CONFUSED ABOUT PELAGIANISM? DON'T BE! THERE IS A LITTLE HERESY IN EVERY CATHOLIC, IF NOT WE'D ALL BE PERFECT WITH NO NEED FOR THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE CROSS

There are a lot of traditionalists who are mad at Pope Francis because his ambiguous language makes them think that the Holy Father is calling them names, the name of Pelagianism. But I suspect the problem isn't Pelagianism as it is paranoia!

I should add that when the Holy Father speaks off-the-cuff, I am confused too and I think others are who are much smarter than I am. That is why there is constant spin about what the Holy Father not only says but does. Yet, there is something quite enduring about this most human pope who has stripped the papacy in his short reign (or should I say tenure) of the mystique that surrounds the office. The jury is out on whether this is good or bad. As Catholics we think in centuries not days or months. And we know the Church will prevail, even if confused, until the return of Christ at the end of time.

But let's get back the Pelagianism. But let's not forget Gnosticism. Let us review what the Pope said recently about both.

The Gnostic solution. Closely linked to the previous temptation, it is ordinarily found in elite groups offering a higher spirituality, generally disembodied, which ends up in a preoccupation with certain pastoral “quaestiones disputatae”. It was the first deviation in the early community and it reappears throughout the Church’s history in ever new and revised versions. Generally its adherents are known as “enlightened Catholics” (since they are in fact rooted in the culture of the Enlightenment).

The Pelagian solution. This basically appears as a form of restorationism. In dealing with the Church’s problems, a purely disciplinary solution is sought, through the restoration of outdated manners and forms which, even on the cultural level, are no longer meaningful. In Latin America it is usually to be found in small groups, in some new religious congregations, in (exaggerated) tendencies to doctrinal or disciplinary “safety”. Basically it is static, although it is capable of inversion, in a process of regression. It seeks to “recover” the lost past.

Rorate Caeli prints a homily by a priest who obviously disagrees with the Holy Father's so-called accusation that traditionalists are the Pelagian heretics and restorationists of the Church. In fact the sermon implies that the Holy Father doesn't know what true Pelagianism is therefore confusion and anger in the traditionalist community, if not paranoia, reigns supreme and is creating a great schism between the Pope and this elite group of so-called traditionalists. Here is but a sample of this sermon, you can read the rest by pressing this sentence:

To re-capitulate, Pelagianism holds “(i) that the sin of our first parents was not transmitted to their posterity; [Adam’s sin harmed only himself, not the human race, and children just born are in the same state as Adam before his fall.] (ii) that Christ came into the world, not to restore anything we had lost, but to set up an ideal of virtue, and so counteract the evil example of Adam; (iii) that we can, of our own natural powers, and without any internal assistance from God, [do good that is pleasing to God and thereby] merit the happiness of the Beatific Vision” (cf. Apologetics and Catholic Doctrine, Archbishop Michael Sheehan, p. 456). (iv) the Law of Moses is just as good a guide to heaven as the Gospel. Finally, (v) Pelagians considered death to be natural to man and not a consequence of Adam’s sin. So even if Adam had not sinned, he would have died in any case.

MY COMMENTS: Traditionalists and all Orthodox Catholics who accept Vatican II as authoritative even in its pastoral sensibilities believe in Original Sin and that we are "disordered" because of it. Thus we too have a proclivity to sin and all of us will die. Even the created order is disordered by Original Sin and our inherited inability to turn to God without the assistance of Divine Grace.

But in popular Catholic traditionalism of those who were not fully taught the faith, there was and is a tendency to think that our good works are sufficient to get us into heaven. I knew many Catholics and heard many traditional, pious Catholics of the pre-Vatican II era (not all of course) who were very pious but believed that a good person would go to heaven independent of right faith.

Protestants have long accused Catholics of believing that good works would save them. There is an innate belief, even if wrong, that God would never condemn a good person who doesn't believe in God or believe in Him in the way the Church teaches. So where there is smoke there is fire.

Gnostics of course fall into the same trap and in today's Church are more a threat to the Church than the so-called Pelegians because the Gnostics are mainstream and have infected parishes with their drivel to the point that gnosticism as the Holy Father describes it is the norm not the wild exception as in the case of the extreme small minority of super-traditionalists. I hope the Holy Father recognizes this, but when one is knee deep in a particular way of thinking and it has become almost universal, such as the gnosticism that has infected a huge percentage of those who still go to Mass in the Ordinary Form, one might not recognize it when the opposite extreme, the so-called traditionalists who over-react to what has transpired in the Church since Vatican II make themselves known by practicing things that once were considered forbidden by Vatican II, such as the Latin Mass, and to a lesser extent the ascetical practices of the pre-Vatican II era, some of which also went to an extreme and could be seen not as a tool to merit grace, but as a way to earn salvation.

But let me say, that as a child, I thought the Church did approve of the belief that good works could save a person, because even if unknown to that person performing the good works, God's grace was act work in him or her. Where did I get this? It was implied in what I heard from the pulpit and in the popular belief of pre-Vatican II Catholics.

A comment on this topic at the Rorate Caeli Blog captures what I am saying that was implied in the Pelagianism of the pre-Vatican II era and may infect some traditionalist today. His comment is from the "populist" point of view, not the academic point of view, that is present still today in Catholics imbued with the spirit that is anti-Vatican II or wants to restore a mentality that Vatican II sought to override:

Willard Money said...

It's really simple and was rampant in the trad communities I was involved in.
The basic idea is that trads "suffer" with having many kids, driving many miles to the "correct" mass, avoiding impure conversations with their buddies at work, etc. etc. And because the trad does all these things, he think God OWES him and also really hates the idea of mercy being to shown anyone who doesn't also have to suffer likewise.

Literally, I knew people who were angry at a couple when it turned out that they were unfertile. Especially the women were like "it's not fair...they get to have sex but don't have to have a dozen kids".

The Pope is saying it is pelagianism if you think that by being a traddy you think you are "earning" some favor with God.