Translated from original text in Spain in 1886.
From chapter to chapter, I will basically separate thoughts or phrases where necessary by starting a new line with "-". But I may also use "..." to continue thoughts that can be coherently strung together.
Following the preface, my comments in parentheses will be in italics to differentiate from the verbatim text.
I am going to type out the entire Preface because I think it merit's great consideration.
PREFACE
In 1886, there appeared in Spain a little work under the title el Liberalismo es Pecado: Liberalism is a Sin by Don Felix Sarda y Salvany, a priest of Barcelona and editor of a journal called La Revista Popular. The book excited considerable commotion. It was vigorously assailed by the Liberals. A Spanish Bishop, of a Liberal turn, instigated an answer to Dr. Sarda's work by another Spanish priest. Both books were sent to Rome praying the Sacred Congregation of the Index to put Dr. Sarda's work under the ban. The following letter, under date January 10, 1887, from the Sacred Congreation itself, explains the result of its consideration of the two volumes:
Most Excellent Sir:
The Sacred Congregation of the Index has received the denunciation of the little work bearing the title, "El Liberalismo es Pecado" by Don Felix Sarda y Salvany, a priest of your diocese; the denunciation was accompanied at the same time by another little work entitled, "El Proceso del Integrismo," that is "a refutation of the errors contained in the little work El Liberalismo es Pecado." The author of the second work is D. de Pazos, a canon of the diocese of Vich.
Wherefore the Sacred Congregation has carefully examined both works, and decided as follows: In the first not only is nothing found contrary to sound doctrine, but its author, D. Felix Sarda merits great praise for his exposition and defense of the sound doctrine therein set forth with solidity, order and lucidity, and without personal offense to anyone.
The same judgment, however, cnanot be passed on the other work by D. de Pazos, for in matter in needs corrections. Moreover his injurious manner of speaking cannot be approved, for he inveighs rather against the person of D. Sarda, than against the latter's supposed errors.
Therefore the Sacred Congregation has commanded D. de Pazos, admonished by his own Bishop, to withdraw his book, as far as he can, from circulation, and in future if any discussion of the subject should arise, to abstain from all expressions personally injurious, according to the precept of true Christian charity; and this all the more since Our Holy Father, Leo XIII, while he urgently recommends castigation of error, neither desires nor approves expressions personally injurious, especially when directedagainst those who are eminent for their doctrine and their piety.
In communication to you this order of the Sacred Congregation of the Index, that you may be able to make it know to the illustrious priest of your diocese, D. Sarda, for his peace of mind, I pray God to grant you all happiness and prosperity and subscribe myself with great respect,
Your most obedient servant,
Fr. Jerome Secheri, O.P.
Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of the Index.
Chapter I - What Begets Liberalism
- Swarming in the atmosphere of our spiritual lives are innumerable deadly germs ever ready to fasten upon the depleted and weakened soul, and, propagating its leprous contagion through every faculty, destroy the spiritual life.
- Intellectual torpidity, inexperience, ignorance, indifference, complaisance, or even virtues such as benevolence, generosity, and pity may be the unsuspecting way open to the foe, and lo! we are surprised to find him in possession of the citadel.
- The difficulty is that the uniform of the enemy is so various, changeable, sometimes even of our own colors, that if we rely upon the outward semblance alone we shall be more often deceived than certain of his identity.
- The population of this country (Spain) is at present something over sixty-three million. Of these, ten million are Catholics, and according to their claim, twenty million Protestants, leaving a population of thirty-three million or more who do not profess any form of Christianity at all. Amongst the twenty million Protestants every shade and variety of belief in the Christian dispensation finds easy lodgment, from the belief in the Incarnation and Consubstantiation to the rejection of the Divinity of Christ altogether in the vacuous creed of Unitarianism. In this scale of heresy the adjustments of creeds are loose and easy. Lack of any decisive authority renders any exact standard of belief impossible.
- Outside of these various bodies of loosely professed Christians, stands a still larger mass of our population who are either absolutely indifferent to Christianity as a creed or positively reject it.
- Heresy and infidelity are irreconcilable with Catholicity. "Who is not with me is against me" are the words of Our Lord Himself, for denial of Catholic truth is this radical and common element of both heresy and infidelity.
- We live in the midst of this religious anarchy. Fifty-three million of our population is anti-Catholic. From this mass, heretical and infidel, exhales an atmosphere filled with germs poisonous and fatal to Catholic life, if permitted to take root in the Catholic heart...We cannot escape from it. It enfolds and embraces us. Its breath is perpetually in our faces. It enters in by eye and ear...It now soothes and flatters; now hates and curses, now threatens and now praises. But it is most dangerous when it comes in the form of "liberality." It is especially powerful for seduction in this guise.
Chapter II - What Liberalism Is
- Protestantism naturally begets toleration of error. Rejecting the principle of authority in religion, it has neither criterion nor definition of faith. On the principle that every individual or sect may interpret the deposit of revelation according to the dictates of private judgment, it gives birth to endless differences and contradictions...Belief is not imposed by a legitimately and divinely constituted authority, but springs directly and freely from the unrestricted exercise of the individual's reason or caprice upon the subject-matter of revelation. The individual or sect interprets as it pleases, rejecting or accepting what it chooses. This is popularly called liberty of conscience.
- Such is the mainspring of the heresy constantly dinned into our ears flooding our current literature and our press. It is against this that we have to be perpetually vigilant. The more so as it insidiously attacks us on the grounds of a false charity and in the name of a false liberty. Nor does it appeal only to us on the ground of religious toleration.
- Liberalism is laying down as the basis of its propaganda the following principles:
1. The absolute sovereignty of the individual in his entire independence of God and God's authority.
2. The absolute sovereignty of society in its entire independence of everything which does not proceed from itself.
3. Absolute civil sovereignty in the implied right of the people to make their own laws in entire independence and utter disregard of any other criterion than the popular will expressed at the polls and in parliamentary majorities.
4. Absolute freedom of thought in politics, morals or in religion. The unrestrained liberty of the press.
Such are the radical principles of liberalism.
- Here we have individual, social and political Rationalism, the corrupt fountain head of liberalist principles: absolute freedom of worship, the supremacy of the State, secular education repudiating any connection with religion, marriage sanctioned and legitimized by the State alone, etc.; in one word, which synthesizes all, SECULARIZATION.
This is veritable social atheism.
- In secret societies, organized in a spirit destructive of religion and often for the express purpose of exterminating Catholicity, it menaces our institutions and places the country in the hands of conspirators whose methods and designs, beyond the reach of the public eye, constitute tyranny of darkness.
- It will be ever found stigmatizing the most ardent defenders of the faith as reactionaries, clericals, ultramontanes, etc.
- Liberalism is a world complete in itself; it has its maxims, its fashions, its art, its literature, its diplomacy, its laws, its conspiracies, its ambuscades. IT IS THE WORLD OF LUCIFER, disguised in our times under the name of Liberalism, in radical opposition and in perpetual warfare against that society composed of the Children of God, the Church of Jesus Christ.
Chapter III - Liberalism is a Sin
- Liberalism, whether in the doctrinal or practical order, is a sin. In the doctrinal order, it is heresy, and consequently a mortal sin against faith. In the practical order it is a sin against the commandments of God and of the Church, for it virtually transgresses all commandments.
- It repudiates dogma altogether and substitutes opinion, whether that opinion be doctrinal or the negation of doctrine.
- Liberalism is in itself dogmatic; and it is in the declaration of its own fundamental dogma, the absolute independence of the individual and the social reason, that it denies all Christian dogmas in general. Catholic dogma is the authoritative declaration of revealed truth, or a truth consequent upon revelation, by its infallibility constituted exponent...Liberalism refuses to acknowledge this rational obedience and denies the authority. It asserts the sovereignty of the individual and the social reason...
- It follows, therefore, that Liberalism denies the absolute jurisdiction of Jesus Christ, who is God, over individuals and over society, and, by consequence, repudiates the jurisdiction which God has delegated to the visible head of the Church over each and all the faithful, whatever their condition or rank in life. It moreover denies the necessity of divine revelation and the obligation of everyone to accept that revelation under the pain of eternal perdition. It denies the formal motive of faith, viz., the authority of God revealing, and admits only as much of revealed doctrine as it chooses or comprehends within its own narrow capacity. It denies the infallible magistracy of the Church and of the Pope, and consequently all the doctrines defined and taught by this divine authority.
- It denies the validity of faith by baptism, when it admits or supposes equality of any or all religious cults; it denies the sanctity of marriage when it sanctions so-called civil marriages; it denies the infallibility of the Roman Pontiff when it refuses to accept laws of his official commands and teachings, and subjects them to scrutiny of its own intellect...to sit in defiant judgment upon their contents...Liberalism is radical immorality.
- We may say then of Liberalism: in the order of ideas it is absolute error; in the order of facts it is absolute disorder.
Chapter IV - The Gravity of the Sin of Liberalism
- The gravity of sin is determined by the object at which it strikes. Blasphemy, for instance, which directly attacks God Himself, is a sin of much graver character than theft, which directly attacks man. With the exception of formal hate of God, which constitutes the deadliest of all sins and of which the creature is rarely culpable unless he be in Hell, the gravest of all sins are those against the faith.
- To cutoff the branch of a tree will not kill it; but to lay the ax to the trunk or the roots is fatal to its life. "Hoc est peccatum quo tenentur cuncta peccata." "This is the sin which comprehends all other sins."
- The Angel of the Schools expresses himself with his usual clearness on this point: "The gravity of sin is determined by the interval which it places between man and God; now sin against faith, divides man from God as far as possible, since it deprives him of the true knowledge of God; it therefore follows that sin against faith is the greatest of all sins."
- Besides the deadly sin against faith itself, it is accompanied by hardness of heart, obstinacy, and the proud preference for one's own reason over the reason of God Himself. Hence the heretical doctrines, and works inspired by them, constitute the greatest of all sins with the exception of the formal hate against God, of which only the demons in hell and the damned are capable. Liberalism, then, which is heresy, and all the works of Liberalism, which are heretical works, are the gravest sins known in the code of Christian law.
Liberalism is, therefore, greater than blasphemy, theft, adultery, homicide, or any other violation of the law of God, save in such case where one acts in good faith, in ignorance, or thoughtlessly.
- The law of the Church in matters of faith and morals and doctrine is unchangeable; it ordains today as it did yesterday, and heresy is always heresy no matter what shape it takes. Appearances may be fair, and the devil may present himself as an angel of light. The danger is the greater as the outward show is more seductive. Heresy has never been so insidious as under its present form of liberalism...When encountered it is obligatory upon the Catholic conscience to resist it with all the powers of the soul.
Chapter V - The Degrees of Liberalism
- In whatever aspect we consider it, whether as a school or a sect or party, it presents itself in various degrees or shades; yet none the less liberalism because variant; for with specific and logical unity there may be a multitudinous variety.
- Their common criterion is "liberality" and "independence of mind."
- Sometimes Liberalism stalks along in the careless trappings of an easy-going good nature, or a simplicity of character which invites our affection and allays our suspicion. But all the greater the danger when it appears least possible.
Chapter VI - Catholic Liberalism or Liberal Catholicism
- Liberalism is the dogmatic affirmation of the absolute independence of the individual and of the social reason. Catholicity is the dogma of the absolute subjection of the individual and of the social order to the revealed law of God...the two can no more harmonize than the square can be made one with the circle ("What accord hath Christ with Belial?")
- The modern State does not recognize God or the Church. In the conflict of different religious creeds the public reason must stand neutral and impartial. Hence the necessary independence of the public reason. The State as State can have no religion...Now all this means civil or social atheism. It means that society is independent of God, its Author.
- THE ROAD IS OPEN TO ODIOUS TYRANNY
(Of note, this is the same exact thing Leo XIII says in Libertas Praestantissimum)
- They could actually, under the cover of authority, legislate against Christianity
(HHS Mandate, anyone?)
- In modern times it has gone further still and extends its baneful influence to the school-room, propagating itself by placing the education of the youth under its dominating influence. It forms the conscience of youth not according to the divine law which acknowledges the will of God, but upon a premeditated and careful ignorance of that law. It is a secular education that seizes upon the future and breeds atheism in the hearts of the coming generations.
(This is EXACTLY what is happening in this country!)
- The Catholic liberalist or the Liberal Catholic admitting the fatal distinction between the private and the public reason, throws open the gates to the enemies of the faith, and, posing as a man of intellect with generous and liberal views, stultifies reason by his gross offense against the principle of contradiction...He has not the courage to withstand the derision of his cunning foe. To be called intolerant, illiberal, narrow, ultramontane, reactionist, is gall and wormwood to his little soul. Under this epithetical fire gives way and surrenders his birthright of faith and reason for a mess of Liberal pottage.
Chapter VII - Intrinsic Causes of Liberal Catholicism
- With [the liberal catholic] the individual judgment is the rule of faith. He believes in the independence of reason. It is true he accepts the magisterium of the Church, yet he does not accept it as the sole authorized expounder of divine truth...[The Church] is of course infallible, they say, but we will determine when and in what she shall speak infallibly.
- He calls himself a liberal catholic because he believes no one can impose upon him any belief which his individual judgment does not measure as perfectly rational...As a consequence, he is not really a Christina, but a pagan. He has no real supernatural faith, but only a simple conviction.
- They have a horror of any coercive element in faith; any chastisement of error shocks their tender susceptibilities, and they detest any Catholic legislation in the direction of what they are please to call intolerance. THE SYLLABUS OF PIUS IX IS A NIGHTMARE TO THEM, a most inopportune, dominating, harsh and peremptory document, calculated to offend the sensibilities of the Protestant and modern world; it need not be accepted as an infallible utterance, and, if accepted, must be taken in a very modern sense.
- [They have] an abhorrence to antagonize the convictions of others, no matter how directly opposed to revealed truth, for with the Liberal Catholics the most erroneous are as sacred as the truest convictions, being equally founded upon the principle of intellectual liberty. Thus they erect into dogma what is called the principle of toleration. The differences of belief are, after all, they complacently argue, due to differences of temperament, education, etc.
- Liberal Catholics' appreciation of the Church has no foundation in its supernatural character...whose first and supernatural end is the glory of God and the salvation of souls. It is on her social and human side that he regards her with affection.
- Under this false conception apologies have been written in our times, and with strange inconsistency the Church is often lauded as the great promoter and preserver of civilization in the past, while her regressive tendencies are deplored in the present.
- True progress can only be through an advance to God...This the Church of Jesus Christ alone can do, for she, under His institution, is as He Himself, the way, the truth, and the life.
- Piety does not escape the action of this pernicious naturalistic principle; it converts it to pietism - that is to say, into a parody of true piety, as is painfully seen in the pious practices of so many people who seek in their devotions only the sentimental emotions of which they themselves are able to be the source...[this is] spiritual sensualism.
(This is part of the danger in the charismatic movement, also more precisely indicative of New Age and Buddhism. Looking within or trying to force "feelings" to take place. The Holy Spirit operates on a basis of need for the edification of the Church not to make people feel good or to be "slain in the spirit." "Blessed is he who believes without seeing." The point below details this more...)
- Thus we see in our day in so many souls the degeneration of Christian asceticism, which is the purification of the heart by the repression of appetites, and the falsification of Christian mysticism, which is neither emotion nor interior consolation, nor any other epicurean foible of human sentiment, but union with God through a supernatural love for Him and through absolute submission to His holy will.
- Liberal Catholicity, [is] rather, a false Catholicity. It is not really Catholicity, but mere naturalism, a pure rationalism; it is in a word paganism disguised in Catholic forms and using Catholic language.
NEXT SECTION...
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