Sixth in a Series
Dr. Rudolf Graber, Bishop of Regensburg, Germany and
one of the "Council Fathers" of Vatican II, sent shockwaves around the world
when on May 2, 1973, the 1600th anniversary of the death of St. Athanasius, he issued a
short book entitled, Athanasius and the Church of Our Time.
In this brief work, Dr. Graber revealed the true roots of the Council and the "diabolical
plot" of the enemies of the Catholic Church to infiltrate her ranks and attempt to
destroy Her from within. The book has been largely ignored, but fortunately an
English translation was published.
Having shown the similarity between the doctrines of
the Modernists and the theology of Vatican II, Dr. Graber now reaches the climax of his
short work. In a short chapter entitled "Cryptogamous" Heresy, he
exposes some of the more subtle internal attacks on Catholicism in the era between Pope
St. Pius X and Vatican II:
The reductions made in the veneration of the Blessed
Virgin proved to have a fateful effect. Fatima was brushed aside, doubt was cast on
the opportuneness of the definition of the Dogma of the bodily Assumption of the Blessed
Virgin into Heaven, and criticism was voiced at the consecration of Germany to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary. The Marian Pope, Pius XII, sensed the smoldering disaster
that was to come. He took steps to stop it, above all in the Encyclical Humani
Generis published in 1950...
Dr. Graber even quotes the ultra-liberal Karl Rahner
to explain what he means by the term "cryptogamous heresy":
The whole "sphere of our existence is, however,
without doubt also partly shaped by attitudes, doctrines and tendencies which must be
described as heretical and contradictory to the teaching of the Gospel... It often
consists simply in an attitude of mistrust and resentment towards the Church's
Magisterium, in a widespread feeling of being suspiciously and narrow-mindedly supervised
in both teaching and research by the Church's Magisterium." It is to be
found "wherever, for example, the word 'Hell' is studiously avoided, where
the Evangelical Counsels, vows and religious orders are no longer mentioned—or at
most... in uncertain and embarrassed tones. How often do educated listeners in
our country still hear a sermon from their preacher on temporal penalties for sins,
indulgences, angels, fasting, the devil (at most they hear of the 'demonic' in
man), on Purgatory, prayers for the souls in Purgatory, and similar old-fashioned
things?"
The worst
effect of this heresy is "apathy" If we allow these examples to soak in,
a precise picture of our present situation is created before our eyes...
Vatican II
And now we have arrived at Vatican II. We have
already seen how much the secret societies wished for a council. In the exultation
of its early days, this fact was completely ignored and far too little attention was paid
to the critiques of what was happening at the Council by its opponents. And yet such
matters are often judged more clearly and accurately from outside than by those taking an
active part in them. The Moscow periodical Communist contained an extremely
informative article in this regard entitled "Religious 'Renewal' and the
Catholic Church." The sub-headings alone are worthy of note—e.g. "The
Present Crisis in Religion," "Modernism (!) in Church Politics and
Theology," "The Social Function of 'Renewalism'." The tenor
of the extensive article is to present the change in the Church as "opportunist
tactics of churchmen and all their ruses." But it is not this which is of real
interest to us, but rather the fact that the crisis is seen clearly over there and
that all its symptoms are almost exhaustively enumerated. There is mention of the
"crisis of religious ideology," of the "modernization of the Church's
position both in the theological, religious question in the strict sense, and also in
current problems in world politics." "In internal Church affairs, in the
religious sphere proper, a modernization is taking place in the ideological arsenal, in
the cult and in the organization itself. Here a process of a strange kind of Reformation
is in full swing, new possibilities are being sought to maintain the influence of religion
in our age of increasing godlessness and growing anti-clericalism and free-thinking."
"With heavy hearts the theologians are setting aside their traditional
militant obscurantism and trying to throw new light on the relationship between faith and
reason, science and religion... The dialectic of the process of religious renewal
taking place before our eyes consists in the fact that this renewal is a sign of the weakness
of religion, but at the same time a means of strengthening its influence. Hence
the unmasking of the latest methods of defending reactionary religious theology demands
the energetic efforts of all followers of the materialistic philosophy of life, the
advocates of the scientific ideology."
Precisely the last sentence ought to be read and
reflected on repeatedly by those who with their aggiornamento hope to bring about
an inner change in those atheistic ideologies. The activities of John XXIII and
Vatican II are seen as ways towards the revision of values...
That was 1964. The Italian Communist Party
expresses itself even more clearly at its 11th Party Congress. In the introduction
to a special number of "Propaganda dedicated to the dialogue with Catholics,"
there is unambiguous reference to the "crisis" of the Church: "The extraordinary
'awakening' of the Council, which is rightly compared with the Estates General
of 1789, has shown the whole world that the old polito-religious Bastille is shaken to its
foundations. Thus a new situation has arisen which should be met with appropriate
measures. A hitherto unforeseen possibility has emerged for us to draw nearer to our
final victory by means of a suitable maneuver."
This introduction then outlines the various sections
of the Propaganda and says, for example, in the section headed "Documentation,"
that here "all the opportunities are brought to light which the inner evolution of
the Church offers us." The section headed "Dialogue" proves that the
boldest theoretical prognoses have already been surpassed in practice and that we are
meanwhile faced with a phenomenon which is becoming reality from day to day. The
most respected Catholic personalities are revealing quite openly the results the Council
has come to and turning the dialogue into an unexpected form of new Humanism.
Paul VI receives Comrade Gromyko in the Vatican and discusses the problems of peace
with him. Marxism-Leninism is adapting to the new state of affairs and being either
smooth or rough as the case may be... The section on "Arguments" contains a
large number of references to resolutions expressed by the Council. "In this way the Council itself is
providing us gratis with the best means of reaching the Catholic public."
This introduction concludes with the words: "Never was the situation so favorable
for us."
One would have thought that Dr. Graber would have
separated himself from the errors and heresies he exposed so clearly. Did not the
"doctor" know that "a good tree cannot bear bad fruit" (Matt. 7:18)?
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