Today, 04:58 AM
PART SECOND.
VII. What we should think of Freedom of Thought.
— The freedom of thinking is simply nonsense. We are no more free to think without rule than we are to act without one. Unless we prefer to be disorderly and incur damnation, we are bound to have thoughts of truth and of truth alone; just as we are bound to do what is right and only what is right. Is not this evident?
Are you left at liberty to think that two and two are not four? Are you free to think that the whole is not greater than the part, that vice is not better than virtue, that Charlemagne did not exist, etc.? And why are you not left at your own liberty on these points, but because they are truths?
By this universal principle is man's understanding ruled. It must need be applied above all, and in all its force, to the most important of all truth, — religious truth. We are not free to discuss a truth; or to reject it. But the mysteries of Christian faith are truths; and such are the Catholic dogmas of the Trinity, Divine Incarnation, Original Sin, Redemption, Grace, Church, Eternity of Punishment, etc., etc. They are therefore all charged on our understanding, because they all are truths. We are sure that they are truths because God has revealed them through his Son Jesus Christ, who, in his turn, has entrusted them as a deposit and for an infallible teaching to his Church.
Freedom of thought is the soul of Protestantism; it is likewise the soul of modern rationalistic philosophy. It is one of those impossibilities which only the levity of a superficial reason can regard as admissible. But a sound mind, that does not feed on empty words, looks upon this freedom of thought only as simply absurd, and, what is more, as sinful.
It is the same with the liberty of conscience, the freedom of saying and doing whatever may please us. Freedom, forsooth! Such freedom as will lead you to perdition, if it is not controlled by the divine teaching of Christ, and of his Church.
Catholic authority does not destroy, nay, it protects and quickens human thought. It is the authority of truth. Its immutability is not the restraint which prevents a flight; it is the guard which prevents explosion or destruction. The authority of the Church is a guard over human understanding in whatever directly or indirectly affects religion, which means in every kind of doctrines, religious, philosophical, scientific, political, etc.
Only in the Church can the spirit of man, supported by authority, find the true freedom of thought.
VII. What we should think of Freedom of Thought.
— The freedom of thinking is simply nonsense. We are no more free to think without rule than we are to act without one. Unless we prefer to be disorderly and incur damnation, we are bound to have thoughts of truth and of truth alone; just as we are bound to do what is right and only what is right. Is not this evident?
Are you left at liberty to think that two and two are not four? Are you free to think that the whole is not greater than the part, that vice is not better than virtue, that Charlemagne did not exist, etc.? And why are you not left at your own liberty on these points, but because they are truths?
By this universal principle is man's understanding ruled. It must need be applied above all, and in all its force, to the most important of all truth, — religious truth. We are not free to discuss a truth; or to reject it. But the mysteries of Christian faith are truths; and such are the Catholic dogmas of the Trinity, Divine Incarnation, Original Sin, Redemption, Grace, Church, Eternity of Punishment, etc., etc. They are therefore all charged on our understanding, because they all are truths. We are sure that they are truths because God has revealed them through his Son Jesus Christ, who, in his turn, has entrusted them as a deposit and for an infallible teaching to his Church.
Freedom of thought is the soul of Protestantism; it is likewise the soul of modern rationalistic philosophy. It is one of those impossibilities which only the levity of a superficial reason can regard as admissible. But a sound mind, that does not feed on empty words, looks upon this freedom of thought only as simply absurd, and, what is more, as sinful.
It is the same with the liberty of conscience, the freedom of saying and doing whatever may please us. Freedom, forsooth! Such freedom as will lead you to perdition, if it is not controlled by the divine teaching of Christ, and of his Church.
Catholic authority does not destroy, nay, it protects and quickens human thought. It is the authority of truth. Its immutability is not the restraint which prevents a flight; it is the guard which prevents explosion or destruction. The authority of the Church is a guard over human understanding in whatever directly or indirectly affects religion, which means in every kind of doctrines, religious, philosophical, scientific, political, etc.
Only in the Church can the spirit of man, supported by authority, find the true freedom of thought.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre