Those appearances didn’t do anything to deserve this, but they get plastered with all the falsehoods and idiocies of the modernist believer. God is nowhere. It’s only if I, the subject, accept to plaster the appearances with God that there’s going to be a God. In modernism, God depends entirely on me. In Catholicism, I depend entirely upon God.

This is where it really becomes horrible. The appearances of Jesus Christ, the „Galilean carpenter,‟ make the modernist subject „vibrate.‟ The insides begin to move, and the subject begins to vibrate in tune with the phenomena. Here I must use a terrible analogy to express how horrible this doctrine is: The subject then „vomits‟ over the appearances the God that he needs, the God he’s creating inside himself. Once he projects upon the phenomena the God he needs, that comes back to him as „revelation‟ of the God he needs. And that becomes his „faith.‟

In other words, the God I believe in is entirely the production of my own insides. On the basis of „I know nothing the other side of the phenomena,‟ it must be something of the phenomena. It’s the special „vibrations‟ of the Galilean carpenter which made me project my religious sense.

This completely changes the meaning of faith, revelation, dogma – everything! The same words, the same appearances, but a completely different inside. And yet these people can think they’re good Catholics. It’s terribly deceptive.

The sacraments become products of the need for sensible expression of the religious sense. I need a little host I can eat because that gives me the idea I’m being fed. It’s almost like being given a piece of chocolate! The host becomes a sense expression that I like.

What then becomes of the Bible? For the modernist, it’s merely a collection of past experiences that are material for the religious sense to relive. The story of David and Goliath gets people’s religious sense going. It’s better than a fourth league team defeating Manchester United! And biblical inspiration? It’s simply a „vehement stimulus‟ of the believer to reveal the faith which is IN him. The original writer of the story of David and Goliath had such strong vibrations rocking and rolling inside that he had to express it.

What about church authority? For modernists, it must come from consciousness - from „we the people.‟ Democracy! So the whole church is democratized. The pope governs with the college of bishops. The bishop governs with a council of priests. The priest governs with a council of laymen. Authority in the church is destroyed.

Regarding church and state, modernists say they must be separated because they have „alien ends,‟ and the state must be „desubordinated.‟ In the old days, the church and state were united like soul and body. The Catholic Church should be the soul of the state. But modernists want to separate them, and once they do, the church loses prestige and the liberals corrupt the state, then use it to corrupt the church.

For modernists, „In a living religion, everything must move or die.‟ Faith must progress by the religious sense „perfusing‟ into the consciousness of each age. Faith must soak into the mentality of the age and move with it. Therefore, dogmas must change all the time. This makes all religions in which there is a religious sense equally valid. That’s why Pope John Paul II went all over the world congratulating and fraternizing with masters of other religions. He was a „sheer modernist‟ – and he meant well, I think, but with this system, he was off the rails.

This modernism has now infected the church at the highest levels. It began with Vatican II. Archbishop Lefebvre saw these ideas being accepted by the bishops and the pope, and sometimes when you listen to his sermons, you can hear the anguish in his voice at what was happening to the church. What we have today is already the result of modernism – the New Mass, ecumenism, democracy in the church, the whitewashing of beautiful Catholic churches, the tearing down of high altars. They want a Church which is nice and soft and easy, which allows divorce, which no longer has Ten Commandments, but only six or five.

They changed the Mass until it’s quite different from the old Mass. The New Mass is man-centered: „Hi, folks. I’m Father James. Call me Jim. Today, we’re gonna celebrate together a Eucharistic picnic. So we’re all gonna be happy, happy, right? Let’s give a round of applause to show how happy we’re going to be.‟

Be prepared for difficulty. The world has turned into a swirling, dangerous river. It’s very easy to go under and go with the current and stop swimming against the current. Today it’s very easy to lose the faith. The situation is desperate, absolutely desperate.

It’s a punishment which we have all, more or less, deserved. Saint Paul says, „A good father who loves his son punishes him.‟ Liberal parents don’t punish. They let the child grow unchecked. But to punish a child, justly and reasonably, is the sign of love.

If these days weren’t shortened, even the elect, if it were possible, will not be saved. That’s what we’re facing. Get clear how serious things are today. Be prepared for difficulty. The world has turned into a swirling, dangerous river. It’s very easy to go under and go with the current. But with prayer, vigilance, and fidelity to tradition, we can keep our heads above water until God intervenes to restore His Church.